(Image: Charles Rangeley-Wilson)
From a recent reading of US-based Gray’s Sporting Journal, you’d have to be forgiven for thinking the Brits were taking over as the voice of international angling.
Naturally, now I’ve got round to writing this, Gray’s front page has moved on to hunting (that’s shooting to us Limeys). But just for a moment there it was fishing in pure red, white and blue – and it’s not the Stars and Stripes we’re talking about.
There were West Country boys Henry Gilbey and Nick Hart fishing and photographing an early-season East Lyn, one of my own favourite rivers, and possibly the destination of a Wands’ outing this year.
There was Tom Fort turning his customary Gael-force literary skills onto almost-Macnabbing in the Western Isles of Scotland.
And then there was the Wands’ very own Charles Rangeley-Wilson, still scratching that itch for epic bonefish, but this time doing it deep in the South Pacific: New Caledonia, to be precise.
Maybe the Bahamas simply got too easy, or too close. But if you’ve not seen his Bonefish DVD yet, here’s the word from the Wands: check out this review I wrote recently for Fly Fishers’ Republic, then stop him and buy one if you like what you read.
It’s a world away from some of the “fishing” we’re seeing in prominent places on the TV schedules at the moment, and we reckon that’s a good thing.
Channel Five, take notice. Some of the best Brit fishermen really do love their sport, respect their fish, and don’t need to go to Extremes to tell everyone about it…