Where are the tout !!!!!

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

I promise ... no more growling ...... I shall have patience while the Master knits the words togather..

I shall await patiently.....

hank

[letumgo]

whimper...(waiting patiently)

[Otter]

William packed up his gear and went home - the end

only joking

TBC

[willowhead]

funny guy.....................

[Otter]

Boy did William enjoy himself. After his harmless conversations with the shadows he started to fish with an intensity of concentration that he had never experienced before. His mind was completely and utterly free of thought and his focus on the water in front was total. Each fish that rose was covered, precisely and intelligently yet at no time did William analyse how to cover a particular trout. He simply reacted to the rise and made his cast, manipulating the flies or dead drifting. Some , but not many, fish were missed or rejected at the last moment, this did not seem to bother him in the slightest. He simply continued up the riffle, tempting fish after fish, hooking many that never even showed on the surface, simply reacting to something subtle signal that a trout had taken.

Call it in the Zone, call it anything you like but William was no longer standing in a river, he was part of it. He felt every nuance of its flows, anticipating every desire of every trout that he showed his flies to. He never in all his angling life felt so alive yet so isolated from what normally constituted reality. It is a strange place to be and an even harder place to find but once you have been there your fishing from then on will be a constant search for that key that unlocks the entrance. Like any that have experienced this place William was dumfounded when he waded out at the top of the riffle. He looked back downstream , a rather puzzled look on his face, shook his head and sat down on the nearest rock.

Willam glanced at the XeloR and almost fainted, it was 11:39 yet he felt that it was only ten minutes earlier that he had conversed with the shadows. Jesus, Gabby will kill me he thought, reality was back with an unmerciful bang.


TBC

[willowhead]

SURE! Beats a wimper.

sshh.....after E.E. Cummings.....my all time favorite.....

[kanutripr]

Damn William, 11:39! My husband once sent the cops looking for me when I didn't show by 9:30. Funny story I'll tell some other time!

I'm loving this. Almost feel like I'm there.



Vicki

[Otter]

Sitting quietly on the rock, putting aside his need to get home, William tried to reflect on what had just happened. Feeling thoroughly exhausted , he found it hard to gather his thoughts together. That this had been an incredible evenings fishing, of that there was no doubt. The great trout, the pleasures of the big rod, shadow boxing with Mike and finally that dreamlike run up through the riffle. An old angler that he had often met in his youth had once said to a young William "Sonny, when you have learned about fly's , about where trout lie and how to catch them, one day you will become part of the stream and then you can call yourself a trout angler"
William had thought him an eccentric old buzzard, now he wasn't quite so sure that the description was apt. Wishing that the old buzzard was still alive so that he could ask him some questions he resigned himself to keeping this experience to himself.

William dismantled the extra rod sections , carefully placing them in the rod tube. Taking one long hard glance at the riffle he broke into a huge smile and with a spring in his step he sauntered back down river, lost in thought , still inwardly shaking from the excitement of the evening. William whistled to himself, smirking, he hadn't whistled in years. The last rays of light guided him back to the inside riffle, he was tempted to flick his flies into the riffle but refrained as he knew that he did not have the time to fight the great trout that he knew with certainty was there and knew would be his should he cast. He was part of the stream now and greed had no future role to play in his angling.

THE END.

or just the beginning ?

[letumgo]

Sustained applause ............................

Bravo!

You should get this story published.

[tie2fish]

Excellent! You are great story teller, Otter.