Team Tuesday - Introducing Angus Walton
I was bought up on a mixed arable and stock farm on the hillsides overlooking the famed River Tweed catchment and it tributaries in southern Scotland. However, living so close to the water didn’t mean that my love of fly-fishing started here. My passion for fly fishing came from spending countless summers from a very young age flogging a fly for Atlantic Salmon and sea trout on several of the west of Irelands most picturesque and prolific rivers, where the infection became permanent.
A life long obsession then drove me to investigate making my hobby and passion a career. In 2009 I became self employed and started guiding on the River Tweed system in the south of Scotland for Salmon, Sea Trout and Brown Trout. I also took over the management of an infamous sea trout and salmon beat on the river Till one of the Tweed tributaries. After guiding on the tweed for a while and with my sense of adventure in withdrawal, I started to look further afield.
In 2011 I managed to land a job guiding on the River Ponoi on the Kola Peninsula in arctic Russia, well regarded as the best all round Atlantic salmon fishery in the world. I did two seasons on the Ponoi, developing my guiding and casting to an international standard. In 2013 I was unable to return to the Ponoi; however I am still passionately obsessed with the pursuit of Atlantic Salmon, its migratory cousins and fish in general. I still feel the urge to permanently position myself in the industry assisting in the preservation and promotion of the sport of fly fishing, the habitats and the fish that we so dearly pursue.
With New Zealand being famed as one of the finest Trout fishing and hunting destinations on the planet, it was not going to be long before I made the migration. On the 31st of August this year I touched down in Auckland where my New Zealand based leg of adventure began. Now based in Blenheim I have been begun working with Marlborough Hunting & Fishing, where I will be based for the next wee while. It will provide a perfect base to get amongst the incredible hunting and fishing that New Zealand has to offer.