Issue 151

The great crooner Bing Crosby freed himself from the constant pressures of show business by going fishing.

A 5-metre monument of a Blue Doctor fly is to be erected in the Scottish village of Brora to commemorate Megan Boyd, one of the world’s great salmon fly tyers.

Ernest Hemingway’s Bimini King big-game rod has been sold at a US auction for $47,500, while Zane Grey’s own Hardy Zane Grey reel went for $13,000 at the same sale.

Pike are travelling through brackish water in Alaska and expanding their reach to feast on the state’s salmon-rich ecosystem.

Three salmon carp, an ultra-rare fish can grow to 30kg and was thought to be extinct, have been caught on the Mekong river in Cambodia.

Professional bass angler and YouTube star Ben Milliken has been arrested for fraud for allegedly falsifying a tournament entry form.

A woman who was fishing on a Queensland beach has been fined $A2580 for feeding a dingo.

A popular fishing inn that has been at the heart of the river Wye barbel revival is up for sale for just £595,000.

Water temperatures across the British Isles will be too warm to support brown trout by 2080, a survey predicts.
The escape of 80,000 farmed salmon from a tank on a ship has only just come to light because of a loophole in reporting laws.

We pay tribute to former US President Jimmy Carter; master Catskills angler Ed Van Put; Janet Messineo, the Martha’s Vineyard taxidermist, and Gail Morchower, the mastermind behind the IGFA library, who have all just died.

Angling celebrated the 1951 Festival of Britain by holding a fishing match that proved a forerunner for international contests.

Neil Freeman explains why he has not been tempted to add an extra date to his Angling Auctions calendar.

John Bailey reviews the best bits of his life, from catching giant roach on the river Wensum with john Wilson to landing a giant mahseer on India’s river Cauvery.

Tackle expert Richard Hewitt gives some valuable advice on how you can enhance the value of your collectable tackle.

Our books pages include a collection of Chris Yates columns, the travel adventures of Charles Thacher, a bibliography of fly-tying books and the salmon flies of Major John Popkin Traherne.

Our auction reports cover what’s hot and what’s not from the sales of Mullock Jones and Lang’s.

London almost had THREE public aquariums in the early 2000s. Whatever happened to plans for the world’s first aquarium designed entirely with conservation in mind?

We reprint the winning entry in the 2024 Robert Traver Fly Fishing Award, an emotional tale of Paradise lost.

Pierre Affré has some doubts about the size of an Atlantic salmon from the Kola Peninsula that could have been a world record.

Steve Woit finds that the elegant trade cards of fishmongers from the late 19th century have become hugely collectable.

Our letters pages ask for help on Piscatorial Society medals, a signed copy of Angling magazine, ask why there have been no more books from James Babb, answer a query about the Robuste trademark and reveal more about the giant New Zealand eels.

Keith Arthur wishes he had found out earlier about the spectacular roach and bream fishing on offer in Northern Ireland’s Lakeland district.

And much more!