Beneath the Black Water The Search for an Ancient Fish

‘Beneath the Black Water is the wonderful account of a mad, disrupting, unforgiving but ultimately joyous addiction – an addiction not just to the ferox, but to the truly wild waterscapes they inhabit. No fellow angler could be unimpressed; no ordinary human will quite believe it.’ Chris Yates, writer and eccentric angler ‘This quest for a sense of belonging comes with dreams of great fishes. Mr Berry has written a beautiful, haunted poem of friendship and obsession.’ Jeff Barrett, Caught by the River ‘When I was very young and on holiday in Scotland, my cousin told me about giant trout that lived in small numbers at the bottom of the Highlands’ deepest lochs. They were called salmo ferox, and they were rumoured to be uncatchable.’ In his twenties, wholly accidentally, Jon Berry caught one. This led to an obsession that would cost him every pound he had to his name, a few thousand that he did not, a couple of girlfriends and his home. It would take him to Scotland, Cumbria and the wildest corners of Ireland, in the company of a disparate band of fanatics – alcoholics, mountain men, scientists, tree-planting eco-warriors and one genuine soothsayer. Not all of them survived. This compelling account of Berry’s mission to catch salmo ferox will have you hooked, fellow fisherman or not. His drive and determination is infectious, and the ups and downs of his life in the process thought-provoking. This is not just a story of a fish – albeit a cannibalistic giant trout of the glacial lochs; it is a tale of compulsion and escape, of the author’s rediscovery of a landscape and a clan, and of a willing descent into madness. Jon Berry lives with his partner Victoria in an ancient Wiltshire cottage, 20 yards from a pub and within casting distance of the River Avon. When not teaching in a large secondary school, he is an irregular contributor to Waterlog magazine and caughtbytheriver.net. Beneath the Black Water is his second book.