Cliff Hatton encounters a mighty Wye salmon.
IN ANGLING TERMS – and only in angling terms I assure you – I consider myself special, and so should you if, between earning a living and, perhaps, raising a family, your time is spent largely alone in search of fish in wild, wild places – from a mountain tarn to a deserted urban river where big, late-evening roach rise to leave a single bubble by the drifting burger-boxes. When I fish such places there’s something that gives me a nudge now and then, a reminder that I’m utterly alone and unknown to the world … that I could die here, in the Fens or on a Cumbrian hillside, and lay undiscovered for months or even years. This is why I feel special. It’s not conceit for I know I could come a cropper; it’s the self-awareness that what I’m doing is way beyond the experience and even the imagination of most.
These inner feelings came together last Monday evening as my battle with a big salmon went past the hour. At 5.15, I’d made a cast from above the rapids and I knew that it was a good one, the Cascade double swinging into the riffle mid-river, the line straightening and pulling nicely in the current. Suddenly the reel was rasping shrilly and I was into a fish – a big one.
This story is from the January 2018 edition of Trout & Salmon.
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This story is from the January 2018 edition of Trout & Salmon.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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