THE ONLINE EDITION
SEA TROUT NIGHTS was first published by John Gray as a hardback book in 2020. This revised online edition can now be read here free of charge.
SEA TROUT NIGHTS by John Gray is a book on sea trout fishing, with the focus on night fly fishing for sea trout on Scottish rivers.
Fly fishing for sea trout through summer nights on British rivers is a very special pastime, unlike any other branch of game fishing and practised by a relatively small band of enthusiasts. Accordingly, in comparison to the wealth of literature published over the past century or more on the subjects of trout fishing and salmon fishing, a single shelf of a collector’s bookcase might comfortably accommodate the lion’s share of books written over the years specifically on Sea Trout Fishing. Noteworthy among those sea trout fishing books are volumes by authors such as Hamish Stuart, R.C. Bridgett, Jeffery Bluett, F.W. Holiday, T.C. Kingsmill Moore, Charles C. McLaren, Jock Scott, Charles Bingham, Graeme Harris and Moc Morgan, James Waltham, Steffan Jones and, most famous of them all, Hugh Falkus. Published in October 2020, the year of the Lockdown, SEA TROUT NIGHTS by John Gray is the most recent potential addition to the sea trout fisher’s bookshelf.SEA TROUT NIGHTS
Half a Century of Night Fishing on Scottish Rivers
John Gray
SEA TROUT NIGHTS, published as a hardback book by John Gray in 2020, extends to some 250 pages with more than 170 illustrations, maps and black and white photographs, all taken by the author. This online edition, revised with colour photographs, was published in 2025. The author caught his first sea trout in the nineteen sixties, sparking an enduring passion that still keeps him from his bed on summer nights. In PART ONE of this book, we follow him in his search for sea trout over some four decades on some of the best of our Scottish sea trout rivers, including the Endrick, Earn, Allan, Border Esk and Spey. He even makes a short but memorable foray to Wales along the way. In PART TWO, he draws on a lifetime’s experience to guide the novice on his quest for that first very special sea trout to be caught on the fly at night. He gives sound advice on Where and When we might fish; how we might be affected by Water and Weather; the Ways and Means we might employ on the river; with a final detailed and well-illustrated chapter on Flies and Fly Tying, including some of the author’s own original and highly innovative, yet simply made, lures that have served him well for many years, including the Needle Fly and Needle Tube Fly.Sea Trout Nights Book Contents
The book includes the following chapters:
PART TWO – HOW TO CATCH A SEA TROUT
As the title suggests, the focus of SEA TROUT NIGHTS is on river fly fishing for sea trout at night. The author describes his experiences of nighttime fly fishing for sea trout on some of the most productive Scottish sea trout rivers, such as the Spey, Earn and Border Esk, and offers practical guidelines on where, when and how to catch the elusive sea-trout at night on British rivers, with a useful chapter on flies and fly tying. The chapter on “Where and When” includes information on the fishing waters of the many accessible angling clubs and associations offering sea trout fishing throughout Scotland, England and Wales, and the best times to fish them. The “Water & Weather” chapter offers advice on optimum night fishing conditions, while sea trout fishing tackle and tactics are covered in “Ways and Means”. Last but not least is the chapter on “Flies and Fly Tying”, describing the origin and development of some of the author’s own innovative and simply tied sea trout flies such as the Needle Tube Fly, which has proven so effective over the years, both here and abroad, for salmon as well as sea trout. This is a sea trout fishing book which gives a rare insight into Scottish sea trout fishing, nighttime river fly fishing in particular.
First edition printed hardback copies of SEA TROUT NIGHTS may be purchased at Coch-y-Bonddu Books