Soporific winter nights are all but over and last season's highs and lows have faded to a dim and distant memory. In a flurry of renewed expectancy, rods must be dusted off, lines checked and the fly box overhauled and replenished.
Anticipation now courses through the veins once more, it's time for trout.
Even if it's only for the briefest of periods, I follow a lonely but happy ritual going out for a cast on opening day March 15 th . At last I greet the trout once more and wish my finny friends well for the coming season. Though of course the fish take not the blindest bit of notice, it's a ceremony I've repeated over many years and would not miss for the world. However, by strange happenstance the season's first fish has frequently fallen on March 23 rd . It's almost as if the trout are not quite awakened from winter torpor during the first week of the season, but with the lengthening hours of daylight they suddenly come to life a week later.