The Lost Diary: A summer fishing in pursuit of golden scales

by Chris Yates

In 1981, when he was thirty-three and had just caught what was then the largest British carp, Chris Yates wondered if he could now dream of capturing Redmire’s Pool’s real the King.

But far from the King itself, it was the idea of such a leviathan that hooked Chris that summer, playing him along the banks for one final season before releasing him back into the world. Chris’s account of those pivotal months – originally published as The Lost Diary – recounts the final reckoning of an angler’s long relationship with a beloved and mysterious pool.

It is also a magical record of both familiar and freshly discovered waters, meetings with new friends, and unexpected encounters with creatures other than fish and presences that are not quite human.

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 27, 2014

Reviews

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly fine, well written, it’s just that the topic really doesn’t interest me (but it’s a me issue, I should have read the synopsis more thoroughly). 2.75/5

[Stewart Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow moving, wonderful and not about how to catch fish. Pretty much the opposite of most 'content' you find on fishing these days - and all the better for that!

SM

[Michael Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like Chris's prose then it's a given that you will like this. However I much preferred How to Fish or The Deepening Pool. Whilst I admire the author's anachronistic approach to his fishing, I feel that his demonizing of the so-called 'Hair-rig' was out of tune with his general style, and left a disjointed feel to the end of the book. For example he is happy to sleep through a run and snap off presumably leaving a trace and a hook in a fish, but castigates the use of the hair rig...Personally I would much recommend Casting At the Sun as the zenith of Mr. Yates's work.

[Lucy Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely calming book!

[Lee Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant book

[Chris Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like fishing, if you like nature everything Mr Yates writes is pure gold.