How to Catch a Fish

THE STANDARD BOOK OF FISHING (532 pp.)--Edited by Bruce R. Tuttle--Greystone ($5.95).

A feller isn't thinkin' mean--out fishin': His thoughts are mostly good and clean--out fishin'.

He does not knock his fellowmen, or

harbor any grudges then.

A feller's at his finest when--out fishin'.

--Anonymous

Every year the life of the U.S. fish gets more hazardous, and--presumably--U.S. thoughts grow cleaner. In 1949, an estimated 25 million citizens tempted him with hook-studded live frogs, gaily feathered flies, and plump, harmless-looking nightcrawlers. The number of U.S. anglers, says Editor Bruce R. Tuttle in his introduction to The Standard Book of Fishing, is even larger now.

Editor Tuttle's Fishing, a tuna-sized condensation of the whale-sized Fisherman's Encyclopedia, will not make the fish's lot any easier. But it should be as welcome to the nation's fishermen as a fast riffle on a mountain stream. Like command-level planners marking out a country for conquest, the 30 fly-wise, smooth-casting experts who helped to put Fishing together have methodically divided up their subject under such topics as "Game Fishes," "Where To Fish," and "When and How to Fish"--by fly-casting, trolling or spinning; in lakes, offshore or through the ice; from riverbanks, rowboats or cabin cruisers.

Rods, Reels & Waders. In addition to a comprehensive river-by-river and lake-by-lake inventory of Canadian and U.S. fish, Fishing is full of information on everything from rods, reels and waders to gaff hooks, bait boxes and barometers.

There are also brief excursions into such specialized fishing byways as fly tying (there are "more than 30,000 recognized fly patterns"), the "Solunar Theory" of fishing, "How to Fillet a Fish," how to prepare a fish for mounting, and the "comparatively new" use of artificial lures in going after such saltwater leviathans as tarpon, barracuda and dolphin.

A game fish, says Fishing, is "any fish caught on rod and line, putting up any fight, and not thrown back in disgust by the angler." That includes even the "detested, despised, and berated" carp, a "keen-brained root-eater" as hard to hook as a confirmed bachelor.

Procedure: pick a spot in a stream or lake and lower a pail of chopped vegetables to it every day for a week. By that time the carp, who are mainly vegetarians, should be using that spot for a feeding ground. A ball of half-baked dough or a piece of half-boiled vegetable is good for bait. Cast it near the feeding ground, give it a foot of slack line, "set" the hook as soon as the outsmarted carp starts moving away. If he is played away from his feeding ground, "other carp will not be frightened and as many as four or five . . . may be taken."

Tackleists & Anglers. Ever since the day some 4,000 years ago, when the Egyptians found out that a stick with a piece of string on it makes a good fishing device, anglers have-been passionately perfecting their sport. Like latter-day bullfighters who prefer cape work to killing, many place more emphasis on form and finesse in handling tackle than on catching fish. When a sportsman goes this far, Fishing warns its readers, "he becomes a 'tackleist' instead of an angler . . . and tackle manipulation overshadows the true goal of using fishing equipment," i.e., fish in the creel or on a stringer.

Full of such levelheaded reminders, and sporting a painstaking index and several hundred illustrations, Fishing provides just about all the help a grudgeless, clean-thinkin' angler will need, short of soaking his leader and catching his fish for him.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.