Hunting The Lion
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:35
- Written by Chris Provan
Coming from a large family where there were few years between my generation and the tier above, I was fortunate enough to have two very youthful and idolised uncles. One of which was a fan of all things city, while the other was always in need of outdoor activities such as hill walking and fishing to help maintain his sanity.
Some years later, I woke in a strange village with a burning sun high in the sky above me, to find a man standing in front of me with a huge scar on his torso which looked to me like a shark had bitten him. He introduced himself as “David” and was a Masai Warrior who had recently returned a man after leaving the tribe a boy, to hunt lions. In Kenya, Masai tribesmen have a right of passage from childhood to adulthood which involves killing a lion before they can return home with the respect of the tribe.
Living in Scotland we are fortunate enough not to have formal or similar rituals and the journey to manhood is fairly straight forward. Or so I thought.
Looking back in recent years to my two great uncles, I thought of the inspiration they had shown me with some of the great outdoor pursuits available to us in this country, such as hill walking and fishing, and decided to try my hand at both again. Hill walking has been a family tradition through the years with the equipment changing from nailed boots, metal framed rucksacks and huge torches to titanium crampons, heat moulded packs and head torches with only the sense of determination remaining the same.
Fishing hasn’t enjoyed quite the same kudos with some pike fishing here, a spot of salmon fishing there and the odd search for wild brown trout to round it all off, although there was enough knowledge available to get me pointed in the direction of wild fishing for the first time myself.
After tinkering with maggot and fixed line for some weeks, light spinning outfits for a short time and experience casting a fly line towards waiting rainbow trout, I discovered wild fly fishing for wild brown trout right on my doorstep in the Highlands of Scotland! 
Like most things in my life I have thrown myself in at the deep end (no pun intended) and taken every opportunity to maximize my wild fly fishing experience and skills to a level far beyond that of a young man with 18 months fishing practise. The cost associated with my adventures outside of the financial aspect takes into account the distances covered, the days off work, the early mornings, the late nights and the cold nights, not to mention the despair of the people kind enough to give me some of their knowledge through endless and relentless rounds of questioning!
This knowledge passed on by more skilled and experienced fly fishers has given me the ability to get out of the city to wild brown trout territory such as Glen Etive, Ullapool, Loch Ba`, Loch Laidon, The River Clyde, Loch Gaineamhach, Loch Eighach and many, many more including a forthcoming trip to Sutherland. The ability not only to experience new places in our beautiful Scottish countryside, which are in some cases far from civilization, but also the ability to actually catch wild brown trout with flies selected according to the time of day, the conditions, the natural fly life hatching or possibly even through being “just too cold and tired” has been given to me by the elders.
In recent times people have commented that my “enthusiasm to fly fish is infectious” and this spurs me on to continue my quest to fish as much as humanly possible between the delicate balance of paying bills and other hectic lifestyle hooks such as having to travel weekly between Glasgow and London.
On reflection, I have come to realise that some of the cold, windy or wet conditions endured by wild fishermen aren’t nearly as painful as that endured by “David the Masai Warrior” on the Masai Mara. 
Although the same sense of achievement between “Hunting and catching the Lion” and our quest to “hunt and catch the wild trout” is ultimately one and the same, with respect among tribes favouring the brave!