Product Description

'I only had one defining principle in writing this book,' says John Aston in his Foreword, 'to describe how it felt'. In that aim he has succeeded brilliantly. This is a book that brings to life over forty years of angling; it has very little to say about 'how to do it' but a great deal to say about 'why I do it' and 'what it felt like to do it'. Written in the form of an angling autobiography, it begins with boyhood expeditions to a pond in the shadow of the West Yorkshire slag heaps, and proceeds, via specimen-hunting trips to the bleak fenland dykes and forays to the lonely lochs of north-west Scotland, to the delicate business of conjuring trout out of the streams around the author's home in North Yorkshire. There is something here for anglers of all persuasions, John Aston is no fishing snob (rather the reverse, as he makes clear when he debunks the mystique of salmon fishing) and he writes with as much passion about the barbel, carp, perch and pike which he caught in the past as he does about the trout and grayling which now preoccupy his attention. Indeed, non-anglers will find, if they can be persuaded to open the book, that here, at last, is a fisherman who is intelligent enough and writes well enough to explain convincingly why otherwise sane citizens become obsessed by fishing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28248 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Synopsis
'I only had one defining principle in writing this book,' says John Aston in his Foreword, 'to describe how it felt'. In that aim he has succeeded brilliantly. This is a book that brings to life over forty years of angling; it has very little to say about 'how to do it' but a great deal to say about 'why I do it' and 'what it felt like to do it'. Written in the form of an angling autobiography, it begins with boyhood expeditions to a pond in the shadow of the West Yorkshire slag heaps, and proceeds, via specimen-hunting trips to the bleak fenland dykes and forays to the lonely lochs of north-west Scotland, to the delicate business of conjuring trout out of the streams around the author's home in North Yorkshire. There is something here for anglers of all persuasions, John Aston is no fishing snob (rather the reverse, as he makes clear when he debunks the mystique of salmon fishing) and he writes with as much passion about the barbel, carp, perch and pike which he caught in the past as he does about the trout and grayling which now preoccupy his attention.

Indeed, non-anglers will find, if they can be persuaded to open the book, that here, at last, is a fisherman who is intelligent enough and writes well enough to explain convincingly why otherwise sane citizens become obsessed by fishing.

About the Author
John Aston is a local authority lawyer who lives and fishes in North Yorkshire. He contributes to Trout and Salmon, Britain's premier game-fishing magazine; this is his first book.

Customer Reviews

A Great Fishing Book
This is a truly wonderful fishing book. John Aston has the style of a Chris Yates - but writes at greater pace with one story quickly following another. It is not a book for beginners who want dreary how to catch information but for the more advanced angler it contains many reflections that will strike a chord and provide wonderful entertainment.

Aston is opinionated and at times perhaps inconsistent but it is a real pleasure to read someone who doesn't sit on the fence. His real enthusiasm is river trout fishing - which he writes about in extraordinary depth but he writes lovingly about barbel, chub, tench and carp. Thus he encompasses the great variety of fishing available in these islands.

He is quite rude about the modern angling scene - unfairly so perhaps - but thoughtful anglers will see where he is coming from. In short the book is thoughtful, perceptive and stylish: a modern angling classic.

An old fashioned anglers biography
This is a book that could have feels like it should have been written in the 19th century. It has very much the flavour of those biographies of gentlemen anglers who published rather rambling tales of their angling lives. If you like that style of book then you'll probably like this. For me it is like most such books in that it contains a few jewels, but there is much dross to wade through inbetween. It is certainly not a book that will teach anybody much about the practicalities of angling; but then that is clearly not the anglers point. It does provide an insight into the mind of a modern angler; but then if one is an angler already do you really need this? In some ways it seems more of a book for the non angler to see into the world of the angler. However, if you're not an angler are you that intersted in what anglers think?