READING IMPROVES ANGLING

by: L.A. Van Veghel

The advantage of reading fishing books is that you learn the most in depth information. TV shows are often too basic for anglers who are fishing club members, read a lot of fishing magazines, study fishing websites, fish a lot, or all of the above. Books fill this void.

The Year of the ANGLER and the Year of the TROUT by Steve Raymond. The Lyons Press. 560-pages and $19.95. Raymond has written for Sports Illustrated, Fly Fisherman and Flyfishing magazines. He’s been on ABC’s American Sportsman too. Like me, he’s a fisherman who is also a writer. This means he writes from personal experience, instead of using guides to provide the information. He’s a fisherman, and he writes about his adventures. The first section goes through the season from the angler’s angle, and the second covers the seasons for trout. River salmon are included in this fine book.

Northern Pike; A Complete Guide To Pike And Pike Fishing by Will Ryan. The Lyons Press. 200-pages and $14.95. This angler/writer has written for Outdoor Life, Fly Rod & Reel and Fly Fisherman. Here’s a dandy book covering pike life plus how to catch these toothy rascals. You’ll find out about habitat, pike habits, and pike life cycles. Ryan explains where pike live during each of the four seasons, and he states that biologists are coming to realize that pike are cannibals. This explains why the age old Pikie Minnow has been effective for so many years. Yet, per the author, he’s unable to find any references to why the lure was created to imitate a young pike. For more on this topic, get the book. You’ll like it.

Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s Best Trout Streams by John Ross. The Lyons Press. 384-pages and $18.95. The author is the chair of the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited, and he’s fished from the high Arctic tundra to the grassy plain steppes of Tierra del Fuego and even in the Falkland Islands. There are more than 30 new streams and updated maps in this “Updated and Revised” edition. Two of Wisconsin’s streams make this list. The streams are the West Fork of the Kickapoo River with its “Great browns in the most pastoral of settings” and the Bois Brule. The author calls this river “The ‘real’ Brule with really big fish.” Maps of the areas are provided.

The Orvis® Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing; Secrets from the Orvis Experts edited by Tom Rosenbauer. 352-pages and $40.00 in hardcover. The vice president of marketing at the Orvis Company in Manchester, VT, Rosenbauer has written three other books on related subjects. Here, he has gathered the experts at Orvis to cover fly fishing from the powerful bonefish to largemouth bass to steelhead. You’ll study how to catch numerous fish species, plus how to read streams for smallmouth bass and trout. Even if you don’t fly fish, there is lots of information you can use to improve your catch rate. Bass poppers are discussed, and you can use information on wet flies and nymphs if you are a jig angler. Bucktail flies like the Mickey Finn look a lot like jigs. In fact, professional walleye anglers are finally figuring out that streamer flies on slip rigs will catch their favorite specie. I’ve had streamer flies in my walleye tackle box since the 70’s, back when I was the secretary & editor for The Okauchee Fishing Club.

Fly Fishing In Idaho with photos by R. Randolph Ashton, text by Will Godfrey and an Introduction by Terry Ring. Stoecklein Photography & Publishing. 170-pages and $35.00 in hardcover. Ashton, the photographer, takes the headlines here. This fly fishing book is what is called a coffee table book. There are some fantastic fishing photos. Great scenery, cool looking fog photos, and pictures that make you say “I wish I was there right now” are featured. Godfrey, the writer, provides one page descriptions of the area’s waterways and fisheries. Ring, the Introducer, grew up fishing these waters and became a guide. He’s the owner of Silver Creek Outfitters in Ketchum, ID. You’ll enjoy photos from such picturesque names as Big Wood River, Copper Basin, Fall River, Teton River, Medicine Lodge Creek, and the famed Snake River. Mountains, picturesque pines, fall colors, and colorful trout show us why areas like this must be preserved.

Rod Crafting; A Full-Color Pictorial & Written History from 1843-1960 by Jeffrey L. Hatton. Frank Amato Publications, Inc. 305-pages, $45.00 softbound and $65.00 hardbound. No, this isn’t a boring book. It’s full of facts and data, but it also contains some great anecdotal writing. For instance, the author states that in Fred Mather’s 1897 book “Men I Have Fished With” there was an angler named Reuben Wood. This gentleman used to make up fishing terms, for example, whenever Wood caught a big fish, he’d call it “An Old Codwalloper.” Casting reel bird’s nests were called “Wrinkle-Hawks.” He called long-stemmed pipes “flugemockers.”

Not all of the rods are fly rods. There are bait-casting rods, such as the Von Lengerke & Detmond 8’ 3/2 Bait-casting Rod circa 1898-1899 by T&E. This rod featured soldered hardware. The Fred DeBell of Denver Fly/spin Combination Rod 2/1 7; circa 1940’s- 1960’s had reel seats for both reel types, and it could cast current light jigs such as Dick Smith’s Panfish Grubs, Inch Worms, Doll Flies, etc. The author claims the rod isn’t a great spinning rod, and it requires heavy fly line to load the rod. Hatton states that the rod is “just adequate for either purpose at best.”

We covered a lot about fly fishing in this article. If you can learn to read the water, match the hatch, understand the seasons and how they relate to fish and their prey as do successful fly fishers, you’ll increase your fish catch no matter what sport fishing method you choose.