For Christmas, my wife and I decided to explore the Sichuan region of China, moving up to the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and the extremely beautiful Jiuzhai Valley National Park. Luckily for me, Elena had made contact with an extremely keen fly fisher, Ling Yu, who was the owner of a true gem of a fly fishing shop in Chengdu: Beard Fly Fishing Outfitters; and yes, he and his friends did seem to be sporting proud beards; hence the name. Ling Yu was a total gear nut, who keenly traversed around his homeland and travelled to the jungles of Thailand and the mountains of Norway to chase fish on the fly. He was also a mad keen fly tyer, with boxes of beautifully-tied bombs and caddis and some jungle streamers that made the baitfish I had previously tied for GTs in Aitutaki look simple and sparse.
After a great chat at the shop and a spicy Sichuan-style dinner with his wife and young son, plans were made for half a day to fish for liefu yu) or the commonly dubbed ‘snow trout (link on Latin name and it's worth the look - Ed).’ These good string-pullers were found in the clear mountainous waters that flowed from the Sichuan region. As it was Winter and the temperature had suddenly plummeted over 10 degrees in 24 hours, we were warned that fishing wasn’t going to be easy. However, for me, any fish landed was to be a blessing and an unexpected reward of our overall holiday. I was happy just to have the chance to go fly fishing and feel out another new environment
