Over the 30+ years that I’ve been writing about fly fishing for trout, I’ve been asked most every question that there is to ask about this particular sport.

“What fly should I fish this evening?” “What’s your favorite rod?” “Can you explain leaders and tippets?” “Why do I keep getting wind knots?” “Do you still guide or have you given it up?” “Do I need to know the scientific names for all these insects?” “What’s better, a blood knot or surgeon’s knot?” “Can you help me with my double haul?”

The bright-white yarn indicator dipped just as it passed over what my guide, Doug Corbett, said was a 5-pound brown trout swimming and feeding happily in an idyllic South Island stream. It was quintessential New Zealand trout fishing, with the guide gazing into the deep, green water and spotting the big trout, while I — the erstwhile “client” in the scenario — worked to put an impossibly tiny nymph in front of one of these notoriously finicky fish. It’s exactly as I imagined it would be.