The Book which Influenced you

Blunderer · Nov 25, 2004

I was an angler who had no mentors to guide me as a young boy. So I spent a long time catching very very little. It was only when I was given a book for Christmas, called "The Young Anglers Handbook" by "Brian Morland". This book was a revalation to me - it had seperate sections for all the different species and wonderful pictures. I read it dozens and dozens of times and it became my bible in the early eighties. I still have my battered copy at home and I can remember every word and every page.
So I have two questions:

Did any one else grow up with this book and find it as useful as I did?

Was there one book in particular which influenced you more than any other?

And if you say Mr Crabtree then I know you are an old git........

sash · Nov 25, 2004

BB - Fisherman's Bedside Book from 1946 that I was given as a teenager. The 1st edition reprint in red leather cover. I've still got it, well worn but fighting on. Some wonderfully descriptive passages that really inspired me to fish.

Bully · Nov 25, 2004

Mine was a relatively recent publication (1992) The Complete Book of Course Fishing, edited by Tom Pickering, which I bought when I started back a few years ago.

It was from here I got "Marsdens Magic Mix", which I still make for my chub fishing..........and subsequently got to fish with the man himself !!

I think its a terrific book.

Wolfman Woody · Nov 25, 2004

"The Book which Influenced you"

Other than odd glimpses of 'Health and Efficiency' that have nothing to do with fishing, but a lot to do with nature (in a sense) then it was Mr Crabtree. Loaned to me by Harry Lees from next door, a great bloke with whom I later shared many happy fishing hours.

I have a reprint today (still available, www.medlarpress.com priced ?10) and find it so out of tune with present day thinking. Yes, I am an old git.

Wag · Nov 25, 2004

Ladybird book of coarse fishing.

Can't have been more than 50 pages, but very good advice.

Also Coarse Fishing, by Clive Gammon - very old fashioned, but full of useful tips and info.

jason fisher · Nov 25, 2004

can't remember the exact name but it was by stan pechia and it was a beginners guide.

jeff's right he is an old git.

Fred Bonney · Nov 25, 2004

I don't think my early fishing was ever influenced by a book,just my general love of natural wildlife and plenty of ponds,park lakes and old gravel pits in and around my home town of Romford.
I always read,in the sixties, the Anglers Mail and Times,other than that, the only early reading matter,that I still have,is a booklet by,Spillers,they made Silver Cloud groundbait and Match Fishing by Dave Burr and Jack Winstanley(8 shillings!).I never did get into match fishing,but plenty of good references in there for my more serious formative years, in the early seventies.

Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA) · Nov 25, 2004

Blunderer,

As soon as I saw the thread title that was the book I tought of!

Copies go on e-bay fairly regularly I've noticed.

Ron Troversial Clay · Nov 25, 2004

There have been many books that have influenced my self.

But the best has to be "Drop Me a Line" by Ingham and Walker. This was a book that was never intended to be written but consisted of letters exchanged bewteen Maurice Ingham and Richard Walker in 1950.

Although the main subject is carp fishing, many aspects of game and coarse fishing are covered. This book is essential reading for any angler. The English in this book is truly vibrant.

Michael Townsend 3 · Nov 25, 2004

Even though im only 32 the book that inspired me was Mr Crabtree. When reading the book it was as if you were there yourself and as i was just starting out age 13 into the sport it was a great inspiration. I can still see myself walking the banks of my local river looking for eddy's,creases ect.

Blunderer · Nov 25, 2004

Nigel
I loved the photo of the bloke with no t-shirt playing a pike in the sun by a weedbed.
And a photo of the author with a big brown leather carp.
And a photo of a guy wading in a river playing a barbel.
There was even a photo of roach with keepnet damage and a warning, long before it was politically correct to point this out

Every time I went fishing I read the chapter about the fish I was after and copied the methods.

Deecy · Nov 25, 2004

Observers book of fishing(or was it angling?)great little book with wonderful photos and line drawings.I keep trying to replace mine but get outbid on eBay.
There is a photo in it of a chap in a traditional bobble hat drawing a big Perch to the net,fantastic.Then it goes through the species starting with small fish to middleweights then Car and Pike.If anyone has one I would dearly love to have it.
That said any book with Keith Lindsell art work was good, Osprey did a series called The Osprey Anglers, my favourites were Barbel by Ian Howcroft Chub by Jim Gibbinson and Roach by Dave Steuart.My fishing has been influenced by these books, even now.

jason fisher · Nov 25, 2004

you've been fishing manchesters municiple park lakes if you've been after cars then deecy.

Steve King · Nov 25, 2004

OK I'm an old git! Yes it was Crabtree - the anglers in my class used to sit together and in a boring maths lesson the Crabtree books were often passed around between us!

The second book that influenced me was "The Angler's Companion" again written by B V. Best of all the book was given to me as a present by a kindly neighbour who worked for a publisher.

Ron, I love "Drop Me a Line" and I must confess to nicking mine from the school library! (sorry Mr Fletcher Sir It was me!). Unfortunately the book went missing whilst I was away in the Middle East - serves me right I suppose!!!

Deecy · Nov 25, 2004

Ooops, sorry about the typo.Just thought of another, Canal Fishing by Kenneth Seaman.He set out to catch specimen fish on canals especially Roach and as most of the fishing we did as kids was on the Grand Union it hit the mark.Oh and the Observers book was the Observers Book of Coarse Fishing.

James Henslowe · Nov 25, 2004

Blunderer, I know the book you refer to, but my inspiration was Rod and Line by Arthur Ransome. I still have the copy I was given when I was eight, which was bought from the local library sale by my slightly mad great aunt, who had been a keen fisherwoman in Ireland in the 1920's.
She and I dug worms and talked fishing until the day she died.

Ron Troversial Clay · Nov 25, 2004

I agree James, Rod and Line by Ransome was a very good book.

But still, for me, "Drop me a Line" was the very best.

I would ask all of you to try to get a copy of this book and to read it. It was written by two enthusiastic people. Richard Walker at the time was only 32 years of age and Maurice Ingham was only 28 years of age.

Superb English written by two extremely well educated people.

Compared with this, I truly dispair when I read the standard of English, written and spoken by people in the same age grouping today.

And we are supposed to have become more civilised.

bill capser · Nov 26, 2004

Ron. I remember reading "Drop Me Line.As you say a very good read indeed.
I can remember the atmosphere that the book gave me whilst I was reading it it really
felt as if I fishing there with **** and
Maurice.Other fishing books cannot compare.

bill capser · Nov 26, 2004

Drop Me a Line.

Alan Tyler · Nov 26, 2004

First, a little pamphlet by Bernard Venables, with beautiful but useless pictures of allis shad and burbot, and the first reference I remember to "specimen" fish.
Then a string of unmemorable library books, from which Marshall-Hardy's "Angling Ways" stands out.
From my junior school library, "Odhams Pictorial Guide to Fish and Fishing",apparently translated from french, which had some of the best illustrations I'd ever seen, plus some of the most ghastly ideas for attaching a livebait, with a publisher's slip to the effect that these were illegal in Britain hastily added!
Then came the 1964 Boy's World Fishing Annual, enjoyable but pitched rather high by a rather worthy editorial board.And if it was an annual, where were the other years' offerings. Mouldy swizz, boo hiss.
Damn - work calls!

The Book which Influenced you

Blunderer

New member

sash

Guest

Bully

Guest

Wolfman Woody

Guest

Wag

Guest

jason fisher

Guest

Fred Bonney

Guest

Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)

Guest

Ron Troversial Clay

Guest

Michael Townsend 3

Well-known member

Blunderer

New member

Deecy

Guest

jason fisher

Guest

Steve King

Guest

Deecy

Guest

James Henslowe

New member

Ron Troversial Clay

Guest

bill capser

New member

bill capser

New member

Alan Tyler

Well-known member