Not for the first time: there is one good reason for angling - to get trout or whatever you are after for the pan or the grill. Preferably to be eaten that evening. Some people look on angling as a challenge to their skills or reading the water of a river, as they say, to the working out of the right fly to be used, as a problem to be solved, like doing a crossword puzzle, if you like. One of the best of all in a company of friends who used to fish across the country never ate fish. He was a brilliant exponent of the art, but gave away every fish he landed. To him, as to others, also, the change from city life, the odd gossip with a countryman mending a fence, the companionship of a drink (one only) on the way home, was the motivation. Nowadays, perhaps with increasing prosperity, perhaps through curiosity about the rest of the world, there is a move, certainly in England to move farther. About a year ago there was an item here on Greenland, said to be very good for salmon and char.
Now, the current issue of The Field, the English magazine, has an article on fishing in Mongolia, which country, it points out, is about three times the size of France and has a population of two million only. Next to no industry, the article claims, and the rivers are hardly ever fished. Moreover the local population doesn't think much of fish as a food resource. You are best fishing well away from the capital Ulan Bator. The writer, John Bailey, says all you need is more or less normal trout and salmon gear. On the Shiskid, he says, you awaken when the last wolves are calling and the cat ice on the edge of the rivers is beginning to melt. Grayling is one fish to go after. They teem. One 19-year-old lad from Britain caught 101 on his first day. We don't have them here, but Britain does. They are the fish with a dorsal fin like a sail. Another man took on one day 113 grayling plus 23 trout, one of 14 pounds weight and a taimen (never heard of it before) over 17 pounds. The trout, even is not like ours; It is called lenok trout.
And then there's a taimen which can go up to 40 or 50 pounds. Picture of a man holding a huge floppy thing which must be it. When the first wolves begin to howl for night, you give up. How to eat all that catch. Two firms specialise in London on trips of a fortnight or so. Costs between £3,669 and £4,750. And who eats all that fish?