I often think about different kinds of fishing that might or might not qualify as “legendary,” but should legendary fishing be all about merely the fish and the act of catching them, or should it also be about the place and the people? I can’t help but think more and more that it’s about the overall experience, and when it all comes together as some kind of delightful sensory overload then perhaps that is the time when the fishing becomes “legendary.”

Taimen fishing in Mongolia is just that to me. Legendary. And I got to go and do it, or rather I want to go and photograph it, live it, and perhaps fit in a few casts myself.

Rafting and camping your way down deserted river valleys that seem to be almost off the edge of the known world, together with trying to catch a species of fish as old and sought-after as the taimen, puts it right up there in my book. I know the guys who essentially “rediscovered” this fishing some years ago now, and I have a good idea about what it took to access and then begin opening up the taimen fishing in Mongolia to adventurous fishermen. The stories of camping out in the wilds and never quite knowing whether those dodgy ex-military helicopters were ever going to actually turn up for the return journey as the first snows of the harsh winters fell softly around them have fired my imagination for years now.

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