1. Sutherland, Scotland
To borrow a line from the author and keen angler Jonathan Raban, hanging a "gone fishing" sign on the door is like announcing to the world that you have retreated to your own private Tahiti. Sutherland is my Tahiti: remote, wild, achingly beautiful - somewhere I can get lost in the hill lochs for a few days. I take a tent and will eat the trout I (hope to) catch and then repair to the hotel on Loch Inchard for a proper meal, a bath and bed.
Where to stay: Rhiconich Hotel (01971 521 224). Rates from £39.50 per person per night, including breakfast. Permits available for the Rhiconich Estate's 11,500 acres.
2. Lough Corrib, Connemara, Ireland
There is a special school holiday in the village of Oughterard, on the west coast of Ireland, that they call Mayfly week. May is the best month to fish for the red-fleshed Corrib trout, and the village takes on a festival atmosphere at this time as fishermen descend on the town to go "dapping". This local custom involves hooking a live mayfly on your line and suspending it on the water's surface to lure the hungry trout. Before the holiday became official, classrooms would empty every year as enterprising children bunked off to catch hatching flies and sell them in boxes to fishermen. Rather than police the truancy, the local schoolboard decided to go with the flow and give the kids an official holiday. Very Irish.
Where to stay: Corrib Wave Guesthouse (+353 91 552 147), on Lake Corrib, two miles from Oughterard. Rates from £24 per person per night, including breakfast.
3. South Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia
I have not had my most productive ever day fishing here, hunting for flathead from the surf, but how often do you get to see humpback whales breaching on the horizon and wallabies poking their heads over the dunes as you stroll along the beach lazily casting your line into the ocean?
Where to stay: Couran Cove (+617 5509 3000) Resort, on the island, 40 minutes by ferry from the Gold Coast. Rates from £134 per person per night for room only.
4. Tusket River, Nova Scotia, Canada
"Then away to the heart of the deep unknown, where the trout and the wild moose are. Where the fire burns bright, and the tents gleam white, under the northern star" (Albert Bigelow Paine, The Tent Dwellers, 1908). I had long dreamed of staying in a log cabin in the backwoods of North America, Jack London-style, idling my days away flicking out a fly in search of brook trout. The Tusket River lies in the Tobeatic wilderness: deep, deep forest and home to black bear as well as moose. Take a guide - you do not want to get lost here. Accommodation is modelled on the great hunting lodges of the turn of the century - huge spruce logs and chiselled granite.
Where to stay: Trout Point Lodge (+1 902 482-8360). Rates for a double room only start at £54. The lodge will fix you up with a local guide, for around £100 a day.
5. River Lochy, Queenstown, New Zealand
Queenstown is the self-proclaimed adrenalin sports capital of the world, and while some people may raise an eyebrow at the mention of fly-fishing in the same sentence as steely-nerved bungee jumping, this is undoubtedly the high-octane end of the sport. There are only two ways into the Lochy River - by helicopter or by boat across Lake Wakitipu. Sheltering beneath trees and behind rocks in the gin clear waters that run through the folds of the Eyre Mountains, the wild brown and rainbow trout grow to thumping great sizes, although they are notoriously skittish. Local guide essential
Where to stay: The Dairy, Queenstown (+64 03 442 5164). Double rooms, with breakfast, from £123 a night.
6. River Lanio, Swedish Lapland
Another hypnotic slice of wilderness. Salmon, sea trout and grayling glide through fast-flowing glacial waters.
Where to stay: Visit Sweden has accommodation suggestions.
7. River Moyola, Northern Ireland
The river rises in the rolling Sperrin mountains and meanders through moorland and meadows, but you are only 40 minutes from Belfast here. At Castledawson, it runs behind a council estate flying the union flag, but put the Troubles behind you and push on upstream beyond the bridge: you will soon be enveloped by high hedgerows and small-holding Ireland again. Good for wee brown trout and local dollaghan. Stock up on potato cakes from Ditty's Home Bakery in the town to tide you over till dinner.
Where to stay: Laurel Villa Guest House, Magherafelt, Co Derry, 028 7963 2238. Rates from £25 per person per night, including breakfast.
8. River Wye, Monsal Head, Derbyshire
The Peak District is close to my heart - I grew up nearby - and, for my money, Monsal Head offers the most scenic fishing spot in England. The river threads its way through a deep and narrow gorge and there is no finer place to be on an early summer morning than casting a fly from the bank to a rising wild brownie, the red spots on its flank flashing in the sunlight. In the evening, when you emerge from the darkening valley via the vertiginous winding lane, enjoy the view over a pint at the Monsal Head Hotel.
Where to stay: The Peacock at Rowsley (01629 733 518). Double room from £145, including breakfast. Monsal Dale Fisheries (01629 640 159): £25 for a day ticket
9. River Teifi, Wales
Long gone are the days when the rivers of Wales were bible black with pollution. Now even the Taffy around the Millennium Stadium boasts a good head of fish. But the real prize is sea trout, sewin, and the Teifi around Lampeter and Llandysul positively boils with them. Only trouble is you have to catch them in the dead of night, which makes casting tricky, but it all adds to the alchemy.
Where to stay: Falcondale Mansion Hotel, Falcondale Drive, Lampeter, Ceredigion (01570 422 910). Doubles from £130, with breakfast. Will Mains (01559 363 700) can advise on the best fishing beats in the area. Fishing day tickets: £17 through DR Jones and Son Llandysul (01559 363700).
10. The one that got away: Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
It's good to dream ... this is the holy grail for fly-fishermen. The end of the rainbow at the bottom of the world, it costs a king's ransom to organise, but ticks all the right boxes for walloping fish, scenery and adventure. Maybe one day.
Where to stay: Roxton Robinson Bailey (01488 689 700) can arrange tailor-made inclusive itineraries, with flights, from £4,950.
Article written by Andy Pietrasik for guardian.co.uk
Grab The Bookmarketer For Your Site
No comments:
Post a Comment