Winter Reading Suggestions

The Ptarmigan's Dilemma

Season of the Gar

Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War against Big Oil

People of the Sturgeon

Reeling in Russia

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengence and Survival

Is there any particular species you'd like to read about? I normally read lots of antique books from my pap about fly tying, stream fishing, and local stream and lake maps over the winter but I'm also reading The Vanishing Trout now (also a pretty old book) about central PA's Brook Trout. It's a great book, but that's partially because I'm a trout (especially Char) nut and there's probably a bit to much troot praising for the average roughfisherman haha.

Im also hoping to read fishing for buffalo over the winter as well.

I don't have any carp or catfish books to pitch, but if you just want to read good outdoor adventure books, I might have some recommendations. Starting out with:

Russel Annabel: Adventure is in my Blood. If you haven't read Russel Annabel, this is where to start. It's high adventure tales from Alaska and the Yucatan, fishing and hunting, told from the perspective of a young greenhorn who went to Alaska to become (eventually) a hunting and fishing guide for people both idiotic and amazing. Survival, savagery, humor, and majesty told by a witty Scott down in the thick of it. There's a dozen other books, all good and all told in the same bombastic edge-of-your seat style.

Jim Corbett: Maneaters of Kumoan: Short little book, by the man himself. There are a few more like it, all good. First-person stories of a man hunting down and killing rogue tigers that devoured hundreds of people in the foothills of the Himalayas. Generally good stories about surviving in the wild and understanding the natural world around you. This book taught me the importance of observation while hunting and fishing out in the wilds. Also includes a story about mahseer fishing that is pure awesome. His stories simply drop you into a very strange world and make you love it.

Gordon MacQuarrie: Stories of the Old Duck Hunters and Other Drivel: Straight out of Superior, Wisconsin. One of the last true outdoor writers, MacQuarrie folds you into the faded, comfortable world of fishing and hunting nostalgia that can color your own stories and experiences and give you perspective. A throwback to the true outdoor sportsman that once was. Impossible to replicate in today's age, the old-school outdoor ethic shines through in these stories about fishing poles, duck decoys, and old beat-up cars stuck in the mud. Good stuff.

I probably don't have to mention Aldo Leopold's A Sand Country Almanac, Sigurd Olson's The Singing Wilderness and Listening Point, and Roderick Frazier Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind. I pretty much assume, perhaps wrongly, that everybody who knows how to read has read all of that several times; if you haven't, I suppose now is as good a time as any.

Anyway, if you're looking for winter reading, I'd start there. I've probably got another hundred or so good ones kicking around my library if you run out.

I like:

A Green Fisherman Never Caught a Brown Trout: Essays on Minnesota Ecology, by William Boudreau (1991). This is a whimsical collection of somewhat disjointed essays on a variety of outdoors topics.  But, is has some fun and informational pieces on sturgeon, carp, and other species that I found enjoyable.

AMC Guide to Freshwater Fishing in New England: How and Where to Fish in All Six New England States (1994), by Brian Kologe.  I was desperate for any information about fishing in Massachusetts when I moved to Boston back in 1997.  This book was surprisingly helpful.  It's got chapters on eel, carp, bullheads, and of course the "game-fish" species too.  It also has some fun stories in it about fishing in this region.

Wit and Wisdom of Fishing: Funny Lines and Fishy Advice, by Bignami Louis (1997).  I enjoyed the poems, proverbs, and funny stories found in here.  You won't learn a lot, but you might better understand yourself and the sport as a result of some worthwhile reflection. 

I always liked books by Dan Gapen, Jr.  He wrote books about river fishing mainly, and has specific volumes about catfish and carp as well as many others.  They are easy to read and no-bull info from a true old-school river rat.  His father Dan Gapen Sr. also wrote a few books about his angling adventures in the Northern wilderness.

Not fishing specific, but any of Bill Heavy's books

Dan Gapen. . . . now there's a name I've not heard in a very long time . . . In  the dark years, before the internet, I remember waiting day after day after ordering his carp book off the back pages of Fur-Fish-Game.  Finally I spotted the big manilla envelope sticking out of the mailbox, it was like Christmas morning!

I actually ran into him at a Fleet Farm a couple years ago, he is getting on in years but looked he had just got done splitting two cords of fiirewood and stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of week end warrioirs - it was obvious at a glance that his time under flourescent lights could probably be measured in minutes compared the years spent on the river and under the sky - he's the real deal.

Paddle to the Amazon 

its a great read and a true story, he also tried to paddle to the north pole and wrote about that as well I forget the name right now as I just got home from 11 hours on the ICE!!!

shake your beard and send some of that cold weather our way, please