A most sporting fish

Soon after the opening of the general trout season, my thoughts begin to turn to the trout’s more adventurous cousins — the sea trout. It seems a long time since I had a good outing with these fish and the past few seasons have not brought the big runs to the rivers I frequent.

In fact the lack of sea trout has been almost as pronounced as the lack of salmon, and the few fish I caught in 1969 were more by accident than design. Fish took a fly intended for salmon in the day and night fishing failed to produce even a pull.

At the best of times, however, sea trout can be very unpredictable.

They can run on low water