This short film is about three mates, one river and two unbelievable days of fishing. The camaraderie, the highs the lows, the endless bombardment of banter, hanging go flies in trees, hook up to 15lb plus logs and the list goes on!… Sometimes something really special happens and this was one of those trips.
Really nice to see that the Kenyan rainbows survived. At around the same times as their stocking, the Brits put rainbows of the (then) lovely upland streams close to the “Hill Station” of Ootacamund (affectionally called “Ootie” by the British colonials) in the lovely Nilgiri Hills of southern India. Tea, coffee and potato plantations and the sheer weight of human numbers eventually (almost completely) did for those up-in-the-clouds, tahr(wild goat)-haunted, almost otherworldly streams and their stocked-for-a-bit-of-sport-far-from-home rainbow trout. Good to see that they are still hanging on in Kenys.
PS – Worth looking up “Ootacamund”, with its old high-altitude British golf course and Gentleman’s Club. I knew a fabulous, old (ancient to a young me even when I knew him in the late 1970s and very early ’80s), Stayed On in post-Independence India, Englishman who lived there, Major John Radcliffe. Chairman of the Nilgiri Wildlife Association, a fine flyfisher and very considerable South Indian mahseer-fisher – old notebook entry of mine of the time “Radcliffe, J, Maj., Rose Cottage, Ootacamund, South India”. ……….
PS – More British Colonial “Ah … not a bad looking bit of water … definitely needs some trout…” japes.
The Brits did the same (golf, trout, pretty cottages in England’s picture-postcard Surrey Hills transported to The Tropics) thing in Ceylon / modern-day Sri Lanka, in the hill country around Nuwara Eliya. Last night I looked for news of those streams and their rainbows (too warm for browns down there, these only “took” and prospered in the far-to-the-north, much-cooler Himalaya). The news was not good, according to this report by a Kiwi from several years ago –
https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/how-to/sri-lankan-sojourn-tropical-trout-high-tea-and-hot-curry/
That’s my plans of getting my old Solar Topee pith helmet and near-ankle-length Khaki shorts out of the cupboard scuppered…..
Paul, Chris Newton’s excellent ‘The Trout’s Tale’ published by Medlar details much concise information about the trout and salmon stockings carried out around the world and the logistical and political challenges of doing so. He also details the various successes and failures. It’s a worthy read.
Hope all is good with you.