By Geoff Lacey:
(See Geoff's weekly report here.)

Y'know, we fly fishing guides are an intrepid lot. (Look up that word, I had to; it means brave).

Anyway, we fly fishing guides not only teach people how to fly fish and take them fishing, we also put a lot of effort into finding out everything we can about the trout and its environment.

We are also explorers of some repute.

Take, for example, the time some years ago, when I first discovered this little lake (that's what I call it anyhow), at Falls Creek, which has no name and is teeming with brown trout. The lake is actually part of an inflow system that serves Rocky Valley reservoir. It has a creek, also chockers with small browns, that flows in and out of it. I think that my little lake is actually a silt trap, because of all the soft gooey mud in the shallows which can be very dangerous if blundered into.

On finding the lake, the first ting I did was to walk around it, checking out depths and fly fishing potential and stuff like that. As I circled the lake, I encountered this narrow inflow, not connected with the creek mentioned earlier. The water in the inflow was about knee deep and as I was wearing chest waders, (thank heavens), I proceeded to walk through it.

Big mistake. I immediately sank up to my armpits in that soft, gooey mud. Luckily the inflow was not very wide and I was able to grab handfuls of long grass on either side of it to prevent toppling over and possibly drowning.

With that superhuman strength one seems to find in such circumstances, I slowly pulled myself out, although it took a while, let me tell you. Being on my own that day, it could have resulted in a very sad tragedy, especially for me.

Anyhow, as I said at the outset, we fly fishing guides are an intrepid lot, but some of us are just stupid.

(9 November 2001)


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