By John Mundt
In 2001, I followed a whim and sought counsel on how to write a proper letter to a member of the British royal family. The hope was to one day see the American Museum of Fly Fishing acquire a piece of tackle used by a royal family member. After assuming it had come to nothing, I was elated when Sara Wilcox rang several months later to report that a package addressed to me had arrived by Royal Mail—she asked what she should do with it. “Open it!” I remember bellowing with excitement. Inside was a fishing vest and letter sent from St. James’s Palace, home to then Prince Charles. One could immediately tell that this vest had been donned by an angler who used it often.
Newly crowned King Charles III is one of us: a member of the world community and an avid angler. As patron of the Flyfishers’ Club of London, he penned the following words in the foreword of its centennial history in 1984: “There will always be the same joy, as long as stretches of river remain flowing through unspoilt countryside, of a day spent with a fly rod in perfect solitude . . . proving that there is more to fishing than just catching fish.”1 As a patron of both the Atlantic Salmon Trust and the Salmon and Trout Association, he has been steadfast in his efforts to ensure that the sport we so cherish can long endure.
The Prince of Wales plans to extend his summer holiday at the Queen’s Balmoral estate “for an extra week because the fly fishing is so good,” according to a royal photographer. . . . [T]he heir to the throne already plans to stay for seven days longer than planned so he can continue to pursue one of his favourite hobbies. . . . Fly fishing is a favoured pastime of several members of the royal family, with the late Queen mother a fan of the sport, while Prince Philip has also been known to take part in the activity while at Balmoral.2
The letter accompanying the vest. In it, Assistant Private Secretary Nigel Baker notes, “The jacket is a trusted friend that has stood The Prince of Wales in good stead on many expeditions on the Dee and the Spey, and His Royal Highness is delighted that it may now find a suitable home to do justice to the great service it has done him.”
An aide to Prince Charles once showed up and asked that she quickly whip up a masterpiece or two. She declined, saying that [she] was going to a Scottish dance in the village. She loved the traditional dances.
The prince held no grudge. He visited her last year in the nursing home where she had lived in recent years.3
This article first appeared in the Summer 2023 issue of the American Fly Fisher.
Endnotes
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Charles, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Foreword, in Jack Chance and Julian Paget, eds., The Flyfishers’: An Anthology to Mark the Centenary of The Flyfishers’ Club (London: The Flyfishers’ Club, 1984), vi. Emphasis in quotation is mine, where His Royal Highness is quoting the motto of the Flyfishers’ Club of London.
- Jessica Green, “Prince Charles plans to extend his summer holiday at Balmoral ‘for an extra week because the fishing is so good’, royal photographer says,” Daily Mail, 6 August 2020.
- Douglas Martin, “Megan Boyd, Eccentric Master of Fish Flies, Dies at 86,” New York Times, 11 December 2001.
- According to Charles Rangeley-Wilson, the Duffer’s Fortnight is “a blessed window of time between mid May and early June, [when] the allegedly educated trout of the English chalkstreams become so easy even a duffer can catch them.” Charles Rangeley-Wilson, “Essential Mayfly Kit: Demystifying Duffer’s Fortnight,” The Field, 23 May 2020.