On Fishing

A lifetime’s fishing experiences written by one of the UK’s leading fly fishermen.

Brian Clarke is one of Britain's best-known fly-fishermen – and one of the world's most widely-read angling authors. His monthly column for ‘The Times’ has become an institution. His widely-ranging, penetrating and often provocative articles for that newspaper and for ‘The Sunday Times’ have been required reading for serious fishermen for over 30 years.

This collection of 71 articles and essays distils the author's lifetime experience. The ground he covers is immense: fish and how they behave, tackle and how to choose and use it, flyfishing tactics and strategies, angling history and literature, issues and personalities, environmental threats and the future. The whole book carries the authority of Brian's pioneering work in the sport – and of his groundbreaking studies of trout behaviour, especially. It is informative, thought-provoking, entertaining and beautifully written. ‘On Fishing’ will help anyone who fishes for anything to understand more, to think more and to catch more. It will draw even non-anglers down into the world under water – and to the fascinations that fishermen find there.

Reviews

‘Clarke's non-judgmental approach is a delight. Fishing needs more of this’
Financial Times Magazine

‘(Clarke) is a consummate wordsmith, crafting words with succinct, lucid sentences to set the scene for action or discussion … essential reading for anyone who's interested in our vital aquatic environment.’
BBC Country File

‘… this collection of articles and essays on piscatorial pleasures shows why it is more than just anglers who are drawn to the contemplative flow of his near-perfect pastoral prose.’
Scottish Field

More praise for Brian Clarke:

The Stream (2000) – an environmental novel:
'Devastatingly effective … ought to be required reading.’
The Times

'Magically wrought … a parable for our times.'
The Sunday Times

'The most significant book of its kind I have read since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.’
David Arnold Forster, Chief Executive, English Nature

Trout etcetera (1996):
'Instant classic, I'd say … Marvellously well-written. Enviably written.’
Ted Hughes

About the author

Brian Clarke has written and travelled widely for ‘The Sunday Times’ and, since 1991, as Fishing Correspondent of ‘The Times’. He has caught salmon in the Russian arctic, sea trout in Tierra del Fuego, rainbow trout in Alaska, marlin from the Indian Ocean, tiger fish from southern Africa and bonefish from the central Pacific. He has written extensively on other wildlife, the remote wilderness and the environment. In 2003 he became President of the Wild Trout Trust.