Fishing from the Rock of the Bay: The Making of an Angler

James Batty's autobiography in fishing is a witty, wacky account of his obsession with his hobby, seeking out lemon sharks in the Gambia, Striped Bass in New York, and salmon in British Columbia. His style is wry, witty, and incisive, offering fishing anecdotes, tips, and thought-provoking ideas. Guiding is not a job he would do again, but the mysteries of fishing keep him going. His financial situation was tight, and wave and weather are a mystery. Long-range forecasts are as reliable as horoscopes, but the Met Office should juice them up to include deep Atlantic lows, discounts at local supermarkets, and a plague of frogs.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 02 September 2021
Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books

James Batty's autobiography in fishing begins with the opening sentence, "I hardly remember life without a rod in my hand," written by James Batty. When his American wife moved with him to Cornwall, she saw his family photo album and commented that there was hardly a single picture of him in which he wasn't fishing. This witty, wacky account is James' tale of his obsession with his hobby of fishing, where he sought out lemon sharks in the Gambia, Striped Bass in New York, and salmon in British Columbia. James' genre of writing is a mixture of John Gierach and Bill Bryson, with his style being wry, witty, and incisive. The end result is an entertaining insight into the mind of a dedicated angler, full of fishing anecdotes, tips, and thought-provoking ideas. Extracts from the book "The great thing about anglers – especially when we meet fellow anglers – is that we don't try to hide our nuttiness. Pointless, I'm holding a rod, so are you, game over. We both know we're talking to a person who's a few bananas short of a bunch. When you reckon you're going to catch something, you make more effort. If you think the session's a lost cause, 'one last cast' translates into, well, one last cast. Unthinkable. If you feel you're in with a chance, it reverts to its normal meaning: half a dozen chucks with the diving plug, then a few with the slider just in case, and ten minutes on the sandeel shad because you really never know. Guiding is not a job I'd do again, not as long as there's alternative employment cleaning out the grease traps at fast food restaurants or hand sorting the output of sewage farms. They'll take jelly-fry under an inch long when the waters are full of plump sandeels, and I don't know why. But it's the mysteries that keep us fishing." The fish can't see my modest reel or line, but they can see the bait.

Weight: 676g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781913159344