First trout fishing book?

wildtrout2

wildtrout2

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I thought this might be an interesting question. What was the very first trout fishing book you ever bought? If you can remember. ;-)
Mine was Trout Fishing by Joe Brooks (1972). This sewn hard back book only cost $8.95 back then. This man traveled all over the world flyfishing for the various trouts.
 
I'm not sure which book was first (it was quite a while ago), but I have a few still on my shelf when when I was a kid beginning the sport in the 70's.

Rising Trout by Fox
In the Ring of the Rise by Marinaro
Meeting and Fishing the Hatches by Meck
The Angler's book on Fly-tying and Fishing by Goldberg
The Masters on the Dry Fly edited by Michael Migel
The Caddis and the Angler by Solomon and Leiser
Selective Trout by Swisher and Richards
Chaucy Lively's Flybox (Autographed)

Honestly, I haven't bought a book on the subject since then. The library and the internet are full of inexpensive information. (Yes, I'm cheap---oops! Thrifty!)
 
Dame Juliana Berners tract-auto'ed for me by author
Trout-by Ray Bergman
Great book-loved the part about his trips to yellowstone and firehole river.
 
The first flyfishing book I read was Trout by Ray Bergman.
The first one I bought was that little hatch book by Art Flick. Just about every flyfisher had that book, back in the day.
 
"Trout Fishing" by Joe Brooks I believe, and yup I too bought a copy of Art Flick's "Streamside Guide".
 
Not one of my first books, but never-the- less a classic in my humorous mind is "Fly Fishing for Dummies". Right up my inexperienced alley! ;-)

Ray
 
Instant Mayfly Identification Guide and a book that is less known when I was a kid, Fly Tying by McKim. Boy that brings back some memories of the "Bug" fly and bluegills.

Mike Heck,
Author, "Spring Creek Strategies'
 
Trout Streams of Pennsylvania: An Angler's Guide by Dwight Landis.
 
My first was Matching the Hatch by Schweibert purchased around 1968-69 Still have it. Paid $4.99 first edition 1955 MaCMILLAN Publishers. This book was and still is my reference to insect study along with Nymphs first edition 1973 Winchester Press.
Ernie's Nymphs I & II are excellent references with some great reading on fishing also. Yes I was a great fan of Ernie, never had the chance to meet him, but did call him once inviting him to a seminar at the local flyshop. We had great conversation about fishing my home waters here in Ohio. In Nymphs he mentions fishing a Tiny Lead-Winged Red Quill (Centroptillum rufostrigatum)
on the headwaters of the Mad River, and it's arteries such as Cedar Creek and Piatt Creek known as Macachee Creek. I was very thrilled talking to him about trout waters where I grew up fishing and had no idea of him being there.
I was very sad the day of his passing. He was my mentor and he will be missed. Thanks simfective



Finandfeather, please check your PMs.
 
My first two were Bergman's Trout and Brooks' Trout Fishing. Soon afterwards came Flick's Streamside Guide, S/bert's Matching the Hatch, Marinaro, Fox, etc, etc. I still think Bergman's Trout is the best of that genre of trout (mainly fly) fishing books, and I enjoy re-reading portions of it occasionally. If I could keep only 10 or 15 of the more than 200 fishing books I have, Trout would certainly be a keeper. It is a wonderful book.
 
Sounds like my library, Rich, surely you have the Herters book in there somewhere, I love the part in "Trout" where Bergman talks about our Fishermans Paradise. I think the Herters book was the only one telling a lot about caddis in the 40s and 50s??
 
I have only the abridged edition of the Herter's book, and even it has some interesting one liners, like "Bergman never was much of a fly fisherman"! I believe George Herter must've been a bit of a pistol. I paid 45 bucks for John Crowe's "Book of Trout Lore" a few years ago, and Crowe (the inventor of the Crowe Beetle) knew a lot of today's "new" stuff. So did Sid Gordon in his book. My fishing library has some duds, too, but most of the guys had something good to say.
I think the best title still goes to Dr. Alvin Grove for "The Lure and Lore of Trout Fishing." I remember when I knew everything and Dr. Grove said that freestone streams were dry fly streams and spring creeks were wet fly streams [in the absence of visibly feeding fish] and I thought he was nuts. Well, live and learn!
And, the Traver books! On and on! That's certainly one of the many advantages the young guys have over us old guys: The wonderful books are new to them!
 
George Leonard Herter was a convicted felon and a shameless liar. The misinformation in his book set me back years. He didn't know his arse from first base...:) (just for Dick...).

Rich: The Brooks book was probably about the first FF book I bought new, although I also had an Outdoor Life anthology of FF stuff that was probably 10 years older. It was largely essays by all the usual suspects from Sparse Grey Hackle to Hewitt to LaBranche, etc.

It took me a long time to figure out that most of these guys, while good fishermen, really weren't any wiser than a lot of other folks. They simply were of the landed gentry with a lot of free time and lived in fair proximity to the publishing capitol of the world at the time, New York.
 
I know that Joe Brooks was an expert dry fly man
I used to watch him fish Armstrong Spring Creek near Livingston Mt.
He caught them as you would have expected him to.
However the pre-60s writers can mostly be taken with a grain of salt as far as nymph fishing-many threw a few lines in about the subject because it was expected-like wineries offering a full line of whites and reds even though one grape is their prime one.
 
Mike Heck's "Spring Creek Strategies"

Great read with tons of info for a newbie like me!
 
pete41 wrote:
I know that Joe Brooks was an expert dry fly man
I used to watch him fish Armstrong Spring Creek near Livingston Mt.
He caught them as you would have expected him to.
However the pre-60s writers can mostly be taken with a grain of salt as far as nymph fishing-many threw a few lines in about the subject because it was expected-like wineries offering a full line of whites and reds even though one grape is their prime one.
He also loved fishing for Steelhead on the Babine River in BC using a "shooting basket" for his line. He was very well traveled for that time. He loved going to Argentina for big brown trout as well. As a kid, I always wanted to fish where ever he did.
 
Aside from the trout entries in a 1950's edition of the Golden Guide, FISHING, it would have to be the 1976 edition of TROUT by Ray Bergman.
 
1st - and still my favorite: "Trout on a Fly" by Lee Wulff.
 
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