Coracle fishing

Over the years, I’ve come across lots of interesting methods of catching salmon and trout, other than using rod and line. Of all of them, the coracle is one of the most fascinating of the old ways of fishing, although it’s actually a fishing craft and not a direct means of catching them. The coracle is the most ancient watercraft in these islands, along with a very similar vessel in Ireland known as the curragh, and its design remains virtually unchanged.

The coracle is a tiny keel-less, bowl-shaped fishing boat - if you can call it a boat - that barely holds one person. They are made with willow frames, covered in calico and coated in boiling pitch to make them watertight. These old-style coracles are still made today by Bernard Thomas in Llechryd, ‘The Welsh Coracle King’. Although, as with most boat-making, the modern fibreglass version is fast replacing the original type.