The Accidental Angler

Meet Charles Rangeley-Wilson, angler, conservationist, and traveler. In this broad look at fishing around the world, Rangeley-Wilson travels from city suburbs to Bhutan, from Icelandic moonscapes to the Seychelles—anywhere, in fact, his fishing rod leads. He battles titanic monsters on a tropical atoll and make-believe sharks on the mushy-peas-and-gravy Wash; he chases inscrutable grayling through back gardens in Provence and phantom sea trout. Along the way he discovers that fishing can take you to the heart of a landscape in a way few other forms of travel can match. A fishing rod will break the ice with locals, guides, farmers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and barflies. Fishing introduces Rangeley-Wilson to crabby weather and crabbier locals, moon-phases, riptides, floods, droughts, remarkable tales, and of course fantastic slippery beasts.