The Couple That Shoots Together

For any fieldsports aficionado, the ultimate goal must surely be to find someone with whom they can share their pursuits. Adrian Dangar meets the couples living that dream

WHEN land agent Paddy Hoare abandoned his girlfriend, Iona Hughes, up to her waist in the powerful River Spey after a short lesson on how to cast, her expectations couldn’t have been lower. She’d caught the train to Scotland full of enthusiasm the previous day, but the couple’s first romantic break together had taken a nosedive when Paddy forgot to collect her from the station.

‘I was so excited to be joining him on holiday, although it was just me and Paddy’s six best mates,’ Iona remembers, ‘but when I eventually met up with the group, one of them told me he had still not caught a salmon after 12 years of trying. I wasn’t expecting much.’

Much to her astonishment, the novice angler caught two fish that day, with a combined weight of nearly 30lb, and has been fanatical about fishing ever since. Her results have been spectacular: Iona’s 32½lb salmon from the Tay, caught in 2016, nearly won the coveted Malloch Trophy for the biggest Scottish salmon of the year.

‘The fish was so enormous, I thought I’d caught a seal,’ laughs Iona, who married Paddy within four years of their first fishing trip. ‘When my husband appeared with a huge grin, having landed his own 22-pounder, my gillie just smiled and mumbled “32lb” in his soft Scottish lilt. Paddy’s face was an absolute picture.’

Iona repaid her husband for getting her ‘completely hooked’ on fishing by introducing him to hunting, which was something of a family obsession. ‘Paddy had to learn to ride or face a lonely life,’ she says. ‘He bonded with a friend’s schoolmaster, after which he was ready for autumn hunting with the Heythrop. Back then, he hadn’t quite mastered a rising trot and used to ride across the ridge and furrow in agony, which we all thought was hysterical.’