A T the risk of sounding unpatriotic —our Scottish waters have been unusually kind to me this summer —I reckon if you want to be sure of casting over pools full of Atlantic salmon, then Iceland is the place to go (it boasts almost 100 salmon rivers; not bad for a country with the same population as Stoke-on-Trent.)
Of course, there is nothing new in this. Wellheeled sportsmen have been visiting ‘the land of ice and fire’ since Victorian times; the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould, author of some 240 books, noted that most of the Englishmen he met there in 1859 were anglers (he enjoyed the local whimbrel stew, too). Ultima Thule has long had a reputation for being distinctly dif- ferent; in the 1870s, Matthías Jochumsson noted that his homeland had ‘no army, no apples, no atheists, no gallows, no hydro- phobia, no monks, no monkeys… and no nobility’. Yet Iceland does have lots of geothermal energy— and fish. The cost of sport here can be stratospheric, but, in July, I sold the family silver and joined a party on the fabled silvery runs of the Midfjardará river.
On the drive north-west from the airport, none of my fellow rods seemed impressed by the eight salmon I’d already grassed that week in Sutherland (strange, that). Eventually, after several hours of moss-covered outcrops and cindery rhyolite cliffs with snow still blotching the upper slopes, we arrived at the shipshape Laxa Hvammur Lodge where the landscape was less forbidding. There were none of those sculptural, orc-like lava fields and a four-river system offered more than 200 pools for visiting fly-fishers.
Denne historien er fra September 11, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 11, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning