I was recently blessed with a prolonged visit from the in-laws. Don’t get me wrong, they are wonderful people who truly represent the most pleasant visitor you could ever imagine. They understand how to avoid invading your home, yet provide stimulating intelligent conversation and my mother in law makes the most wonderful food.

This seems to be inherent in people from Yorkshire and in that sense remind me of some people from West Jutland or even North Jutland. They are modest and maintain a critical approach to everything new - leaving them slightly hard to impress and yet provide the most amazing subtle and slightly sarcastic sense of humour.

And they bear gifts. Not only their personal presence, but in materialistic terms. Over the past 5 years, they have provided us with more or less every book we’ve read. Books are significantly cheaper in UK than in DK, sometimes up to 1/10th of the price! The books they bring tend to be paperback fiction and often crime by Scandinavian authors.

This summer they’d broken the mold and bought me a brand new hardcover book - about fishing! I suspect my mother in law to have excercised her amazing capacity for consideration for others, and scouted out a good book about fishing for me.

The book is 101 Golden Rules of Fishing by Rob Beattie

The author seems to have written a fair number of similar books on other subjects, such as The Survival Guide: Life Saving Skills for Sticky Situations and 101 Things to Do in a Shed and both of those titles surely invite a similar approach as 101 Golden Rules of Fishing.

Let me make this clear: The book is a great read. The introduction starts out by stating that despite the somewhat misleading title, it does not provide 101 Golden Rules of anything because there’s simply too many rules about too many things already. Instead, the author simply shares his experiences and opinions on a large variety of subjects regarding equipment, casting, places to fish, why anyone would like to fish and catching (or never catching) that monster you once saw. Even the ethics of fishing are covered. Thus the book is entirely subjective and truly the better for it.

Particularly the section on the behaviour of anglers is noteworthy. Previously (many years ago), introduction to fishing was provided by older and more experienced anglers and the unwritten codes of conduct were carefully handed down through the generations. With the “invention” of C&R or P&T waters, fishing has become significantly more accessible and a wider variety of people with little or no experience in fishing take an interest in this fantastic activity. Great! Unfortunately this also means that sensible and appropriate behaviour has gone down the drain. The book adresses this by explaining in no uncertain yet assertive terms what to do and specifically what not to do.

The language throughout the book is casual and the different sections are littered with anectdotes and personal comments adding a witty twist to an otherwise potentially very dry subject. Masterfully, Mr. Beattie still manages to convey relevant and useful advice often without the reader ever noticing.

I read the book cover to cover, but it remains unclear whether that was ever the intention. I’m certain that you can get just as much pleasure from the book as I did, by reading the different sections in a completely random order although I would recommend reading the introduction first so you know what to expect.

Visually, the book contains simple and good illustrations. The style is reminiscent of instructional booklets from the 1930’s and 40’s -  again offering a cheeky reference to the fact that a subject with as many variables and opinions as fishing, cannot be categorized and described in the traditional sense.

I would recommend this book to anyone with even just the slightest interest in fishing. Fishing is a lifelong journey and the book gets you well on the way, whether you have just started or nearing the end.

5 out of 5 fish for this baby.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am in Gear and Book Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.