Interview: Matt Harris

Interview:

Matt Harris

Matt Harris is an award-winning professional photographer and journalist who has travelled to over 40 countries chasing some of the biggest and wildest fish in the world with a fly rod. Matt has regularly contributed to “In the Loop” since its inception. Now, some of Matt’s most extraordinary adventures are showcased in “The Fish of a Lifetime”, a beautiful new large-format 656-page book, featuring stories from all around the world and illustrated with hundreds of Matt’s high-resolution images exquisitely printed in full colour. “In the Loop” sat down to discuss what went into producing the book…

By THE EDITORIAL STAFF // Pictures by MATT HARRIS

In the Loop (ITL): Matt, first things first - how did you originally become a fisherman?

Matt Harris (MH): Well, as I outline in the book’s first chapter, my love affair with fishing started when I was a snot-nosed kid of barely seven years old, drowning worms with my mate Ian in a tiny river full of old bicycle frames and shopping trollies in the west London suburbs. We had no mentor to tutor us and our tackle was excruciatingly crude, but somehow I caught a small perch on my third trip and I instantly fell in love with the sport, an obsession that has stayed with me to this day.

ITL: So how did you discover fly fishing?

MH: Haha! Well, I actually came late to fly fishing. I was well into my twenties, and I literally stumbled across it. I was walking around a reservoir one afternoon grabbing some much-needed fresh air to break up a long car journey from Cornwall in the southwest of England back to my home in London.

I spotted trout rising far out in the glassy water, and a fly fisherman was casting to them, but struggling to achieve the required distance. The fish stayed tantalisingly out of range, but finally, a trout rose closer in, and the angler placed a dry fly just ahead of him. I watched entranced as the fish rose and the fisherman triumphantly set the hook. Compared to the coarse fishing I had grown up with, the act of casting a fly line to target rising fish - along with the lack of cumbersome kit and the mobility it allowed - all looked ridiculously cool and impossibly seductive.

I rushed home, bought a “Beginners” outfit and almost ran to my local Reservoir, Barn Elms in west London, where I subsequently thrashed around like an idiot and caught precisely nothing.

Luckily, an amiable “brother of the angle” named Rod Tye took pity on me and patiently taught me how to cast.

With Rod’s help, I was soon playing my first trout caught on the fly.

Rod, a talented fisherman and a brilliant fly-tyer tragically died from cancer a few years ago, but I will always be hugely grateful to him. I’ll always remember him as a very generous kindred spirit who took time out to help me and start me out on a lifelong passion.

ITL: So how did you come to mix your passion for fishing with your professional work as a photographer?

MH: Well, at around the same time as I was discovering fly fishing I was forging a career photographing babies and young children, working on advertising campaigns and packaging projects for numerous blue-chip clients across the world. I built a great team around me, and I started to accumulate a number of awards for my images and get relentlessly busy. I loved my work - getting a smile out of a baby is a lot like permit fishing!!! However, every photographer knows the maxim “never work with children or animals”, and every day presented a pressure-cooker environment of mayhem and stress.

Fly fishing provided the perfect antidote to all the chaos and bedlam, and I found myself more and more drawn to exploring the world with my fly rod to recharge after long, crazy days in the studio.

ITL: What was your first international destination fishing trip?

MH: Well, while in hospital recovering from a knee operation, my wife Cath bought me a bunch of fly-fishing magazines and brochures. As I waded through them, I was struck by the notion that I could do better.

As soon as I was back in my office. I phoned Christopher Robinson, the then CEO at UK outfitters Roxtons, and asked him if we might work together. Christopher was less than enthusiastic - he apparently got calls like this all the time from ‘chancers’ hoping to get some free fishing. I interrupted him and simply asked if I could send him some images to look at. He called back two days after that, and a fortnight later, I was on the banks of the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego.

Christopher loved the images that I came home with, and the articles I placed in various magazines, showcasing the Rio Grande’s magical sea trout fishing. Commissions from Roxtons and many others followed thick and fast. Simon Gawesworth reached out regularly from RIO, and my images were used to advertise numerous famous brands including Hardy, Maui Jim, Simms, Orvis, Patagonia, Airflo and many others. I also started to shoot images regularly for lodges and outfitters and started to write and illustrate articles for magazines all around the world.

ITL: The book is a huge project. How did you find the time to put it together?

MH: Well, the short answer is COVID. When we started to experience the lockdowns during the early stage of the pandemic, I realised that my regular work, whether it be photographing kids or flyfishing, was simply not going to be possible. Many friends had been urging me to put together a book featuring the stories and images compiled during my

travels, and finally experiencing the rare luxury of having some time on my hands, I thought that there would never be a better time to do it.

ITL: The book is beautifully designed. Who designed it?

MH: Haha! I did!

I spoke to a very talented friend who is an internationally renowned designer, and he said that he would be happy to design the book. He put together a number of designs that were all beautiful, but they weren’t quite how I wanted the book to be. I had a very singular vision for how I wanted the book to look and I came to realise that I wouldn’t be completely happy unless I did the job myself. I had a rough idea what to do - I had completed a Graphic Design degree in the late 80’s, so I got to work. I spent the first COVID lockdown learning how to use the industry standard graphic design software - Adobe Indesign - and with technical guidance from the excellent Mark Cowling at Tweed Media, I came up with a design that I was really happy with.

Mark helped to make it absolutely print-ready, and I am thrilled with the result.

ITL: The book is full of adventures from all around the world. Any scary incidents or especially memorable moments?

MH: Haha! Yes. As I outline in the book, I’ve experienced a few white-knuckle rides into some of the world’s remotest spots, bouncing around in countless helicopters, tiny single-prop aircraft, and comically unstable dugout log canoes. I’ve been rescued by the coastguard at 3 am from a little centre console boat bobbing wildly in a violent tropical storm in the Florida Keys; I’ve hidden underwater from a savage swarm of enraged hornets in the Brazilian jungle till I thought my lungs would burst; and I’ve been swept into a terrifying rapid on the brutal, ice-cold Yokanga before somehow swimming ashore, where my dear friend and guide Vova Moisayev scolded me for still having my rod in my hand before saving me from hypothermia by somehow building a fire on the snowy banks of the river.

It’s not all been scary stuff - I’ve also watched the aurora borealis paint its magic across the Northern skies, forced down Mongolian vodka made from mare’s milk, and laughed till the tears rolled down my face after my friend Steve Edge and I tricked a mate into battling with a large plastic bucket for nearly 40 long minutes in the belief that he had hooked a huge but uncharacteristically dour marlin off Madeira.

ITL: What’s the most enjoyable element of your trips?

Well, of course, catching big fish in beautiful remote settings is right up there, but undoubtedly the most special element of my adventures is the countless wonderful people I’ve encountered on my travels.

I have had the privilege to meet kindred spirits from all over the world, and have made many life-long friends that share my unquenchable passion for our sport.

I’ve fished with Yanomami and Chimané tribesmen in the South American rainforests, the Koriaks of Kamchatka and the Inuits and Sami of the Northern tundra. Fly fishing has brought me together with a host of sparkling characters, and I am grateful to every one of these friends for all the good times that I have spent in their company and the special moments that they have allowed me to share with them. I am particularly grateful to all the guides and ghillies I’ve fished with.

I have shared so many laughs and so many moments of elation and heartbreak with them, and I am indebted to the vast majority of them for their warmth, their humour and their friendship as well as their patient hard graft and guidance, and their occasional moments of genius in extending what is achievable with a fly rod.

ITL: What are your favourite species?

MH: ( Laughs ) Don’t make me choose! I love every species and I love being engrossed in trying to trick the humble chub of my local river Cam

in Cambridge at 4.30 am on a midsummer morning as much as I do pitting my wits against the giant tarpon of the Nicaraguan jungle. However, if pressed, like many of my fishing friends, I do have to admit a special affection for Atlantic salmon.

ITL: What is so special about Atlantic salmon?

MH: Well, to invoke an old cliché, if you know, you know. To briefly put your hands on one of these precious fish, and to sense the extraordinary odyssey that each of these special creatures has been on is one of the most special, life-affirming moments that you can experience with a fishing rod in your hand.

ITL: You are an ambassador for the Atlantic Salmon Trust. What do you think we can do to save our Atlantic salmon?

MH: Haha…well the book is full of crash-bang-wallop accounts of tussles with big fish, but the last chapter is entitled “The River of Ghosts”, and it deals with exactly this subject.

There’s so much we can and must do to stop the destruction of our remaining salmon stocks and their fragile habitat. The Atlantic Salmon Trust do great work providing factual scientific data that helps us to argue our case and fight with facts not opinions to prevent further destruction of the Atlantic salmon and its habitat. This issue is live and one we all have to engage with RIGHT NOW.

If we do not act now, we will leave our grandchildren with nothing more than rivers full of ghosts, where only the spirits of the mighty Atlantic salmon that currently swim up our rivers remain.

I don’t want to die a heartbroken old man, telling my grandchildren about the mighty salmon that once came barrelling up our wild Northern rivers.

Under the umbrella of global angling organisations like the International Game Fishing Association, The Atlantic Salmon Trust, the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, Trout Unlimited and many others, and using the new and burgeoning opportunities for worldwide communication that the internet provides us, we can – we MUST - start to all work together to help fight to change things for the better for all fishermen and women, for the environment, and for the population in general.

We need to do this now. We need to unite to protect ALL of our precious fisheries. We need to do all we can to save the Atlantic salmon and ALL the precious habitat and ALL the wonderful species that we love to target…before it’s too late.

ITL: Couldn’t agree more. So what’s next?

MH: Well, that’s easy! Volume Two of course…

There’s only so many species and destinations that you can cram into 656 pages - I’ve caught plenty of species that we just couldn’t fit into Volume One - Mahseer, Striped Bass, Barramundi, Carp, Halibut, Queenfish,

Large and Smallmouth Bass - and yes, more than a few that I haven’t yet caught - Striped Marlin, Bluefin Tuna, Muskie, Brook Trout, Nile Perch, Black Bass, Blue Bastards (!!), Coalfish, Aspe, Yellowcheek Carp, Sea-run Taimen, Yellowfish…

Watch this space!!! Hopefully, I’ll be bringing some new stories to “In the Loop” sometime soon!

ITL: Matt, That’s great!! Look forward to it & thanks so much for sharing!

MH: It’s a pleasure - keep up the great work and thanks so much for the support as always!!

Matt’s book “The Fish of a Lifetime” is now on sale and is shipping worldwide.

You can learn more & buy the book at:

https://thefishofalifetime.com/

You can see more of Matt’s work at: https://www.mattharrisflyfishing.com/