Editing, Fly-fishing, Flyfishers' Journal, London, Writing

The Flyfishers’ Journal: Summer 2015

Flyfishers Journal - Summer 2015

Thanks to all my fellow Members of the Flyfishers’ Club who contributed articles to the Summer 2015 issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal, our latest issue is now apparently cruising at 35,000 feet to many corners of the earth as essential in-flight holiday reading… a global affair in all senses of the word.

There’s a brace of brilliantly tangential features from Jim Bennett on fishing memorabilia and environmentalism in Paris, and from Antony Pinsent, whose investigation of the famous ghillie Rob o’ the Trows took him all the way Down Under to New South Wales in the bootprints of Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane.

Elsewhere, Nick Measham reports on an early season trout fishing road trip from Cumbria to Scotland with Paul Procter, Morten Harangen reveals the secrets of the magical Grini Pool, Greg Belcamino writes from New York and Montana, and Neil Patterson presents a volcanic Chilean episode from his new book, Flyfisher’s Chronicle. This edition’s In My Fly Box comes from my salmon-fishing pal (and old Wandle comrade-in-arms) Charlie Harman, and our customary ‘good cause’ feature focuses on the foundation of the Rivers Trust movement through the lens of the Westcountry Rivers Trust, which celebrated its 20th birthday last year.

From a personal point of view, it’s also been very poignant to announce the first winner of the Club’s inaugural Peter Lapsley Award, which went to Peter Martin for a masterful short story, The Venerable Trout, published in our Winter 2014 issue. The judges agreed unanimously that it strongly evoked all the patience and excitement of fly-fishing, as well as human nature, local traditions, the quest for the perfect fly-tying material, and finally the skills required to land the trout of a lifetime.

Peter’s certificate (and bottle of champagne) were presented by Liza Lapsley after the Club’s AGM on 16 June. The hunt’s already on to find our winner for 2015…