Maybe we become too fixed in how we fish and what we fish for? Personally, I mostly fish for wild brown trout and occasionally for salmon and sea trout, because there are so many places nearby from which to do so. But I sometimes wonder about fly fishing for saltwater species; as a boy I first started fishing in the sea from the harbour wall at Newhaven in Edinburgh, and from the rocks at Kinghorn in the wee Kingdom of Fife. But even today, up here in the far north of Scotland a lot of people fly fish for bass in the Kyle of Tongue and enjoy great sport in the process.

Some of my friends venture further afield in search of larger fish: the huge sea trout of Tierra del Fuego, Icelandic salmon and, increasingly, in the sea for tarpon, sailfish, bone fish, swordfish et al. All of their sport is on a catch-and-release basis and they use sophisticated techniques to achieve their results. Well, that is what they tell me, but I don’t think that sitting in a boat waiting for someone to tell you when and where to cast is necessarily skilful - and it generally costs about the same as a small family saloon for the opportunity to do so.

Size seems to be all important to those who scour distant lands and the seven seas in search of their sport. Good luck to them, after all, angling is a broad and catholic church with room for everyone. But I guess, however, that I am probably too old to change my fishing habits, even if I could afford the cost of such exotic expeditions. I did spend about a year in Chilean Patagonia where huge trout abound. But at the end of the day, getting back to a remote, wild brown trout loch in Sutherland and catching 8oz fish after a vigorous hike was, and still is, pleasure enough for me.