Favorite Fishing Books

Started by spc7669, July 05, 2016, 11:41:00 PM

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Sonnett

Glad you mentioned Lucas on Bass Fishing as it was one of the first three books I collected at a young age. The front page of mine (seen here) still thrills me as it did when I was in High School. The other two, by the way, were Robert Page Lincoln's Black Bass Fishing and Ray Bergman's Fresh Water Bass.


happyhooker

Two fiction:

"Big Two-Hearted River", by Ernest Hemmingway;
"Rogue River Feud", by Zane Grey.

Frank

Brewcrafter

"Denizens of the Deep"  Phillip Wylie.  He wrote a lot of fiction, but this is all straightforward non-fiction, and a lot about the early days of the IGFA.
A favorite that I love that is dog eared - "Certainly More Than You Want to Know About Fishes of the Pacific Coast".  Kind of expensive, the size of a phone book, and basically, this is a college level textbook.  The photography is excellent, the humor is to my taste, and if you really, really want to know everything there is to know about a certain species - this book has it.
I am currently reading "Hemingway's Boat".  Given that his relationship with Pilar lasted longer than any of his 4 marriages, this could be interesting but only just started it. - John

happyhooker

When I was a kid (10-13 yrs.) I read all kinds of "boys" books--Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jim Kjelgaard books, etc.--but one that stood out (and that I can't remember the author or title of--help?) was about 3 brothers who went up to Seboomook, Maine and took a canoe trip thru the rivers/lakes toward Mt. Katahdin, dodging mysterious saboteurs of their canoe and catching fish like no tomorrow. I don't think I learned much about fishing, but have since always wondered what it would be like to take such a trip (without the saboteurs).

Some non-fiction books I've liked:

Dale Clemons' rod building books;
"Secrets of Successful Fishing", by A. J. McClane;
"101 Bass Catching Secrets" by Roland Martin.

Frank

Sharkb8

I got this book in the early 80s from a local fishing shop which was put together by local fishermen. I like how they hand drew the maps.A lot of the spots people don't fish anymore but I have fished them and the fish are still there .A book I would like to get and read is Maneater man.Alf Dean the world 's greatest shark hunter. By Colin Thiele. Who wrote books like Bluefin and stormboy.

happyhooker

I took Wally15s recommendation and got ahold of a copy of "The Old Man and the Boy".  If you like the outdoors and believe that being self-reliant is one of the most admirable character traits a person can have, you will feel right at home with this book.  Too bad kids (and people in general) probably can't/don't live this way any longer.  It sure might be good for the kids.  I live in a rural area, and other than a rare farm kid, maybe, there are no kids growing up anywhere close to the way the Boy did anymore.

Frank

philaroman

Quote from: happyhooker on January 17, 2020, 08:13:09 PM
...If you like the outdoors and believe that being self-reliant is one of the most admirable character traits a person can have, you will feel right at home with this book...

Frank

don't know if his book is any good, but I love the old Dick Proenneke documentaries (film; many hrs.):

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Dick+Proenneke+-+One+Man%27s+Alaska&form=EDNTHB&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&msnews=1&plvar=0&refig=10394916466046d0d83fd49fd4cd31d9&PC=HCTS

Wally15

Quote from: happyhooker on January 17, 2020, 08:13:09 PM
I took Wally15s recommendation and got ahold of a copy of "The Old Man and the Boy".  If you like the outdoors and believe that being self-reliant is one of the most admirable character traits a person can have, you will feel right at home with this book.  Too bad kids (and people in general) probably can't/don't live this way any longer.  It sure might be good for the kids.  I live in a rural area, and other than a rare farm kid, maybe, there are no kids growing up anywhere close to the way the Boy did anymore.

Frank
Glad you liked it. He wrote a sequel to the book (The Old Man's Boy Grows Older) about 10 years later that isn't as good a read (imo).
I just got back from NC attending the funeral of my 93 yo aunt. Her husband raised beagles and loved rabbit hunting. At about age 13 I missed a rabbit with my trusty single shot 410 and slightly wounded one of his beagles. He reminded me of that incident for the next 50 years.
How I miss those "formative years". You hardly see any rabbits in most areas of the Southeast anymore. Feral cats and stray dogs have decimated the population. Plus loss of habitat as well.
GA Mike
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
"Fire and Rain"
James Taylor

Lingwendil

#38
Quote from: festus on January 05, 2020, 10:22:50 PMMy first was A Guide to Fresh and Salt-Water Fishing, in the Golden Guide series. Cost--$1.00 in the early to mid-1960s. It was full of color pics and plenty of information for a 12 year old novice.


I have a nice old copy of this, looks just like the cover you posted. I bought it for $2 at a used book store (in 2003) while in Tennessee with my Church High School youth group. It's honestly one of my favorites, beautiful illustrations, pretty moderately in depth, and made me go from a monkey-see monkey-do 16 year old to a guy who actually knew what he was doing when it came to fishing. I love it so much that when the binding was failing I asked the school librarian to repair the binding for me, as it was loose. It's one of the treasures in my collection, alongside some vintage copies of some of Tolkien's works.

Love to see it mentioned here  :)


A very silly, ridiculous book that is full of nonsense and only sort of fishing related (and still highly recommended, if you find it cheap) is "how to fish good" by Milford "Stanley" Poltroon-

Levelwind Lunatic! Cheap Bastard!

Penn and Pflueger nutjob!

Eyes out for: Pflueger Rocket, vintage 4-1 ratio or better spinning reels (especially metal-bodied and ultralight!)

Tiddlerbasher

A book I read as a young teenager (13/14 yrs old) - The Compleat Angler or the Comtemplative Man's Recreation
"First study to be quiet" - The words still echo down the centuries.

Current reading River Monsters - Jeremy Wade. I've seen all the TV series but the book is better ;)

Another book by the same guy (plus Paul Boote):

A bit of a cult book and a little pricey but still worthy of a read - I have a signed mint hard back - BUT I don't want to thumb through it and spoil its 'virgin' status. So i'm looking for a 'tatty' paperback copy to read.



Penn Chronology

Quotebook I read as a young teenager (13/14 yrs old) - The Compleat Angler or the Comtemplative Man's Recreation
"First study to be quiet" - The words still echo down the centuries.

I love it when I hear someone mention this book. This is the true bible of fishing books. I make mention of it in my Ocean City book. Here is some history about this work,

"""          Izaak Walton was a 17th Century author. He penned many works but his most famous work was titled "The Complete Angler". The story of Izaak Walton could easily take over this piece, so, suffice to say, Mr Walton had an amazingly long life, especially when you consider the times he lived in England. He was born in 1594 (approximately) and died in 1683. His work, The Complete Angler, was a study of sport fishing from his own personal experiences and experiences of some of his friends. It was first published in 1653. For the next 25 years, Izaak Walton continued to add to his original work. Many updated editions were written by Mr. Walton before his death. The fifth edition of The Complete Angler was written in 1676 and had grown the work from its original length of 13 chapters to 21 chapters, but his death did not mark the end of his work in the marketplace. The Complete Angler has never been out of print. I do not know how many editions of this work exist but over 300 years after the passing of Mr. Walton, The Complete Angler is still being published, as a matter of fact, the last edition I know of was released in 2003 and is currently for sale online. Izaak Walton was a pioneer in terms of documenting his fishing techniques and satisfying feelings a fisherman may have about our sport."""

oc1

I have the 2005 edition of Walton and have read parts of it.  It is really difficult to read.  Walton did not write in Old English, but it may have been something like Anglo Norman which would be a like a foreign language to us.  Somewhere along the line the language was updated to modern English.  Now, we can understand the words but the writing style is nothing like what is found today.  So, it is still difficult and very tedious to wade through.
-steve

Lingwendil

I just ordered a 1955 copy of The Compleat Angler on Biblio for $3.89 shipped. Thanks for the recommendation- the language alone that I could see makes for an interesting read. I may have to add a few more things from this thread to the wishlist as well :)
Levelwind Lunatic! Cheap Bastard!

Penn and Pflueger nutjob!

Eyes out for: Pflueger Rocket, vintage 4-1 ratio or better spinning reels (especially metal-bodied and ultralight!)

oc1

#43
You might as start at the beginning with A Treatise of Fishing with an Angle by the saintly Dame Juliana Berners, about 1400.  I particularly enjoyed the section on rod building.
-steve

https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Fishing-Angle-Juliana-Berners-ebook/dp/B00SU3XY8Y

Benni3

The cat likes when I pull this book out,,,,,, ;D