The Filthy Rich Love to Fish

Rod save the King: the then Prince Charles tries his hand at fly-fishing in 1976.

Once a gentlemanly pastime, fly-fishing has become the latest luxury arms race, with billionaires paying ever more for access to far-flung rivers and that rarest commodity of all—solitude

By Tom Chamberlin

Can you name the largest private landowner in Iceland? You might be surprised to learn it’s the British billionaire and owner of Manchester United, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Why? Because the 400,000 acres he acquired between 2016 and 2017 for just under $54 million include some of the finest fly-fishing rivers in the world.

Polo and shooting may long have been regarded as the sports of kings, but fishing is fast encroaching on their sovereign territory. Historically, it was a pastime of the aristocracy and well-to-do. In Victorian Britain, wealthy Londoners would decamp to Scotland by train on a Thursday night and install themselves in what are euphemistically called “lodges” but are, in fact, vast properties devoted to fishing. King Charles III has long been a keen fisherman. READ ON