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Fishing a Highland Stream: A Love Affair With a River
Book by Hall, John Inglis
128 pages, Hardcover
Published February 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2025
I loved this book though I'm not a fisherman. A non-fisher might be surprised that it's not boring and this is largely because you're in the company of someone who writes very well, has a real connection with his surroundings and doesn't take himself - or fishing - too seriously at all. Not that he's not passionate about what he does - that is obvious - but for me, at least, this is one of those instances where it's captivating to listen to an expert divulging his knowledge and know-how.
What might tip you into the negative, however, are the detailed accounts of every stretch, stickle, run or pool of the river with notes about where the fish (trout) lie, how they behave and how to best fish - with what fly, in which weather, from which approach or bank and the nature of the river itself including where you might accidently fill your waders because of unseen depths - but that, for me at least. is what also makes it fascianting.
He fishes the small River Truim (in the desolate Drumochter Pass south of Aviemore in Scotland) from where it enters the more well-known River Spey until it gets to middle-of-nowhere Dalwhinnie: one of the joys of this book is simply that it is about a river which would usually be too small for anyone to even notice let alone fall in love with or get to a place where certain spots illicit affection or sourness. I love that. And I love/marvel at someone's dedication to fish in all weathers, chilled to the bone and soaked through for hours on end for, sometimes, not much in return.
And he's humerous too, anthropomorphising sheep, wrens, buzzards and of course fish as he makes his way up stream. His conversations with sheep are funny.
As I said, it/he is not boring and I think that's partly due to this being far more than statistics, equipment and techniques - it is - as the title says - a love afair and with a real person narating. And we get to listen in for a while.
What might tip you into the negative, however, are the detailed accounts of every stretch, stickle, run or pool of the river with notes about where the fish (trout) lie, how they behave and how to best fish - with what fly, in which weather, from which approach or bank and the nature of the river itself including where you might accidently fill your waders because of unseen depths - but that, for me at least. is what also makes it fascianting.
He fishes the small River Truim (in the desolate Drumochter Pass south of Aviemore in Scotland) from where it enters the more well-known River Spey until it gets to middle-of-nowhere Dalwhinnie: one of the joys of this book is simply that it is about a river which would usually be too small for anyone to even notice let alone fall in love with or get to a place where certain spots illicit affection or sourness. I love that. And I love/marvel at someone's dedication to fish in all weathers, chilled to the bone and soaked through for hours on end for, sometimes, not much in return.
And he's humerous too, anthropomorphising sheep, wrens, buzzards and of course fish as he makes his way up stream. His conversations with sheep are funny.
As I said, it/he is not boring and I think that's partly due to this being far more than statistics, equipment and techniques - it is - as the title says - a love afair and with a real person narating. And we get to listen in for a while.
October 5, 2020
Written in 1960 and recalling 1950s Speyside fly fishing, this is delightful time travel, nature writing in detail about a beloved and well kent little river, a tributary of the Spey. There are anecdotes throughout but it is primarily a guide to fishing the river...upstream with a dry fly. I enjoyed it greatly and will no doubt escape between it's pages again.
"He says he fishes for pleasure, which he always catches, regarding the trout as an extra, a delicious gratuity".
"He says he fishes for pleasure, which he always catches, regarding the trout as an extra, a delicious gratuity".
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews