Your favourite fishing books

slowburner · 09-12-2011 9:44am #1

Now that the trout and salmon season is closed, what better way to pass some time in the evenings then by dipping into a favourite old book.

My favourite has to be T.C. Kingsmill-Moore's A Man May Fish. His description of Jamesie (a ghillie on the Corrib) is one of the most moving stories written about Ireland in the early days of the state.
There is also a magnificent description of the style of Irish flies - impressionist works of art tied from whatever materials came to hand. Jamesie believed trout could be enticed more by flies with subtle hues tied in fur and feather rather than 'Soldiers' coats' - as he called them: flies tied with floss and tinsel.

Another favourite is A.A.Luce's Fishing and Thinking. He was professor of Philosophy in Trinity and his book is a wonderful examination of some of the more esoteric aspects of angling.
Luce ended his days after he was stabbed on a Dublin street.

My all time favourite, and a very rare book, is Peard's A Year of Liberty. This was written in the second half of the 19th C. It is a tale of a wealthy English doctor who took a year off to go fishing all over Ireland. It is hard to know if some of his captures are true accounts. He describes a day fishing on Lough Neagh, for example, where he boats more than a dozen trout all between 10 and 12 lbs.

There is a remarkable footnote to the preface;
"It is no longer necessary to carry a revolver whilst fishing in Connemara"

Changed times, indeed!

ironbluedun · 09-12-2011 10:45am

In an Irish context fishing and thinking and a man may fish are both classics.
An even older classic is o gorman the practice of angling in ireland, written in the 1850s even though now historical it is still a very interesting read on all aspects of angling of the times. In it he describes how one angler caught 47 salmon in one day at Ballyshannon and he describes it as 'good' fishing.

more recent the game fisher in ireland by colin mc kelvie written in 1989 is a very well written book and a very good read.

Harris An Anglers Entomology.

there are loads of others, brown trout in ireland by edward fahy also comes to mind.

some of the older angling guide books are also interesting particularly the old ITB guides and moston's anglers pocket guide written in 1910. Very different times indeed.

ironbluedun · 09-12-2011 10:48am

slowburner wrote: »

Luce ended his days after he was stabbed on a Dublin street.

i did not know that.........:eek:

slowburner · 09-12-2011 1:02pm

Another great old book is Hi-Regan's How and Where to fish in Ireland 1886 (my own copy is 1906)
You can download a copy here

I love this passage on "Mrs. White's River" which is the Owendoher, a tributary of the Dodder and still a prolific trout stream.

"Mrs. White's River...at Kilakee hill, overhanging Dublin, holds trout, and a few of them are corpulent. One of them exhausted all the wiles of the best Dublin fishers for some seasons, and was then caught foul by a novice. the trout had no eyes. The locals called him Gibraltar, "because he never was tuk," the girls "the ould batchelor"

I am very lucky to have a copy of David Street's Fishing in Wild Places 1989.
Sadly the book went out of print after only a few hundred copies.
It has some wonderful descriptions of sea trout fishing in Connemara in the '50s and '60s.
The chapter entitled 'Athry, Gowla and Ghosts in Connemara' brings back many happy memories. I well remember seeing the colossal catches of the old partnership of Street and Scorer in one of the district's catch returns.
If they weren't catching, nobody was going to.
Street was an interesting character, he served in the Royal Marines in WW2 until 1947, resigned his commission and was later ordained as a priest.

experimenter · 09-12-2011 1:35pm

"Trout from a Boat by Denis Moss"

Bizzum · 09-12-2011 3:07pm

Lord of the Rings triology by Tolkien
Ninteen Eighty Four by Orwell

slowburner · 09-12-2011 4:39pm

Bizzum wrote: »

Lord of the Rings triology by Tolkien
Ninteen Eighty Four by Orwell

Great books indeed, but fishing books was really the intention of the thread. I should have mentioned this in the title.

skipz · 09-12-2011 4:47pm

A pikers progression, by John Watson.

http://http://www.anglebooks.com/product.php/27401/a-pikers-progression-

Quality book and made me a better pike angler, well along with Mike Brown of coarse;)

slowburner · 10-12-2011 11:21am

ironbluedun wrote: »

In an Irish context fishing and thinking and a man may fish are both classics.
An even older classic is o gorman the practice of angling in ireland, written in the 1850s even though now historical it is still a very interesting read on all aspects of angling of the times. In it he describes how one angler caught 47 salmon in one day at Ballyshannon and he describes it as 'good' fishing.

more recent the game fisher in ireland by colin mc kelvie written in 1989 is a very well written book and a very good read.

Harris An Anglers Entomology.

there are loads of others, brown trout in ireland by edward fahy also comes to mind.

some of the older angling guide books are also interesting particularly the old ITB guides and moston's anglers pocket guide written in 1910. Very different times indeed.

I love old angling books. Sometimes I wonder if the fishing really was that good - I think it probably was.

Dochealth · 10-12-2011 11:05pm

slowburner wrote: »

ironbluedun wrote: »

In an Irish context fishing and thinking and a man may fish are both classics.
An even older classic is o gorman the practice of angling in ireland, written in the 1850s even though now historical it is still a very interesting read on all aspects of angling of the times. In it he describes how one angler caught 47 salmon in one day at Ballyshannon and he describes it as 'good' fishing.

more recent the game fisher in ireland by colin mc kelvie written in 1989 is a very well written book and a very good read.

Harris An Anglers Entomology.

there are loads of others, brown trout in ireland by edward fahy also comes to mind.

some of the older angling guide books are also interesting particularly the old ITB guides and moston's anglers pocket guide written in 1910. Very different times indeed.

I love old angling books. Sometimes I wonder if the fishing really was that good - I think it probably was.

Hard to argue with 'Man may Fish'.
Sidney Spencer has written several good books on lake fishing in Donegal... Titles escape me for moment...

fisherking · 11-12-2011 11:04am

Sea trout by falkus
OR fishing fortunes and misfortunes by gd laurd which encouraged me to take to the fly

Dochealth wrote: »

slowburner wrote: »

ironbluedun wrote: »

In an Irish context fishing and thinking and a man may fish are both classics.
An even older classic is o gorman the practice of angling in ireland, written in the 1850s even though now historical it is still a very interesting read on all aspects of angling of the times. In it he describes how one angler caught 47 salmon in one day at Ballyshannon and he describes it as 'good' fishing.

more recent the game fisher in ireland by colin mc kelvie written in 1989 is a very well written book and a very good read.

Harris An Anglers Entomology.

there are loads of others, brown trout in ireland by edward fahy also comes to mind
some of the older angling guide books are also interesting particularly the old ITB guides and moston's anglers pocket guide written in 1910. Very different times indeed.

I love old angling books. Sometimes I wonder if the fishing really was that good - I think it probably was.

Hard to argue with 'Man may Fish'.
Sidney Spencer has written several good books on lake fishing in Donegal... Titles escape me for moment...

slowburner · 11-12-2011 11:31am

Hugh Falkus' books are fantastic works, especially the book on salmon. I always had doubts about some of his thinking on sea trout and wrote to him on the subject, many years ago. I have his reply stuck in between the back pages.

The Art of Lake Fishing (With Sunk Fly)
Sidney Spencer, 1934

Brilliant, brilliant book - way ahead of its time. He was probably one of the first thinking anglers to recognise the importance of chironomids in the trout's diet.

fisherking · 11-12-2011 1:50pm

Wow
What was the gist of the reply?

slowburner wrote: »

Hugh Falkus' books are fantastic works, especially the book on salmon. I always had doubts about some of his thinking on sea trout and wrote to him on the subject, many years ago. I have his reply stuck in between the back pages.

The Art of Lake Fishing (With Sunk Fly)
Sidney Spencer, 1934

Brilliant, brilliant book - way ahead of its time. He was probably one of the first thinking anglers to recognise the importance of chironomids in the trout's diet.

slowburner · 11-12-2011 3:31pm

fisherking wrote: »

Wow
What was the gist of the reply?

The gist of the reply, was that he agreed that his Cumbrian sea trout were an entirely different sub-species to those on the western Irish seaboard. He agreed that the methods successful in Cumbria didn't apply to the western Irish stocks and probably vice versa.
He felt that the large sea trout he successfully targeted in a Donegal sea lough, were 'passers by'. They were probably not destined for neighbouring rivers.
I think modern research might support this theory of large sea trout visiting our shores from other fisheries, but I'm not 100% sure.

Bizzum · 11-12-2011 6:42pm

slowburner wrote: »

The gist of the reply, was that he agreed that his Cumbrian sea trout were an entirely different sub-species to those on the western Irish seaboard. He agreed that the methods successful in Cumbria didn't apply to the western Irish stocks and probably vice versa.
He felt that the large sea trout he successfully targeted in a Donegal sea lough, were 'passers by'. They were probably not destined for neighbouring rivers.
I think modern research might support this theory of large sea trout visiting our shores from other fisheries, but I'm not 100% sure.

The Celtic Sea Trout Project is currently up and running and with time will answer some of the questions!

http://www.celticseatrout.com/about/programme.htm

slowburner · 11-12-2011 7:34pm

Bizzum wrote: »

The Celtic Sea Trout Project is currently up and running and with time will answer some of the questions!

http://www.celticseatrout.com/about/programme.htm

Looks very interesting. It would be nice to see the results of this project.
I was involved in a project some time ago, investigating the effects of sudden exposure of brown trout to salt water.
All I heard that the trout were unaffected by the transition, they even thrived. Beyond that, I never heard anything more of the research.

fisherking · 11-12-2011 8:21pm

Yes the very fact they take so freely during the day in the west is strange....
Is it coincidence the dargle produces the goods sizewise in Ireland
I have heard of a few good ones from the liffey too....and the dodder....
They must come from the same sewin pot?

slowburner wrote: »

fisherking wrote: »

Wow
What was the gist of the reply?

The gist of the reply, was that he agreed that his Cumbrian sea trout were an entirely different sub-species to those on the western Irish seaboard. He agreed that the methods successful in Cumbria didn't apply to the western Irish stocks and probably vice versa.
He felt that the large sea trout he successfully targeted in a Donegal sea lough, were 'passers by'. They were probably not destined for neighbouring rivers.
I think modern research might support this theory of large sea trout visiting our shores from other fisheries, but I'm not 100% sure.

Bizzum · 11-12-2011 8:22pm

slowburner wrote: »

Looks very interesting. It would be nice to see the results of this project.

CSTP was only launched last year. The results will be published for all to see. I'm sure they will make interesting reading!

The use of DNA testing in fish populations has come onstream now and some very interesting results will be thrown up in the forthcoming years!

slowburner · 12-12-2011 10:29am

fisherking wrote: »

Yes the very fact they take so freely during the day in the west is strange....
Is it coincidence the dargle produces the goods sizewise in Ireland
I have heard of a few good ones from the liffey too....and the dodder....
They must come from the same sewin pot?

Edward Fahy's theory on this is that the east coast sea trout are part of a longer living Irish sea strain. The Welsh and Cumbrian sea trout are part of this same strain.
There has been some genetic analysis carried out on this subject but I'm not up to date with it.
He also proposed that feeding is richer in the Irish sea - so, longer lived fish + better feeding = bigger fish.
There's no doubt that there are mighty sea trout in the Dargle and some other east coast rivers.
Don't forget that the current record fish for the republic of Ireland was caught in the Avoca river last July.
But then there is the paradox of the Slaney sea trout - they have access to rich Irish sea feeding grounds but return an average size similar to the west coast populations.
And the further paradox of the Waterville sea trout which have access to Atlantic feeding but return an average size closer to the Irish sea strain.
Fahy has his theory on the reason for the existence of this proven, unique genetic anomaly - I have my doubts that this theory only applies to the Waterville fish.

slowburner · 12-12-2011 10:34am

Bizzum wrote: »

CSTP was only launched last year. The results will be published for all to see. I'm sure they will make interesting reading!

The use of DNA testing in fish populations has come onstream now and some very interesting results will be thrown up in the forthcoming years!

That's good news.
Understanding and managing fisheries according to genetic identity is one of the more important issues facing fish stocks today. It is an aspect of fisheries management which curiously, the Victorians were well aware of but somehow got overlooked in more recent times.

SeaFields · 12-12-2011 10:36pm

I don't have many fishing books to be honest but i never throw away a fishing magazine. Have a massive pile of them at this stage. There's a few always kept in the bathroom too for, eh, passing the time.

TimMac · 13-12-2011 2:27am

To Sea and Back: The Heroic Life of the Atlantic Salmon by Richard Shelton

Fantastic Read often while in the same position as Seafields ahem

PMU · 18-12-2011 2:49pm

fishing talk.gifford pinchott
fishing in america 100years ago,game and salt. his stories of harpooning dolphin shows how times have changed

slowburner · 18-12-2011 5:01pm

SeaFields wrote: »

I don't have many fishing books to be honest but i never throw away a fishing magazine. Have a massive pile of them at this stage. There's a few always kept in the bathroom too for, eh, passing the time.

I think the advantage of magazines, is that you are kept up to date with current events, fishery news and developments in fishing tackle.
Books, on the other hand, especially old ones, make you reflect on the current status of fish stocks relative to bygone days.
It is a major truth that "There is nothing new in fishing".

premiercad · 18-12-2011 10:26pm

"Big Fish" by Trevor Housby my first fishing book back when i was young, had to go fishing straight after reading it!

Nymphs and the trout- frank saywer

Fly fishing in ireland - Peter O reilly

SeaFields · 19-12-2011 11:12am

Actually I lied. It has become such a part of my fly tying that I totally forgot but I have Peter O Reilly's Flies of Ireland for a long time now. I won it at a junior fly fishing competetion years and years go and its even signed by the author. I have had many many creations come out of it to my vice.

Delboy5 · 19-12-2011 4:18pm

The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike, very interesting book, got it on ebay a few years back...

"The Doomsday Book of Mammoth Pike
Fred Buller's titanic masterpiece is an unrivalled piece of angling history which will fascinate those who are fascinated by pike angling and which anglers of every persuasion will be thrilled by.

Collecting the tales of capture of the 250 largest pike caught in the British Isles up until 1971 (plus other monsters from the European continent), researching their history, and personally verifying wherever possible FB has accessed and faithfully recorded a monumental treasury of fact and, deliberately, some fable.

Each capture is examined for veracity. Details are given wherever possible and cross checks and confusions made and dismembered. Locations have been photographed and any snippets of background ferreted out and set before the reader. Sadly a lot of this information and evidence will no longer exist and so this book is the best record or irreplaceable artefacts associated with the capture of big pike.

My only critscism is that the book includes a number of specimens not caught by fair angling (netting, trapping and shooting amongst others). Perhaps this will be rectified when someone is dedicated enough to update the work by which the author will always be remembered and for which he will eternally be thanked by anglers everywhere."

slowburner · 19-12-2011 8:49pm

PMU wrote: »

fishing talk.gifford pinchott
fishing in america 100years ago,game and salt. his stories of harpooning dolphin shows how times have changed

They haven't changed in Japan, sadly
See here

Daroxtar · 21-12-2011 8:50pm

I got this from my Grandad, first edition!! a bit better than Werthers Originals

http://www.amazon.com/McClanes-Standard-Fishing-Encyclopedia-International/dp/B000BMZ048
It is quite simply an unbelievable source of fishing info, even though its nearly 50 years old

blackstairsboy · 25-12-2011 10:50pm

I have a fair collection of fishing and shooting books at this stage but my favourite has to be The Game Angler in Ireland by Dr Ken Whealan. Have it for years but always read back over it and love reading the passages in it as well. The ould lad is after signing me up for a two day course with him up in Bagnelstown in February for a Christmas present and really looking forward to it.:)