A Vintage Reel and Two Classic Trout

The early fog gave way to some pleasant autumn sunshine this morning for my last trout session of the season on the Club water. For a bit of fun I fetched my oldest rod out of retirement and fitted on an even more elderly vintage reel. Not a valuable reel, actually one I bought for ten quid at a market years ago, but vintage because it has helped me catch a lot of good fish on lakes and rivers over the years.

I soon found one trout willing to have a go, but it didn’t need the use of the net and put no strain on the old reel. But a bit further up I flicked my nymph into a promising-looking spot beneath some overhanging branches and had an immediate response from something much heavier. Suddenly a decent trout went airborne and crashed back in a cascade of water. The trout went round and round and after giving me quite a tussle, a beautiful fish in prime condition, eventually came angrily to the net. Incredibly, my next cast, a hundred metres or more further up, brought another quality fish of the same size and weight. A nice brace of fish of a size that once just might have looked good together in a glass case in an angler’s study. I thought they would look better back in the river.

On the way back down I considered buying a glass case anyway. I might just put that old reel in it.

Will Bown