Bentley's Bentayga Fly Fishing Mulliner a reel catch

stephen lacey

"I'm just taking the Bentley to go fishing, dear," said absolutely no-one ever - until now.

The new Fly Fishing edition of Bentley's first SUV, the recently released Bentayga, is promoted as the 'ultimate angling accessory' and includes everything a severely cashed-up angler needs for lazy days by the riverbank.

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Handcrafted by Mulliner, Bentley's bespoke coachbuilding division in Crewe, the Fly Fishing model comes with its own set of hand-crafted rods, each stored in tubes trimmed with saddle leather and accented by linen cross-stitching. The four rods are cleverly hidden beneath the parcel shelf - away from the prying eyes of the riff-raff.

Catch of the day

In case you do manage to hook up a trout, there's also a pair of landing nets in matching leather bags, secreted away in a carpet-trimmed pocket in the side of the boot.

The rear of the car holds three individual, leather-trimmed modules: a master tackle station; a refreshment case; and a neoprene-lined timber trunk for storing the waders - of course.

The tackle station features a burr-walnut veneered drawer in which you'll find the fly-tying vice and tools, and a selection of cotton, hooks and feathers. Beneath the drawer are four reel cases machined from solid aluminium and trimmed in saddle leather.

Fancy a gin and tonic and some canapes while you wet a line? Well, if you insist. The refreshment case comes with three metal flasks, a set of Mulliner fine-china tableware, and a separate food compartment.

Comfort and practicality

When the leather-padded case if not being used to ship the caviar and Pims around, it doubles as a comfortable seat on which to recline and read The Compleat Angler (unfortunately not included).

When the fish aren't biting and you need to free up some space, all three modules can be removed from the Benters and stored in your multi-car garage. The addition of an electronic dehumidifier in the rear ensures everything remains freshly pukka.

Of course, it's no use getting to your favourite fishing spot only to find some tweed-clad blighter has beaten you to it in his Ford Mondeo. As you also have a 447kW, 6.0-litre, 12-cylinder engine with a top speed of around 300km/h and a 0-100km/h time to make many Ferrari owners blush, Mr Mondeo will need to get up pretty early in the morning to best you.

The complete fly-fishing package doesn't come cheap, setting you back an extra $US105,000 ($140,000) on top of the $420,000 buy-in for the standard Bentayga.

For most of us it will be the one that got away.

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