ON A dirty wet dark night last December, I travelled to Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel in the middle wilds of Connemara for the launch of Gargan’s book. Connemara is a region of Ireland loosely bounded to the east by Galway City, Lough Corrib and part of Lough Mask, and it stretches west for some 40 miles to the wild Atlantic. Sparsely populated, the region comprises mostly mountains, bogs and rock, but it teems with river and lough systems, including 19 sea-trout fisheries.

Famed by anglers and lauded by writers such as Bilton, Grimble, Adams, Street and TC Kingsmill Moore, “the ould judge” himself, Connemara had been an angler’s El Dorado for generations.That changed with the advent of marine salmon farms in the 1980s, with many fisheries devastated. Forty years later. there still remain a few that worth fishing. Dr Paddy Gargan, a passionate angler since boyhood, a one-time Connemara fishery manager and a recently retired eminent Inland Fisheries Ireland scientist, has written a book which covers all of the area’s sea-trout fisheries.It is a detailed testament of what once was and of what remains today.

There is nobody better qualified or more knowledgeable to write this book.That’s why when I arrived at Lough Inagh an hour early, the place was already buzzing. Anglers, fishery owners, scientists had all come in their scores to get a copy of Paddy’s book. No one left disappointed.This book is a treasure.

It ranges widely. It is a social history, full of people and characters, yarns and fishing stories. It is also an authoritative reference book that a stranger to Connemara and angling researchers of the future will reach out to.

Part 1 (275 pages) includes a detailed cohesive account of each of the fisheries, including a brief history of their ownership, an outline of the fisheries themselves, each system, angling literature references and Paddy’s particular insights. Part 2 covers the angler’s approach to fishing in Connemara, which is mostly loughs with some river fishing.There is solid advice on fishing methods, including wet fly, dry fly, dapping, evening and night fishing.There are suggestions on flies, with large and detailed photographs of many of the patterns now used.

It contains more than 200 quality photographs, several of them scenic views of the loughs spread across two pages. It includes two previously unpublished photographs of Kingsmill Moore himself. There are short, easy to understand and educative chapters on the biology of Connemara sea-trout and inevitably, the impact of impact of sea-lice from commercial fish farming; as well as a list of the largest sea- trout caught in Connemara.

The book concludes with several useful indices including large Connemara sea-trout, literary references particular to each fishery, bibliography and scientific sources.

Every salmon and sea-trout angler must have this book in their collection. It is a truly wonderful book, and I believe “the ould judge” himself would agree with me.The first printing sold out in just two weeks, to show how quickly that word has got around about its pedigree.