Search for that elusive salmon

I was about 10 years old when I cast my first fly-line in earnest, standing in the freezing cold waters of the river Manifold in Derbyshire, wearing nothing but a pair of old swimming trunks. It took a while after that for my fishing career to take off, with limited success through my formative years. After meeting equally passionate fishermen at university, I soon realised that the world of fishing was much larger than our little stream in the Peak District.

Max Blanshard was the first person to take me salmon fishing. We used to stand on one of the bridges over the river Wear in Durham, watching the fishermen in their waders below, and it wasn’t long before we’d chatted up the bailiff and blagged day tickets.

Since then, the quest for a salmon has been a long, exciting and, ultimately, fruitless one. Having fished has eluded me. I have fished the length and breadth of the country and put hours and hours into the mission, yet catching a salmon remains outstanding on my to-do list.