During nearly fifty years of angling I have witnessed many titanic battles between fisherman and trout. I can recall one fish I hooked on the Borland River that took fifty-seven minutes to land. Another brown, on the West Coast, assisted by the power of a swollen river, sped off downstream stripping all of the fly line from my reel in a matter of seconds. But it not stop there - not at all - it pushed on and on, taking my backing as well. Eventually there was none of that left either and only a tiny knot linked angler and fish. Remarkably the trout came to rest at that point. After negotiating endless obstacles I gradually retrieved all of the line and eventually netted the fish!

An exerpt from “Stalking and Catching Trout” by Les Hill and Graeme Marshall. Halcyon 2005.