You don't need a lot of money. Rent a rod, tie on a fly, and have a go. Hooking a fish is not always the best part, as you will find out.
My earliest experience of fishing was tying some string around a glass jar, lowering it into the local stream hoping draw a few minnows into the jar. If they did we yanked the jar out of the water and took our 'catch' home, to be fed with breadcrumbs until, of course, they died.
That's a far cry from fly fishing but my childish interest persists. I have visited two places that are considered by fishing connoisseurs amongst the best: one is in Western Canada, the other is the English cathedral city of Winchester.
Winchester may come as a surprise. Yet this is where fly fishing began. Invented by Frederick Halford in the 1870’s, who introduced the art of using artificial flies, the principal being that the fly imitates the action of the fish. He fished in rivers around Winchester and this new technique attracted visitors from around the world to the its waterways.
The most famous fisherman of all is Isaac Walton whose famous book The Compleat Angler, published in 1653, is the 2nd most re-printed book in the world after the bible (although I think Harry Potter might give him a run for his money).
He was a coarse fisherman: this means he used live bait and put his line into the water, whereas the fly fishing involves flicking the line onto the surface of the water.
Fly fishing can take years to perfect, but I’ve spent some happy hours standing alongside a rippling stream, in beautiful rural countryside. Stress flows away with the river. It’s a great way to relax, and if you don’t catch a fish, who cares, it’s the trying that’s fun. And you can always follow the great tradition of telling whoever will listen about your latest catch. How big did you say it was?
