North Country Angling: Shop talk — Hard to believe fishing tales

A customer walked into the shop this week and dropped a fly on the counter. “Do you know the name of this fly?” he asked. My eyes bugged out of my head. “Yes, I do!” I said. “That’s the NCA Yellow Venison.”

The story then poured out from the angler. While fishing at Goodrich Falls on the Ellis River, the angler’s wife found the fly lying in the rocks of the shoreline. The two had not seen a fish at that point in their fishing expedition. The wife tied on the fly and cast into the pool. Strip. Strip. Bang! A 16-inch, 2-pound brook trout grabbed the fly. The couple was ecstatic to have caught such a nice trout.