in all England must have been the one I caught yesterday at Grapham. Most rainbow trout in this country are like battery chickens with scales. This one was like a sea-trout, perfect, glittering silver with each scale distinct. I should have had more of them, but for a mixture of idleness and squeamishness:<\/p>\n\n
\nThe margins of the lake are full of coarse fish fry at this time of year: little fish about an inch long, which the trout gorge on. These are famous, and it feels very macho to fish with a fly that consists largely of a strip of mink fur that wobbles through the water like a dying fish. That’s what I caught my trout on.<\/p>\n\n
But when I opened him up, the sink filled with little crunchy things the size and colour of large green peppercorns: freshwater snails, which he had been gorging on. There were ate least fifty in his stomach. I’d have learnt this at the waterside if I had spooned him, and caught a great many more fish. But using little green blobby flies feels much less serious than using huge fish-like ones.<\/p>\n\n
Still, there is enough trout in the fridge to feed five adults tonight, even filletted and gravad<\/em> before being quickly grilled with mustard and breadcrumbs this evening. I’ll post the recipe if anyone is interested.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" in all England must have been the one I caught yesterday at Grapham. Most rainbow trout in this country are like battery chickens with scales. This one was like a sea-trout, perfect, glittering silver with each scale distinct. I should … Continue reading