Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49354 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Review
One of the few books to capture the realjoy of fishing in such a way that even the non-angler is seduced. --The Independent

Customer Reviews

One of the best angling books ever written?
This is not a book for rigs, diagrams and techniques. This is a book, which through a wonderful mix of real-time and flashback, manages to create a kind of philosophy of fishing and reads as a wonderful manifesto of why we keep returning to the bankside. It is a timeless and evocative account of a whole day and night fishing at the point of midsummer on a secret carp lake.

The Secret Carp is one of my favourite fishing books, along with the author's justly famous Casting at the Sun.

Sit back during a rainy or snowy day and remind yourself why you love to go fishing. It's a wonderful read!

Vanishing lakes, monster carp and the art of tea making...
If you have always wanted to share a days fishing with someone who really seems to understand why angling has its fascination, read this book. Chris Yates has a way of bringing the waterside into your armchair quite unlike any other writer and makes you look forward to summer days (and nights) in a magical landscape. Each chapter begins as a commentary on a midsummer days carp fishing at a lost lake, then regresses to describe memories of encounters with vanishing lakes, monster carp and the art of tea-making, marrying past and present so well that the distinction between them ceases to exist, symbolic perhaps that, in fishing at least, time is immaterial.

A Sublime Modern Classic.
This is a magisterial, masterful piece of work, and will surely become a modern classic. Chris Yates is a fisherman and also a highly talented author, which is a rare but lovely combination. The book is beautifully written and Mr Yates so infuses the work with his delight at Nature, his joy in his surroundings, and his love of all life's bounty, he has almost made himself part of Mother Nature's very fabric.

The book is an account of a day and night spent fishing and wandering around a delightful, but secret lake. As time passes, he also recounts some of the many and varied stories that have populated his busy angling life. But there is much more to it than a series of events. Slowly, and with some humour, Mr Yates gradually reveals to us not just a means of fishing or passing time by a misty carp lake; he allows us into the gentle folds of his fishing and life philosophy. It is almost a symphony to fishing, to Nature, and to Life.

This is not a "Hot To" book; there are no diagrams of fancy rigs; and sometimes the fishing seems almost incidental. In fact, Mr Yates shows a great disdain towards modern carp fishing tactics and many modern carp fishing practitioners. He is old fashioned - yes; a little eccentric - yes; but he makes you think, and even question why you go fishing. His points are so well made and his writing so fluid and evocative, he transports you to a timeless world of dappling trees, gently lapping waves, and the music of the birds and animals that surround him as he blends effortless into his natural habitat.

I could read this book again and again, and if you want to do more than simply net large fish, you simply must read this sublime piece of work.

It is a stunning, beautiful, and joyously crafted work of art.

Thank you Mr Yates.