Not many of us will ever get a chance to fish for salmon on the legendary Alta. The Alta, located in the remote northern Finnmark region of Norway, has produced historically 70 lb. salmon and hosted the angling expeditions of royalty. Today’s salmon are smaller, I expect, but the price of the fishing must be formidable.

It was a pleasure to see 20 minutes of views of this ultra-elite river, but I thought Michael Frodin’s use of plastic rods and hair flies was unworthy of the river. (I fish Greenheart and split-cane and traditional feather-wing flies myself.) I was also negatively impressed by the sanctimonious eco-BS condemnation of fish farming. I’d rather see the supermarkets selling farmed salmon than have migratory stocks of wild salmon reduced further by commercial fishing. It’s one or the other, boys. The world is not going to give up eating lox and poached salmon so a handful of privileged sportsman can enjoy angling for the king of fish.

Filmed last June.

You have to love the Internet. We actually get to see the legendary Norwegian river, complete with Ernest Schiebert’s “Platforms of Despair.”

It looks like they are releasing all the fish caught. Current PC fashion or Norwegian law, I wonder? I suspect those are the rules these days. God knows how many thousands of dollars per week and you don’t get to keep one fish! Meanwhile, the Micmac Indian fishery on the Restigouche is probably still taking out on one tide more fish than the sport fishery catches on the entire river in a year, and throwing away the surplus at the Campbelltown dump.

We see a lot of expensive reels. These days, 19th Century Edward Vom Hofes go for a lot of money. One angler is actually using a cane rod and a feather-wing Thunder-and-Lightning. Good for him.

Strangely, the anglers seem to make a point of staying far up on the bank and away from the river’s edge. What’s that all about?

Facebook:

Guitarist Eric Clapton (who knew?) is evidently a salmon fisherman, and caught this year the biggest fish, 28 lbs. (12.7 kilo.) 42.5″ (108 cm.), taken in Iceland’s Vatnsdalsá River on August 5th.

“Clapton had to run a good kilometre down river with the salmon before he was finally able to draw it ashore, the salmon was hooked and after an exciting hunt came ashore just over an half hour later.”

Comments indicate that Clapton is partial to Marc Aroner’s fly rods.

Nice fish, even if it has been in the river quite a while and is getting very close to “wearing the Brodie tartan.” Look at the kype on him! If I were Clapton, I’d smoke this one.

Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.

Renowned rod-builder, angler, and bon vivant Hoagy Bix Carmichael (son of the famous songwriter) has fished for salmon on the Grand Cascapedia, perhaps the greatest of North America’s salmon rivers, for decades.

Hoagy is a Cascapedia fanatic, and he felt keenly the absence of a definitive history of the Cascapedia sport fishery, the personalities who fished there, and the great river’s record catches. Hoagy is also a writer of distinction. He personally codified Everett Garrison’s techniques into the definitive manual for building the split cane fly rod, and thereby single-handedly produced a split-cane renaissance. In the midst of his recovery from a dangerous illness a few years ago, Hoagy courageously undertook the formidable task of producing a history of fishing on the Grand Cascapedia, applying to his research the same painstaking perfectionism for which he is renowned. After five years work, the first of what will be two volumes appeared last spring.

Hoagy was interviewed this week for the Living on Earth radio program.

RealAudio interview

The book.