Publisher's Synopsis
Setra, a great sea trout, enters the Tors river estuary from the sea in spring. He is drawn up the waterway by the spawning urge to mate in the moorland headwaters in winter. An old fisherman, Pengelly, lives alone above the river in a granite cottage; he hopes to catch Setra on this up-river journey but exhausts himself in the pursuit. A barn owl watches them both. There are stories about trout, salmon, pike, chub, eels and fish hooks. A convict escapes from Dartmoor Prison and takes refuge near the river Dart in a derelict farmhouse, and a fishing solicitor falls asleep in the dark by the river with his back to a stone cross and experiences the apparition of a drowning child. Ravens, dippers, owls and other birds, together with badgers and otters find places in the pages of this book written by Charles Bingham from his Dartmoor home. Most addicted anglers have a special environment which they favour above all others. Since the late 1940s the river Dart, Dartmoor and its fish, birds and animals have been at the centre of Charles Bingham's sporting life. Although his fishing forays have taken him from Loch Hope in Sutherland to the river Camel in Cornwall, with the Test and Kennet included regularly along the way, it is the Devonshire moorland rivers which have been 'his place'. For many years Charles ran fly-casting and fishing courses from his Tavistock home. He has also produced several books for fisherman and countrylovers, and contributed many articles and stories to country magazines.
