“ much No place has as
“ much No place has as many luxury resorts on sporting estates as Britain and Ireland, but few are as opulent – or as fun – as the Emerald Isle’s Ashford Castle MATTIA AQUILA keeping quantity and quality of fish high. The only Orvis Endorsed company in Iceland is is the fly-fishing outfitter Fish Partner (fishpartner.com) whose guests get access to the Kaldakvísl and Tungnaá rivers and Lake Thingvallavatn. All-inclusive itineraries typically stay in two different locations on each trip to maximise angling variety, with a guest-to-guide ratio of 2:1. If you are looking to try fly-fishing for the first time, a remote lodge immersion might not be the best choice. No place has as many luxury resorts on sporting estates as Britain and Ireland, but few are as opulent – or as much fun – as the Emerald Isle’s Ashford Castle (ashfordcastle.com). The luxe resort features an almost 800-year-old castle that sits on 18,000ha Lough Corrib, known for its abundance of brown trout, salmon and pike. The property also has immediate access to the River Cong, world famous for salmon. Ashford employs its own full-time expert ghillies (guides) using traditional wooden boats. Instruction is offered, they’ll cook your catch, and it’s a great place for experts, novices, or families to fish. Ashford also has world-class golf, an equestrian centre, tennis, shooting, even falconry, along with a laundry list of bars and restaurants. SEA VIEW Fom top: Reid’s Palace; Madeira; fishing off the coast of Caso de Campo © CASA DE CAMPO 50 NetJets
FLY FOR FISHING Clockwise from top left: Lizard Island, Australia; Turtle Island, Fiji; Futa Lodge, Chile Bass are much smaller than billfish and even salmon, but no form of angling is more popular in the United States than bass fishing, which has its own professional tour. The pros have an annual stop on 17,000ha Table Rock Lake in the Missouri Ozarks, also home to Johnny Morris’s Big Cedar Lodge (bigcedar.com). From George H W Bush to Tiger Woods, presidents, pro athletes and music A-listers have all fished here, and there is no better equipped freshwater angling resort anywhere. It has two full-service, state-of-the-art marinas with top-shelf gear, boat rentals, licenses and instruction, and lodging runs the gamut from hotel rooms to lakeside cabins to luxe private homes. The 1,800ha fantasy sporting resort also has five golf courses and a world-class shooting facility. While salmon, tuna and billfish can be found worldwide, there are a couple of much sought after but geographically limited specialty fish that serious anglers lust after. Pound for pound, many deep-sea sportfishers consider tarpon the most exciting quarry. The “silver king” of gamefish, they can dive more than a hundred feet in seconds, weigh up to 130kg, and are ferocious fighters that can take hours to reel in. Florida is tarpon central, and the top choice is Hawks Cay Resort (hawkscay. com) in the Florida Keys, an old fishing haunt of Hemingway himself. Guests land world record tarpon as well as billfish, barracuda and a little bit of everything. For zealous fly-fishing aficionados, the extremely challenging bonefish, found in shallow saltwater, is another much-catch. The Bahamas is the world epicenter of bonefishing, and for more than 30 years, Bair’s Lodge (bairslodge.com) has been the destination of choice. Bair’s has access to both coastal flats and an inland creek system, you can wade or use skiffs, there’s fishing right out the front door, and it has some of the world’s best guides. Protected by Andros’s West Side National Park, it enjoys some of the least pressured waters in the world’s bonefishing capital. © LIZARD ISLAND HOUSE FARTHER AFIELD: THE REEL DEAL LIZARD ISLAND RESORT, AUSTRALIA The only luxury resort directly on the Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest – this private island sits within a national park and catch includes black marlin, mahi mahi, mackerel, sailfish, tuna and more, along with legendary diving and snorkelling. lizardisland.com.au TURTLE ISLAND PRIVATE ISLAND RESORT, FIJI With 12 private beaches and world-class diving, this is one of Fiji’s top luxury resorts. The island nation is one of the best fishing places in the world with the two top categories of saltwater gamefish, marlin (black, blue and striped) and tuna (yellowfin and skipjack), plus sailfish, barracuda, wahoo and mackerel. turtlefiji.com FUTA LODGE, CHILEAN PATAGONIA Patagonia is one of a handful of true fly-fishing bucket-list trips, and Futa is its best-known lodge, with miles of lightly fished pristine lakes and rivers for its guests, offering float rips and wading for record-sized brown and rainbow trout. futalodge.com © TURTLE ISLAND STEPHAN DOMBAJ NetJets 51
