NATALIE RHEA FINDS HERSELF

Threading her line delicately through the overhanging branches, Natalie Rhea searched each pocket of likely water scattered throughout the tumbling riffles. It had been a long time since I had seen someone so wonderfully enthralled by the prospect of small fish in small streams. One arm bandaged due to a high-speed tumble off a bike the day before, she moved through the cool water, immersed in every sound and scent.

It was the first time we’d fished together, and Rhea’s love of the natural world was so infectious, you could almost touch it. Since that first trip five years ago, nothing has changed. I have been outfished on every trip with her this year. The closest I came to the Goliath of a brown she caught this past spring was living vicariously through the whispered voice memo updates as she stalked, targeted and landed the 6-pound fish on her vintage 7.5-foot Hardy. It was the largest fish I had ever seen taken on our local Scottish stream barely a stone’s throw from our cottage. Her triumph was all the sweeter owing to the 40 minutes of patience required to drop a size-16 parachute Adams with just the right timing and accuracy. A month later, she landed a tide-fresh Atlantic salmon on a north coast spate river. I managed to lose two flies in a tree that day. There is no question that Rhea sparkles most when in nature.

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