Top selling angling books

steve2 · Sep 2, 2017

Looking through my library of angling books made me wonder what is the best selling angling book of all time. I assume it would be The Compleat Angler but it must also rank as the most unread angling book of all time. I have 2 copies and gave up on trying to read it.
Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing must be a top seller and books like Still Water Angling which have had reprint runs.

Peter Jacobs · Sep 2, 2017

A difficult one this . . . . .

My personal list would have to include:

The Compleat Angler (I Walton)
Cane and Sable (Robin Armstrong)

Definitely on my list would be:

"Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley" actually written by Michael Russell . . . . . .

So many others to chose from too . . . . .

robtherake · Sep 2, 2017

It could be something as banal as the John Wilson books, which, together with the TV series, reached a wider audience. Available at every boot sale, somewhere near you.

Mark Wintle · Sep 2, 2017

Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing sold something like two million copies (Venables was on a salary and so didn't really benefit until much later) and I doubt any modern fishing book came close. Fly Fishing by J R Hartley sold something like 80,000 but like The Compleat Angler most were unread! **** Walker's Stillwater Angling only sold about 2,000 in the first edition although later editions sold many more. Some of John Wilson's books sold over 40,000 copies, possibly more. Unless a UK fishing book is tied into a TV series (like Robson Green's Extreme Fishing) a run of 3,000 is exceptional although one or two carp books still sell over 10,000.

Peter Jacobs · Sep 2, 2017

The Passion for Angling book might also be up there among the top sellers, it was a very good book with some terrific photography . . . . .

no-one in particular · Sep 2, 2017

The Compleat Angler was the one everybody had heard of once but JR Hartley might have overtaken that and Mr Crabtree.
I have just been given a hardback copy of The Compleat Angler with jacket and illustrated by Arthur Rackham 1931 first printed, lovely illustrations. My previous copy was just a paperback.
I like the full title in it "The Compleat Angler or the Contemplatives Man's Recreation being a discourse of rivers fishponds fish and fishing not unworthy the perusal of most anglers.
Never beaten in my mind.
Its a shame its not actually read as I think it draws you in- in a way no other book I have read on fishing does. To be read with a large malt and a blanket by the fireside if you still have one that is. It is in fact a cleverly written book that reveries you into its time. Try reading it, takes a bit of getting used to but worth the effort.
John Wilson has a gigging fit or Robson Green just has a fit, maybe a bit unfair but you get my drift. I am sure they are very educational but the C. A. offers something different; more than just a how to fish thing.

108831 · Sep 2, 2017

Billy Lane's book of floatfishing and Ivan Marks match fishing would teach a lot of anglers a lot about fishing(particularly floatfishing,even though shottings have altered a bit in modern times,it teaches a good ethic and approach,even now,all these years later...

Peter Jacobs · Sep 2, 2017

markg said:
Its a shame its not actually read as I think it draws you in- in a way no other book I have read on fishing does. To be read with a large malt and a blanket by the fireside if you still have one that is. It is in fact a cleverly written book that reveries you into its time.

I could not agree with you more Mark.

Personally I fail to see the point of owning a book if you have no intention of reading it . . . . if so then it is an ornament and nothing else . . . . .

I can understand if you start to read it and decide it is not for you, but then, why keep it?

I have to agree with Alan too regarding Billy Lane's float fishing book . . . . absolutely terrific tome.

PS: I read a link earlier this afternoon where it said that Passion for Angling was only offered on a run of 1,300 here in the UK.

flightliner · Sep 2, 2017

Mr Crabtree was the perfect book for me, a youngster with very little fishing anywhere near to hand , the art work really was something else, I must have taken the print off every page, it just transported me to that other world known only to anglers.
later, it was John Martin the Trent Otter, his style and descripive of the places I know well like the south forty foot in Lincolnshire and the Trent enhanced my visits there by a large degree.
An odd one would be John Hillabys "Within the streams" , wide ranging from course to sea to game but for me a real pageturner.
I must be a loner here but I,ve never ever read a book by Richard Walker, maybe I should one day.
There are others , modern day writers who have done real justice to their works that are/will become classics in there own right-- I take my hat off to anyone of a few who have done that in todays climate of angling communication.

thecrow · Sep 2, 2017

I have just got a mint copy of Billy Lanes Float Fishing Encyclopedia for the princely sum of under a tenner including postage, everything in it is still relevant to angling today.

fishplate42 · Sep 2, 2017

One of the problems with British Angling books it they have a limited market on the global stage. Specialist book sales have been in decline for years and they just don't sell in anywhere near the volume they once did. The only thing that has saved the industry is the fact that book production is now a fraction of the cost it was thanks to digital origination and printing.

My books on woodworking sold world wide and sold many more outside the UK than they did inside. The best thing that happened to me was my American publisher publishing a Kindle edition of one of my books. It is still selling today.

Ralph.

flightliner · Sep 2, 2017

fishplate42 said:
My books on woodworking sold world wide and sold many more outside the UK than they did inside. The best thing that happened to me was my American publisher publishing a Kindle edition of one of my books. It is still selling today.

Ralph.

Ralph, a pity the manufacturers of a well known purveyor of fitted kitchens didn't buy one.
I was looking at one today that incorporated a hardwood tray that slid into a narrow recess. It looked fine until the dovetails were looked at with a slightly jaundiced eye. They started with a pin and finished with a half dovetail at the other end !
Pure tat!

sam vimes · Sep 2, 2017

I have very few angling books because I'm not the biggest fan of the genre.
I have a few bought as presents by others and just three I remember buying myself. Considering that the books bought as presents have mostly come from non-anglers, I'd suspect they must be relatively common. These include Confessions Of A Carp Fisher, John Wilson's Autobiography and The Complete Book Of Fishing by Len Cacutt. Those I've bought myself are by local angler's, both of which I have at least a vague connection to, Brian Morland and John Aston. I suspect that Brian Morland's Angler's Directory might have sold in relatively good numbers.

fishplate42 · Sep 2, 2017

flightliner said:
Ralph, a pity the manufacturers of a well known purveyor of fitted kitchens didn't buy one.
I was looking at one today that incorporated a hardwood tray that slid into a narrow recess. It looked fine until the dovetails were looked at with a slightly jaundiced eye. They started with a pin and finished with a half dovetail at the other end !
Pure tat!

It is the thing that all salesmen quote "Look at those quality dovetails"

Machine cut dovetails are not actually dovetails - they just look like them to the uneducated eye.

Ralph.

108831 · Sep 3, 2017

thecrow said:
I have just got a mint copy of Billy Lanes Float Fishing Encyclopedia for the princely sum of under a tenner including postage, everything in it is still relevant to angling today.

Yes,and all that needs to be adapted to an anglers needs is altering the shottings(lighter,or possibly heavier)to suit the needs of any given swim,after all these were Billy's start off rigs.Having a realisation of what you're trying to achieve whilst floatfishing is of paramount importance imo,because it then gives you reason to consider what alteration could improve it,obvious you might say,not from what I see on the bank,two seperate anglers watched me fishing the slider last week and unusually asked me questions,which I gladly answered,but having the answers and actually doing it are sadly very different,how many anglers struggle with the slider???

steve2 · Sep 3, 2017

If I were to put my own books in order of preference my top half dozen would include “No Need To Lie” by Richard Walker “In Search of Big Fish” by Frank Guttfield, “Come fishing with Me” by Colin Willock, “Come Fishing with Me “ by Peter Stone, “Pike” by Fred Buller and “Casting at the Sun” by Chris Yates

All books that don’t set out to tell you how to fish but make you want to go fishing.

trotter2 · Sep 3, 2017

John Wilson's books comes to mind still have some practical value.
How about books from my childhood school library.
Observers book on coarse fishing or how about the ladybird book.
I would imagine most anglers of my age would have picked them up at some point.

nottskev · Sep 3, 2017

The most practical help I ever got from a book on fishing was from Hugh Gough's 1989 guide "Coarse Fishing in Ireland".

Along with a friend, who had a better car, I'd had a disastrous Irish fishing holiday in 1987 "organised" by a fly-by-night company who had ad's in the AT.

Afterwards, I went to one of the Irish angling roadshows, in Manchester, to try and get a better handle on it. I was lucky enough to meet Hugh Gough, Angling Officer for the Inland Fisheries Trust. He understood exactly what I needed, and couldn't have been more helpful,and I subsequently bought his book.

The book became a bible for my Irish fishing through the 90's, with its maps, details of access and accessible swims, and reports of the author's own catches, and inspired me to fish areas I'd never have considered, like the lower Barrow at Clashganny and Bahana.

Mark Wintle · Sep 3, 2017

Angling Ways from E. Marshall Hardy must have sold a fair few; in print for 40 years and it ran to about 10 editions.

trotter2 · Sep 3, 2017

On flyfishing books I would say the following
A fly fisher life
A summer on the test
Fly fishing by v grey.
Sawyer nymphs and the trout.
And books by halford.
Would all do well.

Top selling angling books

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