best fishing book ever

looking for opinions on the best fishing book ever

I'm reading "Out of the Blue" by Chris Yates at the moment. Although Yates is best known as a freshwater angler, this book combines his recollections of early fishing adventures with his brother while on family holidays by the seaside and his more recent, renewed interest in the sea.

I was reading "Out of the Blue" this morning on the way into work and I found myself grinning at his description of catching a bass on a surface lure. He has managed to capture exactly what it is that makes surface lure fishing so exciting. As an accomplished freshwater angler, his perspective on the sea and sea angling is very refreshing.

1. hooked on bass
2. bass fishing on shore and sea

You can also buy bass fishing calendars - nice. If you look at amazon you will see last years one. While I'm at it there is also a bass monopoly game but i think its american.


Damned bass obsession!

I have said it before but you should try Tom Mcguane
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h ... as+McGuane

The Longest silence is a collection of stories
92 in the shade was made into a movie with Peter Fonda and is set amongst the skiff guides of the Florida Keys

Not really a book more an article/letter from Hunter S. Thompson. Who is also my favourite writter.

Man that guy was wired, but a genius at the same time.
something like:
There was a whale at the side of the boat. I asked the captain if we could bludgeon it to death with my pistol. For some reason he wasn't very happy at that suggestion

Not really a fishing book as such but a few years back got a book called a jerk on the line,very nice read about an boy growing up to become a man and how his fishing experiences changed as he went along in life

Ernest Hemmingway, "The Old Man and the Sea". (Is it really a fishing book though?)

for me it has to be Moby-Dick, Herman Melville's metaphorical novel about the legendary white sperm whale and a equally favoured read of mine is The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, about the battle between an old, experienced Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin, the fish of his lifetime.

I don't know if it is the best fishing book ever but certainly one of my favourite fishing books has always been Ken Whelan's book The Angler in Ireland, its a fantastic and extremely informative book. That said Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is a great novel, actually I must dig it out and have a read of it over Christmas but I know what you mean about whether or not its a fishing book, good book all the same.

"The third breaker" by Bob Moss.

Small, Compact, all the techniques & various stories from different Marks around Dingle & environs.

You would read it in two hours, always nice to have as a reference for when you're down that part of the country, and I popped into Bob to have my copies signed & got the up to the minute news on where was fishing (Caught 2 specimen wrasse in two casts that day from the mark Bob put me on )

The man also pioneered surf fishing for bass in Ireland & holds the record for trigger fish, he broke it twice in 40 minutes last year I beleive.

http://www.iol.ie/~bobmoss/

I know it's not sea angling, but "salmon fishing" by Hugh Falkus is one of the best purchases I ever made.

I can accredit landing at least 20 salmon solely to this book. My total tally would be around 50.

"Fishing in wild places" by David Street,Ive a collection of about twenty books. and it is hard for a book to make it into this collection,"fishing in wild places" is in number one spot!Never to be lent,treated with the reverence it deserves,and read on a cold winters night sitting by the fire,with a whiskey,dreaming about the next time ill go fishing!

A classis Hugh stoker book ''sea angling hotspots'' is also a great read. Great stories of his experiences fishing in both england and Ireland excellent book.

hugh falkus sea trout (not saltwater) but still a spectacurely enjoyable and informative read. everytime i read it i get an instant urge to grab the fly rod and head out. the other is the recently released BASS AND B.A.S.S. anyone vaguely interested in bass fishing should read it. nice short concise stories/articles.bought it about 4 months and think i read it in about a day and a half, one of these books that once you pick it up its hard to put down..

me thinks hugh falkus "sea trout fishing" just about shades it for me anyways, a lifetime of meticulous record keeping, every time i pick it up i end up losing an hour

Don't forget The Sea Angler Afloat & Ashore by Des Brennan.

My favourite book is Clive Gammons "Salt Water Fishing in Ireland". The book covers a journalist trip Gammon took accompanied by Des Brennan, along the south coast from the Splaugh rock in Wexford to Brandon Bay. Written in the early sixties and now out of print, google anglers bookcase.

For a photographic record of what sea angling was like, "The Guinness Guide to Salt Water Angling" by Brian Harris is hard to beat, and "A Sporting Angler" by Mike Pritchard has many anecdotes and memories old and new on Irish sea angling.

The original "Sea Angler Afloat and Ashore" by Des Brennan has to be the sea anglers classic though, written in an old style but still relevant today.

Happy Christmas to all and tight lines.

Ashley Hayden

My fav book would be."Sea Fishing Properly Explained" by Ian Ball.
i was given a copy when i started sea fishing and think its a cracking wee book for the novice. i lent it to a mate and he has kept it , so i bought a new one of amazon a few weeks ago . No fancy colour pics though, just old style drawings. But it has a permanent place in the bottom of my tackle box and has sorted out more than a few arguments on the beach

My favourite would have to be the Sea Angling Guide compiled by the Inland Fisheries Trust for Bord Failte, published 1961, price two shillings ...a book that I came across by accident and the one I keep going back to. An interesting little reference book that contains some very specific info. on certain marks.
Would have to agree with the previous posters about Des Brennans 'Afloat and Ashore'...definetly one for your collection. Also, another good read is Mike Ladles 'Operation Sea Angler' which you can read free at http://www.mikeladle.com/osa.html

Hugh Falkus - 'Sea Trout Fishing' has been mentioned a few times and I have a hardback second edition that I would like to sell/trade for anyone interested...I'll put it in the for sale section.

"flyfishing" by J.R Hartley.