Christmas Grayling

摘要

"I was the day before Christmas and all through North Wales, not a creature was stirring, not even a grayles." "Grayling," corrected Ken Bathers. "Dylan Thomas would have made it rhyme," I sniffed. It was a real sniff, too, because it really was the day before Christmas, and the sky was the color of cough drops, and a storm had pelted us with cold rain until my nose was running. Bathers (rhymes with lathers) is a retired executive from Monsanto and current chairman of both the Welsh Salmon & Trout Angling Association (Dee and Clwyd region) and the Maelor Angling Association. He also sits on the board of every governing body that controls fishing in Wales and is so enamored of the sport that he hires himself out as a fishing gillie. Thus did he serve as our own cheerful, flush-faced grayling coach, willing to brave even the pewter heart of winter to help us pursue this uncommon cousin of the trout.