The Deepening Pool [antikvár]

Preface This book began almost by accident on the banks of the Hampshire Avon in the spring of 1989 and was completed exactly twelve months later. It follows a parallel course to my first book, Casting at the Sun, which describes my experiences on the ponds and lakes of Southern England. This book, however, is chiefly about moving waters, although there are several still water interludes. Much of my boyhood was spent by streams and small rivers and, like the course of a stream, the following pages meander from those early days, when a pound chub was regarded as an improbable dream, to the present, where my zest for barbel fishing on the Hampshire Avon has superseded my quest for monster carp. Now my love for this river has forced me to desert all the waters I grew up with and a pound chub is almost regarded as an irritant. But, while the locations and the objects of my angler's desire have changed, one thing remains constant: I still look upon living water with a child's vision; the deep pools of a river or the shadowy depths of a lake continue to excite my imagination and 1 remain fascinated and intoxicated by the thought of what might be down there. The magic of water was the inspiration for this book and it is distressing that so much of that quality has been lost. Without life there can be no magic and since I was a boy too many beautiful rivers have been sacrificed to the greed of the intensive trout farmer, the profit motive of the agro-chemical industry or the ruthless efficiency of the water authorities. However, though no fisherman can afford to ignore the threats to his world, this book is not about such life-sapping subjects. It is about the authentic adventure that an angler can still discover if he knows where to look and how to look.