ON THE BEAT WITH BLACK SHRIMP: ANGLING EXPERIENCES OF A LIFETIME. By "Black Shrimp".

2007 1st edition. 8vo (152 x 217mm). Ppviii,222. B/w photographs. Purple boards, spine titled in gilt.

These are John Cathcart's stories of over fifty years salmon fishing in Scotland. For many years he contributed an angling column to the Highland News under the pen-name, Black Shrimp. Sadly he died shortly before his book was published. Chapters include; introduction to the noble art, my first poacher, moving to Inverness, my first big fly rod, my first salmon; three years in the RAF, fishing in Germany; night fishing, the Laggan, the Wooly Bear, the Ewe, the rock and the Coachman, a fish on every cast, the Inverness Professor; my sherry fish; the right connections, Louis Davidson, Mr Herd and the Garry, Duncan Shankland, Major Godman of Ness Side, a real toff, Mrs Max Muller, Joyce Ross and the Tay; the day I met Miss Ballantyne; Canada - an angler's paradise; riverside buddies, poaching, telling evidence, the graveyard shift, grateful recognition, the salmon and the flat fish, devastation by the Dark Side; days to remember; one offs; ones that got away - mistaken identity, fishing too light, a tale from the tail, end of a roll; tackle making - leader in lead, the wooden devon, enter the Wiggly Woggly, the move to plastic, the Aswood is born; Germany again; ghillying; British record brown trout; long cast; sea fishing; strangest things I have ever hooked; foul hooked?; the Loch Ness Monster; Ness islands and pool names; casting skills across the generations; fly lines; Inverness Angling Club; and finally...