Sports Calendar

Back to shore and into the kitchen. First off, we’ll try it raw: mackerel sashimi, with Fraser, also a trained chef, showing how. The flesh is firm and the flavour is surprisingly delicate. Where you’d expect a fishy tang (in fact, that’s a sign of decomposition), this is fresh, clean... in fact, it doesn’t taste of fish at all. It tastes of the sea.

Now it’s our turn. Fraser had wielded the knife delicately but decisively, liberating big, juicy fillets. But it’s trickier than it looks, and by the time we’ve all finished, you’d think we’d been fishing with grenades.

Thankfully, the real chefs have been labouring away in the kitchen, and the day is topped off with a sensational late lunch. We have a delicate pollock tart, mains of zesty salsa-verde mackerel and fried bream that melts in the mouth like a briny marshmallow. With veg that’s just as fresh, there’s nothing on the plate that wasn’t growing, photosynthesising or swimming a few hours ago.

And, by God, you can taste it. I quietly toast Jackson with a glass of rather good English wine. He may not swim again, but he didn’t die in vain. River Cottage (01297 630300, www.rivercottage.net ) has two more Catch & Cook days this year, priced at £225pp. There are scores of boats running regular sea-fishing trips around the UK; find the one nearest to you at www.ukcharterboats.co.uk

How to cook it by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

HUMANS HAVE an instinct to kill for food – fishing for your supper is the best way to do that responsibly. Few of us have the chance to kill and cook a pig, but anyone on holiday in a British seaside town can go out with a friendly skipper and catch a few mackerel.

I have two favourite ways to cook them at the moment. The first is simple: lay fillets of the fish in a baking tray, skin-side down, with a few bay leaves underneath, a scattering of chopped garlic on the top, salt and pepper, and place in a very hot oven for about six minutes.

The other is completely different, an old Japanese recipe. Get small whole mackerel, head and tail off, and add a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chilli, a little sugar and some apple juice. See they’re just covered, then simmer them for three hours. They don’t fall apart, they just take in this amazing sauce. It’s a bit like tinned sardines, very tender but highly flavoured, and the bones are soft enough to eat. They taste even better if you caught the fish yourself.

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