Tackle Box Fishing Guide

John H. Gryfe is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon practicing in
Toronto.

This ambitious “all you need to know” book presents a great deal of information, purportedly in a volume sized to fit within your tackle box alongside the Norman wobbler, the fish gag, and a hypodermic syringe (for injecting air into worms).

The thirteen sections are written in simple, descriptive language and copiously supported with numerous photographs, illustrations, and charts. Rarely does any specific item require more than a few lines.

While the authors have considerable expertise, they nonetheless have drawn on a variety of other sources as well, acknowledging contributions from bait dealers, equipment manufacturers, and government agencies, among others.

Appropriately, the bulk of the book deals with the methodology of fishing. The considerable discussions on angling techniques and various lures and baits are succinct and intelligent yet retain a simplicity the reader will appreciate. Periodic bons mots, asterisked appropriately by a fish, add a practical afterthought to some discussions. These sections contain useful information for any fisherman, regardless of his expertise or experience.

Sections on fishing sciences and fishing aids are thought-provoking, but on occasion they resort to information that is highly speculative. The section on “first aid for the fisherman” should be deleted from further editions. Since the authors in their preface encourage the reader to “read the Guide slowly and then go back and read it again,” a reference list of appropriate information sources for handling abnormal or emergency situations would prepare the reader more adequately than the superficial descriptions they present of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hypothermia, and snake bites.

The checklists in chapter thirteen are inappropriate. More useful would be sample lists for specific sized groups under stated conditions detailed as examples. Alternatively, lists for fishing trips in different seasons or stressing various weather conditions could be developed.

To serve the purpose intended, this book would be most useful without its chapters on fish descriptions, boats, motors and trailers, and boating safety. The space gained in the tackle box could be used to store more crank bait and jitterbugs.