Tom O’Reilly’s first trout was
caught when he was a small boy, from a little
Cornish stream that flowed near his home.
How he practised and practised
casting, using trees and plants as targets as he
cast on his back lawn. He bought an old fibreglass
rod and cheap reel and line in the winter months,
and it seemed an age before the season eventually
started so he could try out his new found skills.
So he headed for the river again
to cast for the wild brownies. How beautiful they
were, and indeed still are! And how he’d marvel at
their butter yellow bellies, and their freckles and
spots, such a perfect, exquisite little creature.
From then on his fly-fishing ran
along smoothly with his coarse-fishing, and his
sea-fishing, another offshoot of this great sport
called angling.
Silver Spirit by Tom
O'Reilly 
