I learned to fish for trout on a tiny burn (Scottish for a small stream) back home near Glasgow. My first rod was a bamboo cane (whole, not split), to which some twine was attached. At the business end was a piece of nylon and a hook, on which a worm was impaled.

I learned from a Veniard book how to tie flies for my father, who was also a keen fly fisherman. This was long before I could fly fish myself. This way round is not all that common!

Since then I’ve gone on to learn to cast with a fly rod and currently have a season ticket on a local tributary of the Danube, close to Ulm.