Editor One

The first editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal, Percy Nobbs, was a lifetime angler who helped found the Atlantic Salmon Association, the forerunner of ASF. He was a self-taught expert on Atlantic salmon and the author of Salmon Tactics, a classic book in the realm of angling literature.

As big a figure as Nobbs was in the world of Atlantic salmon conservation, fishing was only a small part of his life’s adventure. In his memoirs (Clear Recollections, edited and annotated by Karen Molson, Shoreline Press, 2015) he tells the story of how when, as a young man he was present at one of his history’s worse, but lesser known, disasters – the catastrophe at the coronation festival of Nicolas the second in Moscow in May 1896. Over 15,000 people, mostly impoverished peasants, died due to a human stampede that occurred while the tightly packed masses were moving to get into position to receive gifts offered by the Czar, among them an enamelled mug.

Nobbs was an early fighter for Atlantic Salmon conservation. He wrote many articles in the journal but also published several accompanying reports, among them the first-ever document of the nascent Atlantic salmon association. It was called “The Critical Condition of the Atlantic Salmon Industry in Quebec” and it is dated April 1949.

Around Montreal, his hometown, Nobbs was very well known as an architect, and some of his buildings can still be seen today, among them the house that holds his museum. It is called Greenwood. It’s a lovely gable farmhouse named after an ancient tree that once provided shade. It is just outside of Hudson, Quebec in the smaller town of Como, named that way because the view over the Lake of Two Mountains resembles that of Lake Como in Italy. Nobbs wasn’t what you would call a warm and fuzzy person but could be quite abrupt and cold. He used a hearing aid and if someone didn’t seem interesting enough, he simply didn’t put the aid, a large metal horn, to his ear. In Greenwood, the hearing aid sits on display. On the mantle of the old fireplace, under a mural painted by Nobbs is an enamel cup. Underneath the inscription: cup from the Coronation Festival of Nicolas II in Moscow, May 1896.