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How to fish - it's not as easy as you think
Alice Cockerell thought she'd catch a 16-pounder the first time she went fishing and have it for supper. But then she went out on the water with one of the sports slickest men and had a rethink. Fishing, it turns out, is quite a tricky business...
I used to think blood sportsmen were brothers-in-arms: blood brothers. It wasn't until I went fishing that I realised the rivalry that exists between the gaming sects. One of the biggest bones of contention is over which quarry is the most worthy opponent: when shooting, I was lectured on the ingenuity of the pheasant; while hunting, on the cunning of the fox. But no sportsman takes the psyche of his opponent more seriously than the fisherman.
'Fishing is a psychological battle between you, the salmon and nature,' I was told. And so it is the most exciting of the sports, or so the argument goes, and emphatically not just the preserve of loners and weirdos. I was taken fishing by one of the slickest men in the water, Mark Birkbeck, recipient of one of Tatler's Most Elegant Fisherman awards in 2011. Anything but a loner or weirdo, Mark has made a life's study of fish.
As we drove to our spot on the Findhorn in Inverness-shire - Mark takes two weeks of the Earl of Moray's fishing every year - I was put out to hear that when (I didn't think in terms of 'if') I caught my 16 pounder, I'd have to throw it back into the river because of a vital need for responsible salmon conservation. 'The spring salmon is incredibly rare these days,' said Mark. 'I feel rather to blame.'
Fishing is a tricky business. Thousands of factors affect whether the salmon will be running, from temperature and air pressure to sunlight; and though there are faddy gadgets on the market, the salmon is such a slippery customer that nothing mechanical has ever seemed to work. This is why a great fisherman is a truly remarkable thing. His skill is about as intangible as they come; innumerable things are tabulated in his mind, often unconsciously, and a spooky kind of instinct takes over.
Mark often doesn't know why he chooses a particular fly, or casts in a certain direction. There is a sort of muscle memory, he believes, that is instinctual, not analytical. One thing I could, in theory, be taught in a day was how to cast. So once I was cosily ensconced in my waders, we set out for the middle of the river. I'm not dexterous (I was the second non-travelling reserve for the fourths at school) but eventually I just about got the hang of it - the trick is not to swing your line around your head like a lassoo, but to move it backwards and forwards, pausing a moment when your rod is at a right angle to the water. I was drenched from head to foot (inevitably, my waders had a hole), but I was beginning to see the point of it all.
Country sports are like gambling, to an extent. And anglers would say that while shooting is like vulgar blackjack and hunting like ostentatious roulette, fishing has the subtlety of poker. Hence its addictiveness and the unwillingness of the gamers to leave the table/river until the fish has shown its hand. But no fish showed its hand to me - I didn't even get a bite. Yet to my surprise, it didn't matter. My day submerged in the Findhorn was great - it was me that got hooked.
Fishing isn't pacey or gag-a-minute sociable, but its pleasures are no less for this. It is companionable in a way that other solitary sports aren't: there are hearty, sloe-gin-fuelled lunches, and fascinating post-mortems. Above all, it's relaxing without being boring. It engages without stressing; keeps you alert but allows the mind to wander. It is hard to put a pruney finger on it, but fishing is good for the soul.
READ THE 10 FISHING COMMANDMENTS
For information about the House of Bruar, the Birkbeck family's Scottish country clothing company, visit houseofbruar.com. To find an expert fishing instructor in your area, go to gameanglinginstructors.co.uk
Photographed by ABBIE TRAYLER-SMITH
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