My bookshelves seemed to be getting increasingly packed with angling books now (mostly bought from second hand book shops or charity shops).
There are those that I never finished reading, and some that I couldn’t put down till I turned the last page, and those that I keep going back to again and again.
My favourite kind of book is those that feel me with excitement and anticipation so that I can’t wait to get out there and start fishing.
Then there are the books that deliver information. Not just the ‘how to’ books, but ones written by knowledgeable anglers that help you to think through not just the ‘how’ but more importantly the ‘why’, leading you to approach angling problems and opportunities from directions that left to yourself alone you would perhaps never have thought of.
And of course, for those cold winter evenings, where a cup of soup in front of a warm fire completes the experience, there are those books that take you on a journey with the writer, exploring waters and reminiscences of past angling adventures.
Oh! And the books that have you chuckling along with the author.
So, what type of book is BASS and B.A.S.S?
Well it’s all of those (apart from being a book that you will never ever read all the way through), and more.
Drawn from the best of articles previously printed in the BASS society’s magazine its key is variety.
And yet it is more than simply a random collection of articles.
Expertly edited by Geoff Gonella, the articles have been assembled together giving the book a cohesive structure so that the reader is lead first through an explanation of bass as a biological entity, through to the various techniques that are used by those who pursue these greatest of all UK saltwater sports fish, then moving onto an eclectic collection of articles written not just by some very talented and knowledgeable ‘unknowns’, but also by some very recognisable names in saltwater angling circles.
Of course being something that has come out of the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society, there is information about the conservation of bass, and what the future might hold, as well as a flavour of what B.A.S.S is, and what the society is all about.
And of course the humour that seems to grow from the often frustrated passion of those who are lured to pursue the living silver that lurks amongst the breaking shore waves, far up the estuaries, and miles out to sea.
If you are tempted to buy your own copy, and are not yet captured in the passionate pursuit of this creature, be careful, because it would be hard not to start down that road having read the pages and closed the cover only to be again ensnared by the magic of the dust cover, an image of a bass chasing a plug, reproduced from one of David Miller’s paintings.
If however you are already captured by the pursuit of the silver fish, then there is so much to take away from this book, even for the expert who is starting to believe that there is no more for them to learn.
Leon Roskilly
BASS and B.A.S.S is published by Angler’s Bookcase ISBN 978-0-9558193-0-8 and can be ordered directly from the Angler’s Bookcase website at http://www.anglersbookcase.com
