After sharing the story of my trophy brown, this post will provide an illustrative recap of our day on the River Test at Bossington Estate.
Bossington Estate is one of many fine properties that line the River Test and River Itchen, where Britain’s best dry fly trout fishing can be found. Guide and booking agent Gilly Bate of Fly Odyssey UK set us up for the Old Stews Beat at Bossington. I actually found Gilly through Instagram, where I was immediately excited at the thought of my wife Colleen having the help of a renowned female guide. Unfortunately, Gilly was unavailable for the days we were in the UK, but she reassured us that we’d be OK without a guide.
For all its fame and distinction, the Test is extraordinarily easy to reach from London. Waterloo Station on the south bank of the Thames provides rail service to southwest England, including the town of Winchester, the nearest train stop to Bossington. Excuse me while I go on my city & regional planning soapbox for a moment, but the Europeans have simply mastered public transportation. We paid $50 USD for our round trip tickets on a clean, modern train car that whisked us from the center of one of the world’s busiest cities through verdant green fields to Winchester in barely one hour. I even noticed another gentleman on the train with a 4-piece rod tube and earth tone clothing, proof that Londoners are eager to get out of the city and relax in a cool stream for the day, while having no need to use a personal vehicle. America is much more spread out, and was mostly developed during the age of the automobile, and as such we cannot come close to that sort of convenience and efficiency of mobility. Just think of what outdoor opportunities would be opened for the less fortunate if there were affordable public transit to connect America’s pockets of poverty with some of our natural gems. Seeing nature is free; you just have to be able to afford to get there.
From Winchester, we took a 20 minute cab ride to the estate, where we were dropped off on a dusty lane by an ancient stone church. A five minute walk down the lane thrust us into an incredible scene of clear bubbling streams lined with lush meadows, stately trees, and the occasional quaint fishing hut. The beat was approximately 500 yards long, solely on the left bank, which had been conveniently mowed almost up to the stream’s edge. The River has been diverted into a multitude of intertwined carriers and side channels, providing numerous beats for anglers to fish simultaneously. We noticed several other parties enjoying the beautiful late summer day.
The day before our trip, we stopped by Harrods, the famous London department store, and picked out a picnic worthy of the Downton Abbey cast. Smoked salmon, baguette, Brie, minced pork pie, berries, quiche, salami, and raspberry chocolate tarts. A perfect lunch in an unbelievable setting.
At one point in the afternoon, I heard the droning of a low airplane, and looked up to see two Supermarine Spitfires, hero of the Battle of Britain, and another unidentified World War Two fighter. It was truly an awesome sight on an estate that was once owned by Richard Fairey, aviation pioneer and designer of the Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber that helped sink the German battleship Bismarck. It’s hard to imagine that the fate of the free world was decided in the skies just a few thousand feet above this serene, peaceful landscape. Brave men took to the air in cramped planes to defend an island that was the last bastion of good in a continent plagued by evil. What do we owe them, now that we are able to enjoy the city and the countryside in peace today?
The day we landed in the UK, Boris Johnson had prorogued Parliament as part of his attempt to move Brexit to reality. Londoners took to the streets, and while touring the Westminster area the day before our fishing trip, we found ourselves squarely in the middle of an angry crowd outside 10 Downing Street. I’m not one for large, politically charged crowds in big cities, so we quickly changed our plans, darted down a side street, and headed to a different part of the city. I won’t mire this fly fishing blog in the Brexit debate, but I hope that however the issue is settled, the UK maintains its place on the world’s stage as a leader in freedom, a center for prosperity, a patron of a rich, sometimes complicated history, and a steward of a beautiful land. How lucky am I to be able to travel freely to this place and enjoy all its bounty?
Apologies for getting somewhat deep on this blog post, but I can’t help it, considering how this land and major events in world history are so interwoven. It’s easy to lose the forest for the trees in a sport like fly fishing – always focused on the next trip, the next hatch, the next cast, the next bite, not appreciating the larger context in which we can sling fake bugs to slimy fish with pea sized brains: free nations for liberty and safety, prosperity for health and leisure time, and scientific knowledge to manage our natural resources. When I think back on this trip, I am certainly thrilled to have caught a trophy fish, but on a deeper level, I’m filled with a profound happiness that this opportunity even exists. What do we owe our community, our nation, and our world, to ensure we can pass this sport and this landscape to future generations, intact, vibrant, and free?