Beneath the Black Water, Jon Berry

[Wildfisher]

No need to go anywhere near the  Overscaig hotel Alan. Just  go to the Lairg club huts, that's where the boats are. Just a mile or two out of Lairg on  the left. You can't miss it. The Overscaig hotel is almost up at the other end of the loch, a long way.  I heard that Martin, the owner has it on the market anyway. Some have said he was not really tuned-in with the vagaries of we fishermen anyway.    If you have a camper van you'll easily find somewhere to park up. Near the Lairg end and the pub.  :

Catch and kill is still the way with many, especially  in these lunatic fly fishing competitions - mass slaughter - many of the  fish end up in the bin. Now that said you could kill  all you catch on Shin and not make a dent in it, however killing big ferox is just plain wrong to my mind. These fish are treasures of the highlands. If you want to eat fish that's fair enough of course, no one can argue against that. However it makes more sense to me to take fish up to about a pound or so as they taste better and preserve the big breeding stock.

[trout n about]

Received the book in the post today The wife wanted to put it away for Christmas :roll: no way was that going to happen :lol: When ive read it this weekend, she can then wrap it if she wants  :lol:

Andy

[fergie]

I dont think i will get to Ireland next year so Shin might just be on the cards.
I was looking at it on google earth and the Bathymetric maps its a huge expanse but ive all winter to do some home work on the place.

[trout n about]

Give Shin a go mate, Ive never fished it but like Fred said its stuffed with fish from what ive been told over the years. If you are looking for new lochs to try, ive got four new lochs to try next season Fergie, permission for one or two days pending on the loch. If you are interested let me know, there will be a space in one of the two boats.

Andy

[fergie]

Thanks  mate id definitely  be up for that .Just give me the dates if you have them and i will make sure im available.

As for shin i think i will almost definitely give it  a bash next year.I think stevie is up for it.

[fergie]

I see we have a new member.The man himself. ?

[garryh]

just finished reading this book ,i would echo all the praise its recieved .best fishing related book ive read for a while

Garry

[Jon Berry]

Dear all,

Thank you for the kind comments about the book - a pal told me about the thread here,and not only was I delighted to see such generosity towards the book but also how civilised a forum this is - as many of you will know, they can be real bear pits at times.

I hope I can contribute something here, anyway - i'm Inverness-born but work in southern England (missionary work, Ron Greer called it) and so I head north to the wild waters of the Highlands every chance I get, or to Wales and the Lakes when time is short.

Once again, many thanks - I shall be back!

best,

Jon

[Wildfisher]

And thank you for your kind comments about the forum Jon. We have a policy of zero tolerance of  bears,  star wars characters and other idiots who degrade what should really be a pleasurable experience. It works better for us than it does for them.  

[haresear]

Due to the recommendations on this thread, I'm currently a couple of chapters into the book.

It is indeed a cracking read and so, thanks Jon, firstly for writing it in the first place and secondly for visiting us.

Alex