nicepix
Well-known member
For me there are two types of writer I'll gladly read; Those who have proved themselves whether it be with specimen fish or match fishing achievments; Maddocks, Marks, Walker, Buller, etc. and those who don't as much care about the size or numbers of the bag, but can describe the experiences of angling in an inspirational way whilst retaining a sense of humility, i.e. it is the occassion not the angler who is the star. Here I'm thinking of Arthur Ransome, John Gierach and Zane Grey along with antiquities such as Walton and Cotton. Both types are a valuable source of information on methods of their era.
Book sales in this category are dwindling and future anglers will look to search engines for their historical research. It is already happening. More and more antique books are being transcribed into PDF and other files to be read on Kindles and e-readers. It is surprising what you can turn up. For example, in a 1906 book that has been transcribed for Kindle I learned that large kidney beans were used by French anglers for specimen (20lb +) carp as they proved too large and tough skinned for small carp to take. That is 'boiled potato / boilie' thinking fifty years before Walker and Ingham set about their Redmire campaigns.
Book sales in this category are dwindling and future anglers will look to search engines for their historical research. It is already happening. More and more antique books are being transcribed into PDF and other files to be read on Kindles and e-readers. It is surprising what you can turn up. For example, in a 1906 book that has been transcribed for Kindle I learned that large kidney beans were used by French anglers for specimen (20lb +) carp as they proved too large and tough skinned for small carp to take. That is 'boiled potato / boilie' thinking fifty years before Walker and Ingham set about their Redmire campaigns.
