My fishing lifeline

ARE you all right?” my friend called from the riverbank as I stood waist-deep in water. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

- Rachael Bletchly

“I was getting worried because I haven’t heard a peep out of you for three hours,” she said, leaving “and that’s a bloody miracle!” hanging in the air. We’ve been pals for 36 years so she’s all too familiar with my wittering, waffling and worrying.

She’s also answered the cries for help – getting me hospitalised when I had a mental breakdown and supporting me through recovery, relapses and medication nightmares.

But she had never seen me quite so tranquil as the day I stood in the River Tweed casting flies for salmon. And that confirmed my belief that fishing really is the best therapy in the world.