TROUT: caught more easily with a playful tickle

STRONG, fast, and spirited, the brown trout seems to hold a special place in the hearts of many anglers.

Smaller than the salmon but also prized for its flesh, this wily fish can soak up hours of a fisherman's time as he tries to entice it onto an expertly tossed barbed fly.

A native of British waters - unlike the flashier rainbow trout of North American origins - the brown trout has been powerfully designed to shoot up and down streams or run against the flow of the heaviest river.

When hooked, it is a fighter which is a big part of its attraction to those anglers who dislike gently reeling in more placid species.

Growing up to 80cms long on occasion, the brown trout boasts a pattern of striking red-rimmed spots down its flanks.

A close cousin is the sea trout but the pair can be told apart by the sea trout's more silvery colouring when it deserts the sea to spawn.

Feeding on smaller fish as well as insects, the brown trout is vulnerable to the angler using a spinner as bait.

When I used to fish for trout, I always used the spinner but this was because I never possessed the greater skill of the fly fisherman.

Nor, having had a few basic lessons from my father in how to use a fly rod, was I ever likely to.

My father was actually the Inspector Clouseau of fly fishing, with ambition that far outweighed his ability.

Accompanying him one day to a local lake where he wanted to try out a brand new rod, I was ordered to stand well back.

I stood well back.

I was told to stand further back.

I stood further back.

After a few tentative movements, the master finally cast a fly onto the still water. So far so good.

Next, he flicked the line backwards over his head and, more confident this time, cast out a second time with more force.

I don't know who was the more surprised, him or me, when the top of his new rod came off and flew into the lake.

He had forgotten the first rule of fly fishing: make sure your rod is properly screwed together.

I stood even further back as he ranted and raved about his "hopeless" new equipment and tried to reel in the lost piece.

Unfortunately, he failed again and was forced to wade out to retrieve it. How I kept a straight face I'll never know.

I probably enjoyed greatest success catching brown trout using the technique Shakespeare mentioned in Twelfth Night when he wrote:"Here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling."

Tickling trout could be highly entertaining, though it usually involved more snatching and grabbing when I did it.

Basically, myself and a friend would just walk upstream, dipping our hands beneath any likely looking rocks.

If you felt a trout there, you would first gently work out its position, then try to grasp it.

We were quite successful, although the brown trout we caught were way too small to be worth eating so we released them.

Great fun, though.