The One That Got Away

The one that got away' is the best-know phrase in fishing. Every angler has at least one story of being outwitted by a huge fish. A refrain of the angler, a taunt from those who live with them; it neatly sums up the way in which anglers are obsessed with the fish they almost caught. Yet to hear a fisherman tell the story of an escapee leviathan is to gain a great insight into why he fishes in the first place and why his sport is the most popular in the world. This is a collection of original stories from well-known angling enthusiasts and writers. They tell of unforgettable fish hooked and lost, of glimpsed monsters which haunt the imagination and draw the narrator back to a particular river or lake, time and again, in search of a re-match. David Steel loses his first-ever salmon after an epic struggle on the Ettrick; George Melly is upstaged by a giant Usk brown trout; Jeremy Paxman describes a fishing trip Stri Lankan style; Max Hastings was punished for being blasé and Bernard Venables – extending the definition of 'fish' – relates a thrilling but tragic whaling adventure in the Azores.Chris Yates, holder of the British carp record, tells of his close encounter with an even bigger carp; David Profumo is humiliated by a 400lb shark; Brian Clarke has his angling life marred by a monster pike and Conrad Voss Bark actually helped his fish get away – and he swears it came back to say 'thank you'. The pens of sixteen of the finest fishing writers have been at work describing salmon, trout, carp, pike, tarpon, shark, bass – fish from waters salty and fresh – all of which they missed. The result makes enthralling reading for anglers of every persuasion.