Soon after meeting Derek Barber I realised that here was a man who pursues the important things in life with singleminded determination. These passions include being able to make a perfect espresso, or macchiato, on the banks of one of the best and most remote steelhead rivers in the world. While coffee was clearly important to Barber, the main reason we were here, an hour’s helicopter flight north of Smithers in British Columbia, Canada, was to fish for that superb migratory fish, the steelhead.
British and Irish fly-fishers have a strange addiction to anadromous fish. We all enjoy saltwater trips and the exciting freshwater fish of the southern hemisphere, such as golden dorado or tigerfish, but our trips to fish rivers for returning salmon or sea-trout are more of a compulsion than anything else. Here we have something in common with our friends on the west coast of the USA and Canada. For a long time they have bucked the North American trend for single-handed fly rods and have headed, Spey rods in hand, to the remote rivers of British Columbia to chase steelhead – sea-run fish that often grow to in excess of 20lb, fight hard and fast, and which are characterised by a pink stripe along the lateral line, similar to their close, non-migratory relation, the rainbow trout.
Steelhead fishing became popular with European fly-fishers 20-odd years ago and many people now make the annual pilgrimage to British Columbia (BC) to fish the great river systems, such as the Skeena. Towns such as Terrace and Smithers are the Canadian version of Kelso, where a double–handed fly rod and a pair of waders are almost compulsory.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2020 من The Field.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 2020 من The Field.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
Fodder
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