Salmo The Leaper
Salmon Fishing by Hugh Falkus is one of the best angling books ever written, engaging, challenging, instructive and a joy to read. Even though times and attitudes have changed in the forty odd years since it was written it still stands up today as a valuable insight into the Salmons life and the ways of catching it.
Today of course wild Atlantic Salmon numbers are under huge pressure in the marine environment and river systems. Climate change is altering the oceans ecosystem meaning currents and distribution of the salmons prey are changing. Warmer winter temperatures in the UK in turn affect the rivers that are already becoming inhospitable to salmon runs with dams, weirs, and other barriers disrupting their natural migration routes, preventing them from reaching their spawning grounds.
Add to that overfishing and disease spreading from farmed fish and you get to the parlous state we find the Atlantic Salmon in today. During his lifetime however the picture was very different, Hugh’s life covered a time from bounty to decline in salmon fishing in the UK and Ireland; the post war years were a golden age for salmon fishing in the UK and Ireland, abundant runs every spring and rapidly improving tackle and techniques allowed the dedicated angler to enjoy some incredible sport. Yet by the 1960s the first effects of mans interference with the climate were starting to be felt, pollution, disease and acid rain decimated fish stocks and the story ever since has been of up-and-down times of recovery and decline.
Hugh Falkus
To say Falkus was a larger than life character barely scratches the surface of his extraordinary life story. Falkus spent much of his life observing the life and habits of the Atlantic Salmon, living in Cumbria and fishing the Esk, eventually pouring all of that knowledge into Salmon Fishing published in 1984.
Salmon Fishing, the Book
The book is divided into four main sections; the first, The Fish, deals with the life cycle and behaviour of the salmon, then The Approach talks about the crucial water sense that an angler must develop, finally Fly Fishing and Bait Fishing discuss the entire practical elements of fishing. Falkus drew every bit of his practical advice from years of observation of his quarry, this approach is something we should all practice. We obsess about tackle and gear yet miss the point that you can catch on the most rudimentary kit if you have a good idea where the fish might be and how they will behave.
Falkus never loses sight of the fact that Salmon are one cog in a hugely complex ecosystem and we can only hope to interact with them in one small way, leading to our best efforts to be confounded all too often. This is probably the root of his fascination, there is no end point to knowledge or experience, the pleasure lies in being fortunate enough to connect with nature and this beautiful fish.
A Dated Classic?
Times have changed sharply since the ones that Hugh Falkus lived in, his was a generation forged in vastly different circumstances to our own. His attitudes to catch and release and fishery management may be at odds with our accepted norms and practises, but that reflected the wider attitudes across society. It is enlightening to hear those views however as everything changes and we need to adapt to new knowledge, indeed he was painfully aware of the encroaching threats to the Salmons habitat and devotes the last chapter of the book to that very subject.
Fashions have changed sharply in method too, before the sixties most fish were caught spinning or bait fishing, since then fly fishing has become the only way to go. Also there are far more people fishing today as well and demand means many head abroad in search of sport.
To focus on those differences misses the reason that this book, along with his Sea Trout Fishing are classics, he was a perfectionist about his writing and would spend hours honing just one sentence to ensure that not only conveyed his exact meaning, but that it read well. His eloquence and dramatic delivery allows these to be read as an unfolding story rather than instruction manual. His skill as a storyteller is often overlooked, yet his filmmaking is a testament to the way he could weave a drama that commands ones attention whilst teaching and informing his audience.
Cover pic: Iain Hazlewood – Other images: Adobe Stock
