Writer, fly-fisher, river restorationist
‘Shifting baseline syndrome’ is an idea which may never be more relevant than on the English, French and Danish chalk streams. These placid little rivers have undergone radical alterations, even in the past 100 years, yet our human memories are inevitably too short to register such changes clearly. Enter Edwin Alfred Barton, a London doctor […]
Apart from his reputation as an outspoken environmentalist and dedicated salmon fisher, King Charles III has also been Patron of the Flyfishers’ Club for many years… … and the latest edition of the Flyfishers’ Journal records the gifts presented by the Club to commemorate his coronation in May 2023. These included boxes of specially-tied salmon […]
Earlier this year, the Flyfishers’ Club achieved an amazing coup by acquiring a cased set of six copies of Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler – representing all the versions of the book which were published in IW’s own lifetime. To celebrate this momentous addition to the Club’s Library, we somehow persuaded the talented fly-fishing photographer […]
Mayflies in midwinter: the latest issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal has been landing in the midst of a week-long deep freeze for much of the UK… … but I hope it’ll bring something of the warming hope of a springtime hatch to this beautiful-but-Baltic season. Cyril Bennett is on the front cover, hunting bugs in […]
On the few occasions when I’ve tried saltwater flyfishing – also known to its real cognoscenti as SWFFing – around the coast of Britain, I’m happy to admit that I’ve not been very successful. Yet if the fish were fairly insignificant (mainly small pollack or coalfish lured up from forests of kelp with sinking lines […]
Mayflies must surely constitute some of the most perfect symbolism of a flyfisher’s sport. Beautiful, fragile and famously ephemeral. Patient and enduring, living stoically and nearly-invisibly among dark stones and silt for a year or more… before emerging together into light and air for a celebration of life that seems all the more urgent and […]
Late May / early June means it’s time for the summer issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal. Truth to tell, this wasn’t the easiest issue to be responsible for editing, including as it does some very poignant Appreciations for friends and fellow Members of the Flyfishers’ Club: recent past president Paddy Laverty, author and historian Tony […]
Christmas is coming… and so is the Flyfishers’ Journal. This ‘lockdown edition’ reflects the fact that it’s surely been the strangest fishing season that any of us can remember. For most Members of the Flyfishers’ Club, and that includes me, the simple prospects of getting onto the water, or just contemplating the associations of time spent […]
Needless to say, the Covid-19 pandemic has already caused vast disruption to all of our lives this spring and summer – and this includes the life of the Flyfishers’ Club in London, where I’m Editor of the twice-yearly Flyfishers’ Journal. I know I’m not the only Member of the Club who’s trying to take a […]
Thanks especially to the Norwegian contingent of the Flyfishers’ Club, the latest issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal has a strong Viking vibe. And that’s as it should be, to celebrate the International Year of the Salmon 2019, by drawing attention to the mortal perils that threaten the ‘king of fish’ in local, regional and global […]
