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Great Escapes WE’VE BEEN A BIT DEPRIVED OF FISHING THIS YEAR, SO I HAVE FOUND THE NEXT BEST THING IS TO ESCAPE INTO THE WORLD OF BOOKS By Clive Kenyon
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ell, let’s get it over with – Merry Christmas! There. I’ve done it. Not that there has been much to be joyous about this year and it seems like it is Bleak Expectations every night on the telly. And that is just the news! So, how do we cheer ourselves up with all this uncertainty and gloom? What about a good read? That will get us over the winter period and in a better frame of mind for the spring which is just around the corner. Take my word for it.
short stories contained in the book are magical tales of high expectations and low achievements, observations on the countryside especially things of interest to the angler. We meet local anglers such as William Nelson who was an expert at minnow fishing for trout and consider Yorkshire grayling flies tied by Pritt. The chapter “Fishing in Lilliput” is all about catching the biggest fish from the smallest of waters. I defy anyone not to be enchanted by this book.
Reading about fishing is almost as good as doing it especially when the book inspires. A lot of the fishing books I read have very little in them regarding tackle and tactics, but are more about the experiences enjoyed whilst fishing. It allows your mind to escape into someone elses experience. Arthur Ransome was quite a character. Locked in a loveless marriage he contrived to travel to Russia to study, found work as a journalist and was embroiled in the Russian political scene in the years leading up to The Great War during which he assisted the British Secret Services. He also wrote children’s stories including “Swallows and Amazons” and a weekly fishing column for the Manchester Guardian. Some of the articles were latterly compiled into a fishing book entitled “Rod and Line”. Ransome’s typical fishing day would have him marching down to the railway station dressed in brogues and breeches suitable for wading. He would take the train to Appleby-in-Westmoreland where he took breakfast at a local hostelry and obtained a packed lunch to eat later. He then walked to the river and spent his day fly-fishing for trout and grayling. The
Another inspirational author who doesn’t brag about how many fish he caught despite catching a lot of fish is Zane Grey. Like Ransome, Grey is better known for his non-fishing books, in the case of Zane Grey it is Western novels that gave him fame and fortune. Grey was quite a character. Initially failing time and time again to get his novels published he eventually had one accepted and ended up Clive Gammon was known as a sea angler as one of the most wealthy men in and famous for his catches of large bass America. What he earned writing cowboy from the Atlantic storm beaches of the books he spent fishing. “Tales of south of Ireland. But there was more to Freshwater Fishing” follows a young, Gammon than that and his book “I Know a naïve angler fishing his local rivers with Good Place” takes us all over the world in rudimentary tackle and simple methods. search of specimen fish in fresh and salt He is often joined by water. You could his brother and rivalry Initially failing time and time again get some good is rife. As the book ideas for your goes on the fishing to get his novels published he own personal matures and becomes eventually had one accepted and ‘Bucket List’ more exciting. Every from this book. ended up as one of the most wealthy year Grey would take men in America The Welsh a small party of company Cochanglers to the y-Bonddu Books has a vast selection of mountain rivers of Colorado to fish for new and pre-owned fishing books and old steelhead trout. Steelheads are sea-going magazines of all genres and these can be rainbow trout and the expeditions purchased online and dispatched to your involved hitching a lift on a logging train, letter box. There are other specialist hiking through the woods and spending companies that deal in niche interests for several weeks living in tents, eating what collectors or historians. The Medlar Press they caught and shot and generally having company is a good place to discover these a wonderful time. Grey’s immense wealth sort of books and for those who like a allowed him to indulge in big game fishing bargain and don’t mind rummaging for off the Pacific coast and in New Zealand. those bargains, a few charity shops now His book “Tales of Swordfish and operate online sales of items including Tuna” show a different type of books. And, for those who prefer to read fishing. Often brutal in the long, hard on a tablet or i-Pad it is possible to battles with the huge fish hooked and download fishing books from Kindle and played in blistering heat. It gives an many old books have been digitised by insight into another world. Universities and other organisations and In the same sort of mould, writers like are available in various formats often at John Gierach give an unassuming no charge. insight into American river fishing for So, let us keep ourselves safely occupied trout where on some waters the anglers through the next few months and are lined up in their hundreds. Or Joe hopefully emerge at the end of winter Brooks who was instrumental in reready to catch up on what we have been discovering the Argentinan sea-trout rivers and Caribbean venues where deprived of during 2020.
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bonefish, tarpon and permit were lured using fly tackle. Back over this side of the pond but continuing the pioneering theme “Memories of Carp” is a collection of accounts written by Tim Paisley, Rod Hutchinson and others about catching large carp in the UK and on the Continent. The book outlines how methods and theories have progressed over the years and gives an insight into the time, money and hardships spent in pursuit of the largest carp. In total contrast to that mentality are books written by Chris Yates who took up the cause of traditional fishing for large fish and has a much more relaxed approach to his fishing. “Casting at the Sun” and “The Secret Carp” are as far removed from modern carp fishing books as you could expect to reach yet are fascinating reads.
