Fishing Books

Photo: Rob Modys

While I was writing for the Fort Myers Beach Island Sand Paper I compiled a list of article ideas. These would pop into my head driving down the road, fishing, beaching and showering. By the way, it’s really tough to write down an idea while in the shower. Perhaps I need one of those dive message wet boards. Anyhow… This blog post is from that list and I must give credit where credit is due.

Capt. Debbie Hanson of SheFishes2 had a segment topic a couple of months ago on Reel Talk Radio about favorite fishing books. It was great and she garnered a lot of responses, not only on the radio show, but also via social media posts. I really enjoyed the anglers’ choices. They ran the whole gamut from technical to comedic.

While I don’t consider myself a book critic, I do have what most folks would call a vast collection of fishing how-to books and literature. Many of them were garnered though my own collecting efforts, and a great deal of the books came from my grandfather Modys’ library.

So without further ado here are some of my favorites.

Crunch & Des, Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing, by Philip Wylie is a collection of stories pulled from almost 30 years of his writings for the Saturday Evening Post. The tales are about the adventures and antics of Crunch and Des, two Miami fisherman. It’s very funny and an enjoyable read. Even though dated, these stories will ring true for many of today’s saltwater anglers. Thanks to Kevin Dunn for sending this book to me. I’ve throughly enjoyed reading it.

Fisherman’s Coast, An Angler’s Guide to Marine Warm-Water Gamefish and Their Habitats, by Aaron J. Adams. This book hits all my science receptors full force and is the basis for many of my seminars and classes on the science of fishing. There is a wealth of information with details that will take many reads to digest.

Woodsmoke and Watercress, by Dana S. Lamb is from my grandfather’s collection and was published in 1965. It’s a series of short fly fishing stories from northern freshwater streams, well told with a good many anecdotes. I love the older stories, especially the descriptive words used and the way they sound like something told around a campfire.

Secret Spots, Florida’s Best Saltwater Fishing From Sarasota Bay to Marco, by Frank Sargeant. This little jewel went out of print and then reappeared via Kindle ebook. On a recent check I found it back in print via paperback. When I first bought this book I immediately took a gander at the locations to verify if they were really secret or not. They were, as in past tense. Oh crap. While published in 1993 it has a ton of good information about fishing the Southwest Florida waters. Things have changed over the years, but as a guide for new anglers, it’s still a must have.

Marquesa, A time & Place With Fish, by Jeffrey Cardenas. This is still, by a long shot, my favorite outdoor book. The author, a former Key West fishing guide, spent six weeks alone in the summer of 1994 on a 26-foot homemade houseboat in the Marquesas 25 miles to the west of Key West. He had a skiff, a canoe, a few boxes of canned food, fly rods and books. As he also points out in the introduction, there was no TV, telephone, air conditioning, shoes or a schedule. He was there only as an observer of the cycle of life on this remote atoll. I’m thinking that 2020 would be a good year to do this myself.

***All of these books are available via online sellers, but be aware that some are collectables and come with a collectible price.