The very name stirs the emotions. The Ferox (Salmo ferox) is one angry brown trout who ate his brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles and simply grew and grew. These are fish of the wildest waters; the lochs of Scotland and loughs of Ireland, where the water runs as deep as a mountain is tall. They are solitary, fearsome predators with a look of chiselled granite. A twenty-pounder is a dream fish, and they grow at least twice as large, though you need a touch of insanity to fish for them. Months, even years, can pass between bites and the endless, luckless searching nibbles at the edges of your soul.
This is true obsession, and no-one describes the madness better than Jon Berry in Beneath the Black Water. A brutally honest, heart-wrenching tale of trout trolling toils.