SOMETIMES YOU just wish you could have a second chance.

I was on the Upper Malleo River in Argentina with my friend Peter Treichel (from Fish Patagonia) hunting big brown trout with streamers. We'd been fishing for days and were high up the river — still positive, still believing, but with little sign of action. Peter was spotting fish from above, and on my very first cast into this pocket, a huge brown trout followed my fly.

I was convinced I'd lightly pricked it and that it wouldn't come back. But I cast again, and Peter yelled, "It's coming again... it's coming... wait... wait!"

Then, boom... it crushed the fly!

This was my second chance, I thought. Don't mess it up! Yet, almost as quickly as that thought entered my mind, the trout came off. That was that — the big brown trout we'd been searching for all week was gone.

The picture says it all: the disappointment and frustration of losing it. Did I strike too soon, or too lightly? I'll never know.

[PHOTOGRAPH: THOMAS TSCHERN] [WORDS: FRED CAMPBELL]