A ‘Fish Story’ to cap all others Alex Edwards has been an avid fly fisherman for years, but the catch he came back with while studying in England will probably always be at the top of his list. A junior biology major from Watkinsville, Edwards was among six students who took advantage of Piedmont’s study-abroad program at the University of Nottingham in England during the fall semester. While there, he took classes in archeology, history and Spanish; and he traveled throughout England, Ireland and Scotland. But Edwards admits that a lot of his free time was focused on trying out some of the fabled rivers where modern fly fishing was born. After all, this is where Izaak Walton’s book on fishing, “The Compleat Angler,” was a bestseller way back in 1653. “Fishing in the UK is pricey, and they take it real seriously,” Edwards said. Through friends at Unicoi Outfitters in Helen, he was able to arrange two guided fishing trips, including one on the Itchen River in Hampshire. On the second trip, he and a guide were trying their luck at a fishing club called Lakedown in East Sussex. The site included a series of ponds and cascades, and Edwards said there were about 50 people in the area fishing for rainbow trout, which are stocked in the river. “There were supposed to be wild brown trout, too, so I went to a dry fly and started fishing the tailwaters,” Edwards said. He also picked a spot on the bank in the middle of a blackberry patch that looked like it had not been fished for a while. Soon he hooked into a fish that he knew was too big to be a rainbow. It was a 28-inch brown trout. “My guide thought it might be a record, so we took it up to the clubhouse to have it weighed. While we were weighing it, a guy came up behind me and said, ‘That’s one ’ell of a fish.’ I turned around and looked at him and said, ‘You’re Roger Daltrey!’ He smiled and said, ‘Oh, you like my band.’” That’s when Edwards realized that rather than wearing his usual leather fishing hat, he was wearing a cap featuring
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Alex Edwards did not even have to ask “Who Are You?” when he unexpectedly bumped into rock legend Roger Daltrey while fly fishing in England.
the logo of “The Who,” one of his favorite bands. And there admiring his catch of the day was The Who’s lead singer. As it turned out, Daltrey is also a trout-fishing fanatic and raises prize-winning trout at several fish farms he owns in England, including the reserve where Edwards was fishing that day. “He invited me into the lodge, and we sat and talked
PC marks Earth Day
for about 30 minutes about fishing, beer, and England and what I was doing over there,” Edwards said. The trout was a Lakedown wild brown record, and Edwards said he is going to have a wood carving made from its measurements to hang on the wall. And next to it will be an old hat, signed by the “Pinball Wizard” himself, Roger Daltrey.
With a trash sculpture as backdrop, Aaron Land of Ellijay on guitar and Scott Pratt of Norcross on banjo livened up the Earth Day Celebration held April 22 in Alumni Park.