Fish can be ornamental like my “Goldfish” or just plain flashy like these two rainbow trout. Not native but seemingly available in every fishing lake in the country, sometimes quite gross in their proportions to satisfy those who like to land big fish. These two were found in a little lochan on an estate south of the A9.
Whilst the layout of the fish on the trout bag is traditional, the placing of the rod breaks convention and the reel’s colour owes everything to an illustration in a manufacturer’s catalogue.
The pink in the fish colours were the starting point but they set off ideas about how to paint the grass and “shadows” , so a lot of this was spontaneous rather than planned. The straps of the bag, for instance, were not part of the original composition. Maybe it was a residual literalness – you can’t have a bag without a sling, I kept saying to myself, -introduced themselves and then the colourway changes suggested themselves. The speckling drove me mad, so no more fish for the August show
