I thought I'd seen this thread once upon a time, so here's a resurrection.
Just had this little fellow for my supper, 10 minutes from river to plate, 3 more to my belly.
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4067/dscf0338sq.jpg
We've had a lot of rain the last few day and I just popped down the river in the hope of an early salmon- because that's the right conditions for this river, although still a bit early in the year. But no salmon, although this nice wild trout saw fit to eat my salmon fly. So I've ate him. That's how it goes. Caught a couple, and lost one twice the size by my feet
, but only kept this one. Not a bad size for my river- about 16in long, maybe 1.5-.75lb. (would have been great on light trout tackle, instead of heavier gear)
I'm lucky in that my landlord is an old aristocrat with a lot of land including a couple of miles of salmon fishing river, and a 3 mile long loch. I can start fishing the river 30yds from my front door, and it's about 150yds to the loch. I'm spoilt with this situation- I largely work from home and so if the conditions are worth it I can fish before work, at lunch time, 10 min coffee breaks when I should be working
, and after work too!.
I grew up doing a lot of sea fishing and what we call coarse fishing (freshwater, with bait or lure, but not for salmon or trout- they're game fish- in England that was too exclusive for the likes of me). Commercial fishing from a young age too and into my 20's- my father was a trawlerman and my grandfather a lobsterman as well as an internationally renowned competition angler (mainly in small boat sea fishing). I was on boats before I could walk.
But now I can hardly ever tear myself away from my river, even though it's only 2-3 miles to spectacular sea fishing from shore. I didn't fly fish at all before living in this house with these opportunities, but figure that I will soon be an expert on my river and loch at least. I won't live here for ever, so I'll make the most of it while I can and get back to sea fishing another time.
So for once this summer I won't be wishing for sunshine and clear skies. Instead I will be praying for heavy prolonged rain, like winter, to put my river in spate and let the salmon get in. It's perverted :/
Edit: Oh, and it's the Iolite that is most useful for me fishing- tuck it in the pocket and sip away at my leisure. It can keep producing vapor for 40 min+ with less frequent tokes.
The first fish I caught was a rainbow trout in New Zealand (not that I've done much fishing at all in my time). I was on on a holiday with my family when I was about 12. We were camping beside a beautiful bend in a river. I was the only one to catch a fish - actually I think I might have been the only one fishing, as fishing inland was restricted to license holders and kids below the age of 15 or something. 
- and she was normally a good cook. 
