Fave five fishing reads

I work a lot of Saturdays, but this week with the holidays over and a light work load i found myself with Saturday off. Now normally i would find myself hitting the town and partaking off that popular British pastime, consumerism, but after spending like a Russian football club owner over Xmas i was trying to save some pennies. Not only that but myself and Jacky had finally figured out what that mysterious circled date on our calender was.. so i had to wait in for the gas man to inspect my pipes or something.

With all this spare time on our hands we both agreed to undertake a chore we had both been avoiding for ages and sort out our swelling collection of books into categories. For me this meant collecting up all of my fish, fishing and yes more fishing books from all over the house into one big pile. Now for a normal person this might take an hour or so but for me this took all day, firstly due to the large number of books and secondly due to me opening and flicking through everyone as i picked it up.

As I worked away a thought crept into my head! which of all these precious books were my favorites? An all time top five if you would - and yes this did waste even more time! It took a while to decide but finally i found my fave five fishing reads:

Casting at the Sun by Chris Yates
This is the most recently read one of my fave five, having only got it at Christmas, but the moment i began reading it i knew i would be a firm favorite. Following Chris as he searches for carp from the village pond all the way to redmire, it is an unmissable read for anyone who loves carp fishing.

In Visible Waters by John Bailey

More than just fishing, this book gives a fantastic insight to fish behavior and habits of variety of species throughout the year.
When i first read it i could hardly put it down and i still go back read sections of it regularly even though i have read them time and time again.

A River Never Sleeps by Roderick Haig-Brown
When i fist picked this battered volume up in a charity shop five years ago i had no idea what it was about it at all, but when i got round to reading it i was awestruck as i followed the author through the wilderness of north America to the clear southern English rivers as he fishes for salmon.

Fifty Years a Fisherman by John Wilson

I don't read that many biography's, but this one is brilliant, as you follow him from a young boy fishing in his local park, then through his time aboard a cruise ship fishing around the world to now as the TV presenter we all know so well. There isn't a dull moment all the way through it and some of the fish are truly amazing.

The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton
THE CLASSIC....Not an easy read by any ones standard but still ultimately rewarding. I often read single chapters about certain species of this book at a time before i go fishing for that species and it never ceases to amaze me how relevant it is even now. Even though now we have hundreds of pounds of fishing tackle to fish with and new techniques get devised every week, it doesn't change the fact that fish still behave much the same now as they did when Izaak was after them.