Falling in love with fishing

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Suddenly the scenery stopped being as pretty, the sun started to feel too hot and the water too still. But there was no escaping the river when you are in the middle of it. We rounded a bend into some faster water and I was told we had entered Rainbow Alley. It was my turn to fish again and Henry directed me to cast into the faster water. Still feeling disheartened I followed his instructions dutifully. Moments after my flies descended beyond my vision, my indicator disappeared. It happened so fast I barely saw it. “Now what?”, I asked the boys. Throughout all the guidance I had received, the crash course had not covered when a fish took the fly.     

Be it reflex, instinct, or intuition, I set the hook, lifting the rod up above my head. I felt the tension, and subsequent bend pass back up through the rod, but only for a moment. Then there was nothing. I looked down at my hands and I realised the rod had snapped at the base just above the cork. With the disconnected rod base and reel in my right hand, I reached for the fly line beyond the tip in the left, and I managed to steer the fish into the net held by Henry. My first fish on the fly, caught in truly unorthodox fashion. It was not what I expected but I was thrilled with my little rainbow trout and happy to return it back to the river. S