THE CASE FOR FISHING BOOKS
You can't fish every day -- I know as I've tried. Even if you could, you probably wouldn't enjoy it. Anything becomes routine with enough repetition. Then too, those who don't know history are condemmed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Learning by your own mistakes is okay; learning from the mistakes of others reduces scar tissue! So there are at least two good reasons for reading about your favorite sport besides the chance not to mow the lawn.
Reading builds anticipation of future trips and refreshes recollection of trips past. Reading suggests new, or historic, methods such as deep line drifting that, when modified for boats and tackle of today, still work well. Most of all, reading about fishing offers an armchair pleasure available to all.
Unfortunately, a great many fishermen, and a sizeable percentage of those who write about fishing, simply don't know the classics of the past like Zane Grey's billfishing books, or Joe Brooks' books of the fifties and sixties. As a result, they reinvent the wheel, or rod, with new approaches that were old when women wore their underwear inside their clothing. BASIC FISHING BOOKS
There's so much good material that it's difficult to chose. You can find solid general treatments such as Frank Woolner's 1972 MODERN SALT-WATER SPORT FISHING or regional classics like Philip Wylie's CRUNCH AND DES; STORIES OF FLORIDA FISHING. Wylie's other works, FISH AND TIN FISH, DENISENS OF THE DEEP, THE BIG ONES GET AWAY! or THE BEST OF CRUNCH AND DES all deserve a look. So does Datus Proper's wonderful WHAT THE TROUT SAID. As mentioned above, you can't beat Frank Woolners.
For a good general account of the people that influenced saltwater fishing one book stands out -- my copy is quite tattered from multiple reads! George Reiger's PROFILES IN SALTWATER ANGLING is, as the subtitle suggests "A History of the Sport -- Its People and Places, Tackle and Technique. George, well-known as a writer on conservation subjects, offers unique insights into the development of saltwater fishing, a subject that he's known well since childhood. If you can find one of these 1973 classics snap it up! It's worth the price just for chapter 15 "The Gulf Coast -- Yesterday and Today; not to mention the extensive bibliography that formed the basis for my own collection of works on saltwater fishing.
GOOD OLD BOOKS
Some of the most interesting books are quite old. For example, Charles Hallock's 1876 classic CAMP LIFE IN FLORIDA: A HANDBOOK FOR SPORTSMEN AND SETTLERS, tells of a time long past when the redfish outnumbered the tourists in the Sunshine State! Lots of early writers spent time in Florida. James Henshall's CAMPING AND CRUISING IN FLORIDA, from 1884 is typical, and worth the search. Writing styles have certainly changed -- I'm not sure improvement is the word here! -- and titles shortened, since bits like Holder's and David Star Jordan -- the latter a notable early conservationist -- FISH STORIES, ALLEGED AND EXPERIENCED, WITH A LITTLE HISTORY, NATURAL AND UNNATURAL, out in 1909. Some classics are tough to find. Charles Fredrick Holder's Recreations of A Sportsman on the Pacific COAST, a 1910 classic that covers, among other things fly fishing for trout on Southern California's San Luis and San Juan Rivers, makes you want to cry with it's description of pastoral times past.
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