Your favourite fishing books

coolwings

How do I find out ..... the question just comes up again and again.
So I thought it might be good to have a thread where we list our favourite fishing books to help us pick up on what others know (that we have not yet learned), and then "fill the knowledge base gaps" so to speak.

No consideration to books in print in just this first post. This is my best of all time list for certain sub categories of angling knowledge, where it's worth the hassle of getting it if that's your type of angling. Some may only be available from secondhand booksellers, but the newer ones are in the shops, or online. Where it's a downloadable pdf a google might get it for you for free.

Info, Insight & Practise:
Salmon fly fishing masterclass: "Flying Salmon" by G.P.R Balfour Kinnear
Traditional lake fly fishing: "Trout from a Boat" by Dennis Moss
Trout habits, feeding and behaviour: "Brown trout in Ireland" by Dr Martin O'Grady
Irish Sea Fishing: "The Sea Angler Afloat & Ashore" by Desmond Brennan
Trolling & understanding structure: "Spoonplugging" by Buck Perry
Irish Coarse fishing locations: "Coarse Fishing in Ireland" by Hugh Gough
Lake trout fly fishing: "Fly Fishing Still Waters for Trophy Trout" by Denny Rickards

Angling inner thoughts - for sheer reading pleasure:
"Casting At The Sun The Reflections Of A Carp Fisher" by Chris Yates

Please add your own to the list.

yank_in_eire

For a bunch of good general purpose fly patterns: Good Flies and How They Got That Way by John Geirach

And for pure comedy when you've blanked all day: Never Sniff a Gift Fish and They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? by Pat McManus

Doc Farrell

i want to answer this properly but can't right now. i'll make a list during the week and i want to google that list above.

'trout bum' by john Gierach is my favourite.

'rod and line' by arthur ransome as narrated by the great Michael Hordern is a heartbreaker.

the accidental angler by charles rangeley wilson, a little cracker of a read, and the bbc programme that he did was great.

i have 2 dozen others but i haven't either read them or finished them, i'll list them during the week.

the 3 above will not be improved on, only joined alongside as the finest.

btw medlar press is an angling book publisher whose website is definitely worth a visit.

greatest shame: i have a dozen irish titles i havent read including ' a man may fish' by t.c. kingsmill moore, one of the most famous angling titles. that is in the top 10 of the 200 titles (not all fishing thank god) i have that i need to read this year.

will finish list later, thanks coolwings for urs.

igotone

Fly Fishing - JR Harteley

J. Ramone

For pure readig enjoyment, two classics by Irish authors;

Fishing and Thinking - AA Luce
A Man May Fish - TC Kingsmill-Moore

For general reference info on game fishing or fly tying/selection in Ireland I consider Peter O'Reilly's books to be as good as any.

Zzippy

"Salmon Fishing" and "Sea Trout Fishing" both by Hugh Falkus, fantastic reads and great information.
"A Man May Fish" by T.C. Kingsmill Moore.
"In Search of Silver" a collection of short stories about salmon fishing in various countries, really great book.
"Hooked on Bass" by Vaughan and Ladle.

coolwings

Excellent suggestions lads, my reading list is filling up.

Good novel about the fishing life:
A River runs Through it, by Norman Maclean

Insights into river trout fishing and how they see the fly underwater:
The Trout and the Fly, by Goddard and Clarke

Online summary of knowledge on the biology of the brown trout :
Brown Trout (Salmo trutta): A Technical Conservation Assessment by Laura Belica, Prepared for the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, Species Conservation Project
Link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/projects/scp/assessments/browntrout.pdf

Enjoy

ironbluedun

gentlemen i know this is an old thread but i have to mention 'tying flies in the irish style' by EJ Malone, an excellent book for anyome interested in irish fly tying style and irish fly fishing.
'A man may fish' is the best irish book narrowly beating O Gorman 'the practise of angling in ireland' into second place.

coolwings

Some more ....

Specimen Hunting the underlying skills and philosophy:
Still Water Angling by Richard Walker

Modern Specimen Hunting:
"Tench" by Len Head
"Catching Big Tench" Len Arbery
"Carp Sense" by Jim Gibbonson (or just about any other book by Jim Gibbonson or Kevin Maddocks)

THE 1

For me the top book would be "Trout from a boat" by Dennis Moss, its a brillant read and a book you will go back to time and time again.

ButcherOfNog

Tench - Len Head
A Time for Tench - Chris Turnbull
Casting at the Sun - Chris Yates
The Complete Book of the Roach - Dr Mark Everard

firephish

Doc Farrell wrote: »

'trout bum' by john Gierach is my favourite.

the accidental angler by charles rangeley wilson, a little cracker of a read, and the bbc programme that he did was great.

In a similar vein The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane is a great read.

Doc Farrell

especially the first chapter set in ireland!

i'm waiting on another half dozen titles ordered from www.betterworldbooks.com by John Gierach. his writing style is like Mark Twain, more going on than first appears.

I'm building up few more titles for the winter and will mention them after i've read'em.

i'm a huge Ray Mears fan, the bushcraft stuff i love. anyway i just finished Ray Mears Goes Walkabout about the pioneering adventurers in Australia. Not enough bushcraft in my opinion. anyway if anyone here is a big fan of his they can have my copy, just pm me and i'll put it in the post once i pm you back for your address. i'll be honest, its not a great book, so only take it if you are a genuine fan of his.

okedoke

For great writing:
Thomas McGuane: The Longest Silence, outstanding writing
Instructional
Bob Wyatt: Trout Hunting: The Pursuit of Happiness

two great books


steve

Doc Farrell

just ordered the trout hunting title for a fiver online. damn u sir!

no one likes Ray Mears? that book is still available, decided that if u want it u have to name the kirk douglas movie about the ww2 norwegians who ray mears made a documentary about

or the name of the Polish brothers who fought the Nazi's that Mears made a brilliant documentary about and was probably not acknowledged for in the recent hollywood telling.

Steffano2002

I'm reading "River Fly Fishing - The Complete Guide" by Peter Lapsley and I find it a great book when you need to know pretty much everything there is to know about fly fishing in rivers (as the name suggests!).

He's english and speak of rivers in the UK a lot but the man knows his stuff! Would recommend for novice anglers.

ironbluedun

'The great trout and salmon loughs of ireland' by bill rawlings, 2002. good read for the game fisher if you are into course give it a miss.

The Black Oil

Some good suggestions here, ordered a few for Christmas at the weekend so hopefully they'll arrive on time. My dad has a few Peter O'Reilly ones from the 1990s so I went for his more recent one: Loughs of Ireland: A Flyfisher's Guide.

SeaFields

My buddy sent me in the direction of bookdepository.co.uk last week as I was looking for something unrelated to angling but when I checked fishing books there were thousands! Seriously cheap and free shipping. Alas I have bought way too much off the internet lately to buy more stuff but could be worth a look for ye fishy book worms

The Black Oil

Yep, used them before and the Peter O' Reilly book arrived this morning.

The Black Oil

All arrived safe and sound this morning and they're now wrapped. Phew!

Ding Dong

Steffano2002 wrote: »

I'm reading "River Fly Fishing - The Complete Guide" by Peter Lapsley and I find it a great book when you need to know pretty much everything there is to know about fly fishing in rivers (as the name suggests!).

He's english and speak of rivers in the UK a lot but the man knows his stuff! Would recommend for novice anglers.

My Favourite book too. Less intense then "Trout Hunting" and more applicable to our rivers. After the golden pages ad, Lapsley did release a book called Fly Fishing under the name of JR Hartely. Its hard to get (like the ad) but there are a few on ebay, but every time I set a reserve for it, the price way exceeds that! He Did it tongue in cheek but it sold way more than he thought it ever would. little trivia for ya!