Charles Donaldson

Pro Staff

My entire life I’ve had a romance with the outdoors. Growing up in rural England granted me opportunities to quench a constant thirst to hunt and fish, frequently playing hooky to roam the fields of England with a rod and gun.  Stalking wild browns on the chalk streams of the test valley.  Pheasant and grouse in northern England as well as Red and Roe deer.  Also the summer runs of Atlantic salmon on the Laxford and Naver rivers on the northern Scottish coast. My fishing career took a back seat due to a brief stint with competition rifle shooting, earning me a place on the UK National team for two years. I’ve spent time working at Robjents in Stockbridge, England under the watchful eye of Alistair Robjent, Britain’s finest sporting encyclopedia as well as time with the shotgun and rifle manufacturer Purdeys in London. A passion for Atlantic salmon fishing was born before I ever lay my hands on one. I first stepped foot on a salmon river 25 miles from Tongue, Scotland, on the Naver where I spent countless hours learning from the local ghillies the ebbs and flows of salmon fishing, examining each individual run and searching for that flash of silver. I must have been a terrible student however as it took me nearly 4 years to land a true Atlantic but it was the chase that hooked me, long before I ever actually sank a scantily clad double hook into the jaws of any Atlantic. The countless hours spent in the formidable wind and rain of Northern Scotland made that first tug of an Atlantic that much more indescribable. People can’t begin to understand why I would move from cold rain in Scotland to colder rain in northeastern Iceland to guide during the summertime on the Selá and Hofsá rivers but I’ve come to a point now where I can’t imagine anything more exhilarating than chasing Atlantic salmon on lightweight two handers rigged with floating lines and a hitched fly. To watch a 100+ centimeter fish sip at a size 14 tube fly skating across the surface is a sight that keeps me up at night all year until it, hopefully (if the sun and moon align) comes to be. This summer I’ll have a new arsenal of Burkies on the hood of the decrepit white land cruiser including the 9135-4, 7117-4 and the 895-4 leaving me with even fewer excuses for a lack of fish. I can be reached at cadonaldson124@outlook.com