It’s likely that you could use the fingers on one hand, leaving a few to spare, to count the number of anglers that have had the privilege to travel the world more widely than photographer Matt Harris. For decades, Matt has circumnavigated the globe—visiting over 40 different countries—in pursuit of wild fish and wild places. All the while, Matt has compiled not only a library of breathtaking imagery, but of memories, as well. Though Matt is well known as both a highly skilled photographer and fly angler, unlisted amongst his talents is perhaps his greatest: storytelling—something those who have had the good luck of sharing a campfire or a bar tab with Matt know well. A gifted raconteur, he commands the room when spinning a tale, compelling the attention of anyone within earshot.
For the first time, Matt has amassed these decades worth of images and stories in a collection. In his new book, The Fish of a Lifetime, Matt offers readers a chance to pore over a massive, 656-page trove of globe-spanning tales, illustrated by hundreds of his beautiful, high-resolution images exquisitely printed in large format full color.
We invited Matt to share a small portion of his voluminous collection of images — and the memories they evoke — with us. Dig in.
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Kristján Páll Rafnsson surveys the Hagafoss Pool on the Geirlandsá River, part of the Battle Hill Lodge program in southern Iceland. This spectacular river offers sight fishing in gin clear water for sea run brown trout that can weigh twenty pounds or more.
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The mighty Yokanga on Northwest Russia’s Kola Peninsula has provided me with perhaps more elation and heartbreak than any other river on the planet. This spectacular Atlantic salmon gave me an epic, nail-biting fight in the notoriously treacherous maelstrom of ‘Boulder Alley’, just upstream of the river’s main camp. My guide Edvard managed to net it just upstream of a huge, impassable rapid that would have surely spelled the end of the affair. As the picture shows, Edvard was at least as elated as I was to land this special fish.
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A portrait of my dear friend Vova Moisayev. After I was swept into a terrifying rapid on the brutal, ice-cold Yokanga I somehow swam ashore, where Vova first scolded me for still having my rod in my hand before saving me from hypothermia by somehow managing to build a fire on the snowy banks of the river.
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My young guide Hayden Dale and I spent a magical day on ‘The River of Dreams,’ a remote fishery in Chilean Patagonia accessible only by riding in on horseback. All through that beautiful morning, we caught fish, and when we pulled in to have lunch, I realized that we hadn’t seen another living soul. Looking at the light playing on the vast ramparts of the valley, it was hard to believe there could be a more beautiful spot to fish for trout anywhere in the world.
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I was involved in an exploratory trip to see if my friends the Trochine twins had discovered a viable chinook salmon fishery in Chilé. They had! Nico and Alex, along with their lovely sister Fabi built a simple camp in one of the most beguiling valleys I have ever seen, a big, brawling river surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Andes. This is the Austral Kings Home pool, and this image was taken on the very first morning of the exploratory trip. This is my great friend Mariano Wainstein, who was impatient to dash downstream to fish the semi-mythical “Canadian” Pool before the light was on the water. I told him to wear the red buff that I handed him and to stand still for two minutes. I captured this image, which takes me back to that magical first morning, full of hope and discovery. It is one of my favorites. It adorns the cover of my book and is also on the wall of my office.
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Every day, we tussled with chrome bright Chinook that fought like tigers, leaving us exhausted but deliriously happy as we guzzled gallons of delicious Malbec, wolfed down delicious butterflied lamb ‘asado’ and laughed around the campfire long into the night. Although it can be a fickle mistress when these huge chrome fish are in the mood, it is a truly extraordinary place to fish.
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My friend Lynn Palensky fishing down a pool that I christened the ‘Dentist’s Chair’ on the Kvachina River, Western Kamchatka. My fishing partner, the Olympic show jumper Brian Walker and I pulled out a brace of magnificent chrome-bright steelhead from this run on the last evening of a memorable trip to this spectacular and pristine wilderness.
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This shot was taken on the last evening of an exhilarating trip to the remote rivers of the Kamchatka Steelhead Project. Despite a tough week, our brilliant Camp Manager Justin Miller simply refused to let anyone get down. As a result, we kept at it, and eventually, the steelhead arrived and provided unforgettable sport. This picture perfectly captures the warmth and camaraderie that we experienced and is a testament to Justin’s relentless positivity and optimism.
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I spent a magical week with my middle son, Tom, fishing and diving at Jardines de la Reina in Cuba. Tom is a dive master and the deal was that I would learn to dive if Tom learnt to cast a fly. Although Tom was a bit slack in fulfilling his part of the deal, I undertook a crash PADI course, as promised. As well as catching heaps of bonefish with Tom and managing three permit and two Grand Slams with my dear old guide and friend Coki, I spent half the week scuba diving. In addition to numerous sharks, I found myself up close and personal with this big but fortunately friendly Cayman. To shoot this close-up, I had to get right in the creature’s face, and even Tom had to concede Dad had some solid-steel cojones!
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Fishing in Cuba is not just about the high-flying tarpon and the heartbreakingly fickle permit, it’s also about the faded grandeur of the crumbling capital Havana. No trip is complete without a taxi ride in an open-top Chevy or Buick ‘as big as a whale’ down the city’s sweeping sea-front drive, the Malecon.
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Keith Clover discovered the Tanzanian tigerfish fishery of the Mnyera and Ruhudji Rivers as recently as the mid-nineties, and there are few more exhilarating fly fisheries on earth. As soon as I saw the fish in the images that Keith sent me, I knew I had to go. After a slow start, these razor-fanged brutes delivered almost relentless action for the last four days of my trip. In addition to the epic fishing, I enjoyed a non-stop safari and a million laughs with Keith’s wonderful team, Rob Scott, Mark Murray, Greg Ghaui and Stu Harley.
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My first encounter with the huge Payara of the Orinoco River was unforgettable. My best specimen, a monstrous 24-pound fish, took us well over 500 yards downstream and would have ‘spooled’ me had I not jumped into the boat and chased it down the Orinoco’s mighty rapids with my brilliant guide Arnel.
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The Chimane tribe populate the banks of the remote Secure River and its tributaries the Pluma, the Itirisama and the Agua Negra, which go to make up the fabulous Tsimane golden dorado fishery, run by my dear friends Rod Salles and Marcelo Perez. The tribes folk still hunt their food with bow and arrow, catching the luckless ‘sabalo’ baitfish with unerring accuracy, and the kids swim like fish in the clean clear waters of these limpid, rain-fed streams. My trip to Tsimane in the very early days of the operation provided extraordinary sight fishing for spectacular dorado up to 27 pounds, and was an epic adventure that I will never forget. Thank you so much, Marcelo and Rod, for one of the greatest trips of my life.
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When my guide Borro told me that it was impossible to catch a red-tailed catfish on the fly, I just had to try. I tied up an outsized version of pioneering fly-tier Blane Chocklett’s suitably named Gamechanger flies, replete with not one but two built-in rattles, and sight-fished for the pirarara on the clear white sand bars of Brazil’s Rio Agua Boa. After around six attempts or so, I got a ‘follow’, and Borro let out a yelp of disbelief. An hour later, I made an ultra-slow presentation to this fish and he snaffled it. After a titanic struggle, the fish became entangled in the limbs of a submerged dead tree. Unperturbed, Borro carefully removed his trademark sombrero and his t-shirt and dived in. He was down an inordinately long time, and I began to fear that perhaps a large cayman or anaconda had done him in. However, finally, Borro abruptly emerged from the depths, spluttering with laughter. The catfish was under his arm. This remains one of my proudest captures to date. Good on you, Borro!
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Charlie Bisharat’s Poledancer fly is one of my absolute favourite patterns. I first saw it on the wall of Untamed Angling’s houseboat operation on the Rio Marié. The 5/0 Poledancer has a walk-the-dog action reminiscent of the lure angler’s Zara Spook, and it drives big predators like the peacock bass of the Marié absolutely nuts. I enjoyed some incredible sport with Marié’s outsize Tucunare, including some hulking leviathans that topped the 20-pound mark. This stunning fish was caught in a lagoon mouth with my guide Allan Pereira, a young apprentice who was guiding for the very first time because one of the guides had taken ill. We caught any number of monsters that day, and Allan would let out an involuntary yelp of shock and surprise every time one of the monster peacocks abruptly crushed the surface fly, much to the amusement of our indigenous boatman Charlie, who would catch my eye and gurgle with laughter. Allan was the toast of the guide team that evening and is now a world-class guide.
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New Zealand is one of the most spectacular and unspoiled trout fishing destinations in the world. Huge fish swim in countless gin-clear streams, and the lush green forests make for a spectacular backdrop. I made this image of my good friend Al Peake, on a remote South Island stream. We call this river the “Nunya River” Where is it? “Nunya freakin’ business!”
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Every five years or so, New Zealand’s beech trees produce a bumper crop of seeds. Beech trees make up around 70 per cent of the vast forests that cover New Zealand’s South Island, and when these trees drop their seeds, the entire forest floor is carpeted in these juicy, protein-filled snacks. In these years, there is usually a huge explosion in the mouse population. Mice love beechnuts, and when well fed, they are prolific breeders, typically maturing in two months and producing litters every month from then on. By early summer, the number of mice scuttling around the forest floor reaches plague proportions. Needless to say, a good number of these mice find their way into the river. You can guess the rest: a large, hungry brown trout is rarely going to pass up such a big, easy meal. In these special years, the brown trout of New Zealand really pack on weight: three-pounders become five-pounders, six-pounders become nine-pounders, and eight-pounders become … well, eight-pounders become the fish of your dreams.
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Topher Browne asked me to shoot images for his wonderful book Atlantic Salmon Magic. We got on like a house on fire from the start and enjoyed a lot of laughter as well as some cracking Atlantic salmon fishing. Topher gave me a grand tour of the Gaspé peninsula, and we fished some really beautiful spots. My favorite was this one — the Ladder Pool on the Dartmouth River. I caught a chrome-bright, fresh-run Atlantic salmon in this pool that took a skated fly off the surface and did a complete somersault in the same instant before tumbling back into the water. I will never forget it as long as I live.
Matt Harris’ new book, The Fish of a Lifetime, is available now.
Matt Harris’ new book, The Fish of a Lifetime, is available now.
