Beneath the tall pine

A tall, solitary pine tree grew beside the lake. From the sun-dappled waters beneath its branches, I caught my first trout with a fly. It was a little over thirty years ago now. The pine grew a little way from the water's edge of 'B2' dam in the Usutu Forest of Swaziland. We really ought to have been a little more creative with the name of the dam. It was a rainbow trout about a pound in weight.…