Englishmen long tr

Spring break from classes allowed me to rush to mountains for first fishing
trip this year.My daughter now lives close to Ashville N.C. so with free B@B
now available I decided to scout local streams heading up toward Blue Ridge
Parkway.Found larger streams heavily posted and smaller hatchery supported
streams closed till April first so drove up rocky dirt path to arrive at
small six mile long wild fish stream within state forest. Large rocks and
tight surrounding brush required wading, crawling around boulders, and
slipping on mossy rocks to move upstream. I tried nymphing ( bottom depth
too varied and pools only five or six feet long), tried a small dropper
behind indicator fly ( just more tangles to remove ) but most of effort with
varied small drys, staying hidden and dipping into pools. As this was my
first trip out missed a few hits because of failure to react, and caught
enough overhanging branches to give Harry Mason a smile due to my failure to
study surrounding background before each cast.
After two five hour days of this my body and jar of Advil gave out: I
had caught two seven inchers and four or five brightly colored brookies.
Returning home bruised and happy I was too exhausted to sleep so I read a
few extracts from Jeremy Paxman's collection entitled "Fish, Fishing and the
Meaning of Life" Thought you might enjoy this one

A [Self ] Satisfied Customer
Dear Sirs,-Now that the nineteenth century has come to a close I might as
well tell you what your rods, reel, etc. have done for me in it.
The number of slain appears from my angling record to be as follows-
560 salmon up to 32 pounds, considerably more than half of which
have been killed [ and gaffed by myself ] with your single handed trout
rods, trout casts, and small trout flies.
275 white trout up to 5 3/4 pounds
20,066 Brown trout up to 4 pound and 14 ounces


1,040 perch up to 1 3/4 pound
150 pike up to 10 1/4 pounds
Fifty-six eels up to 5 1/2 pounds, or a total of 22,157 fish.
The writer goes on to mention the many types of course fish of which he has
kept no record and to date many of his catches , what fly he used and how
many times his rods have been doubled up for nearly a couple of hours . He
adds -- I have great pleasure in testifying to the excellence of all kind of
tackle with which you have supplied me.
--I believe your rods are the best the world can yet show.
Hardy Brothers Catalogue ,1902