The Day I Got Schooled

The day I got schooled by my boss at Kilgad Trout Fishery.

The night before I sent Trevor a message making sure he had all the gear ready for our day's fishing. We arranged to meet at Kilgad at around 9 am, so the morning started with myself setting Trevor up with a 14ft Leader of Fulling Masterclass 1X 12.21lb with 2 flies a Fulling Mill Fire EMB and a Fulling Mill Spider Northern Red.

Trevor's reply to this was "What weight of line is this Andy" and my reply "It's 12lb". He laughed and said "I've never used 12lb in my life for trout fishing", so in my head, I was full of confidence that I was going to give the boss man a lesson on trout. We started fishing and it was a slow start for us both, using the same tactics which weren't working so a quick change to a Black Lure got the first fish. In my head, I thought this is it as takes kept following but as I looked around I could see that Trevor was landing fish and me being me, I didn't want to ask what he had changed to but as more fish followed I had to swallow my pride and ask.

His reply, "It's a Fulling Mill fly, a Blue Flash Damsel". I didn't have the same fly so I put a Damsel on and couldn't get a fish. I moved around the lake and managed another fish. By this stage, Trevor had changed again to a White snake fly and was gaining a huge lead on me. I was feeling the pressure and all I could hear was "Andy I'm into 1". In my head, I was thinking there could be a few strong words said here but I'll have to bite my lip and remember he's my boss.

The few hours fishing came to an end with myself landing only 2 fish and Trevor landing 10 fish. Lesson learnt from this - be humble and don't blow your own trumpet as you never know what the man you're going out fishing with is capable of. So I got schooled and to this day it's a story we tell customers in the store. It's a funny story and I'm ready for round 2 but I'm not sure Trevor is ready for it.

- Andy McClelland