"Whats your favorite book no one else has ever heard of?"

[turkey]

"The Allegheny Angler", by Jim Bashline.

A small paperback that was written in the early '60's, if I recall correctly.
About his experiences fishing the north central part of the state, with a lot of emphasis on the upper Allegheny River.

When I first started FFing, I was exploring that area a lot.
And really enjoyed reading about how things were back in the day

I was going to say Night Fishing For Trout by Bashline. I was unaware of the Allegheny Angler title.

Great suggestions in this thread.

 

[dryflyguy]

I was going to say Night Fishing For Trout by Bashline. I was unaware of the Allegheny Angler title.

Great suggestions in this thread.

Bashline does talk about night fishing a bit in Allegheny Angler.
Specifically in the well known Goodsell pool on the upper allegheny river.
There was a small band of dedicated night fishermen that gathered there.
And they routinely caught fish in the 20 inch range, according to him

 

[kbobb]

Forty-Four Years, the Life of a Hunter - Meshach Browning​

This guy was the real deal. His life was primarily in western Maryland and south central/western PA.
This guy took many bear, deer, and some mountain lions. Crawling into bear dens, living in the woods on the trail of game. Quit a life - and practically in our back yard. Vivid stories. I've heard some of his artifacts are in the Smithsonian.

Pulling it off the shelf to read again right now.

 

[turkey]

Forty-Four Years, the Life of a Hunter - Meshach Browning​

This guy was the real deal. His life was primarily in western Maryland and south central/western PA.
This guy took many bear, deer, and some mountain lions. Crawling into bear dens, living in the woods on the trail of game. Quit a life - and practically in our back yard. Vivid stories. I've heard some of his artifacts are in the Smithsonian.

Pulling it off the shelf to read again right now.

This sounds amazing.

 

[brookiefan]

Trout Reflections by David M Carroll. Details the life cycle of a trout on a stream. His prose is fantastic. He's written several other books on turtles and the swamp and wetland habitat. If you like being aware of the natural wonders around you on wilderness streams wetlands ,you'll like his books.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Board,

Has anyone mentioned the "Lure and Lore of Trout Fishing" by Alvin "Buzz" Grove?

I think he was a Fish Commissioner back in the day?

I read that book along with "Vanishing Trout" by Charles Lose a long time ago courtesy of the Lower Southampton Township public library when I was just a young teen, circa 1972 of so.

Both books smelled musty, like my still alive great grandparents at the time, so I gave them a shot!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[BrookieChaser]

"The Best Damn Garage in Town" - by Smokey Yunick

 

[namfos]

The Snowfly by Joseph Heywood. A story of obsession. Solid good fun!
A Jerk On One End by Robert Hughes

 

[Acristickid]

Many Rivers to Cross- M R Montgomery

Not unknown but worth mentioning- Trout and Salmon of North America by Dr. Robert J. Behnke. It is now outdated by still excellent. There have been dozens of “new discoveries” since his book came out.

 

[RLeep2]

Dear Board,

Has anyone mentioned the "Lure and Lore of Trout Fishing" by Alvin "Buzz" Grove?

I think he was a Fish Commissioner back in the day?

I read that book along with "Vanishing Trout" by Charles Lose a long time ago courtesy of the Lower Southampton Township public library when I was just a young teen, circa 1972 of so.

Both books smelled musty, like my still alive great grandparents at the time, so I gave them a shot!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Dr. Grove was a doozy of the first order.. IIRC, he was a botany professor at Penn State. I got to know him through state TU doings towards the end of his life when he was long retired. In the early 1960's, Bus was (again, IIRC) the first editor of what became Trout magazine. He was also probably the single most important person in the beginnings and early years of TU in Pennsylvania. He was a prime organizer of the original 5-6 TU Chapters in PA. For anybody interested in the history of TU in Pennsylvania, Mike Klimkos of the Cumberland Valley Chapter wrote a concise, detailed and exhaustive organizational history back around 2000 or so. I have a copy of this as a Word document and would be happy to share it with anybody interested except that I do not remember where it stands as regards Mike's ownership and copyright of the work. It's been over 20 years.. I think though that it likely belongs to PATU and is available to any TU member. I'm not positive though..

Anyway, I said above that Bus was a "doozy". Back in the late 80's when Howie Gustafson from Port Allegany was PATU President, Bus used to torture him unrelentingly (but all in fun..) during state council meetings. Howie was rapid and hasty and tended to run the meetings at a stacatto, machine gun pace. Anything that broke his rhythm or slowed him down annoyed him mightily. Many times, Bus would interrupt to ask a question and then, with only the first half of his query spoken, he would lapse into a contemplative silence as his words hung in the air mixed with the ribbons of smoke from his ever-present cigar. Howie could only take about 30 seconds of this before he spontaneously combusted. He'd turn red, his feet would alternately tap out his impatience and both hands began scratching the sides of his head. He couldn't take the inertia and would bust out yelling, G--d----t Bus, get to the point for C----t sake! Bus would nod and smile and send a few more puffs of cigar smoke skywards and then finish his question slowly, word by word in his deep bass voice. It was hilarious to watch, especially because it was all in fun and these guys actually liked and respected each other a great deal.

Sorry for the long winded digression. It was on my mind..

 

[Bamboozle]

Funny stuff!!

I have two copies of "Lure and Lore of Trout Fishing" by Alvin "Bus" Grove. I was really keen on meeting him back when I got my first copy and have him sign it, but that never happened. I did manage to buy a 2nd signed copy more recently.

Those Grove books are an important part of the Pennsylvania portion of my book collection which includes works by Fox, Marinaro, Shenk, Harvey, Humphreys, Lose, Koch, Bashline, Lively, Clouser, Meck, Leisenring and a few others I can't remember at the moment.

 

[troutbert]

Dr. Grove was a doozy of the first order.. IIRC, he was a botany professor at Penn State. I got to know him through state TU doings towards the end of his life when he was long retired. In the early 1960's, Bus was (again, IIRC) the first editor of what became Trout magazine. He was also probably the single most important person in the beginnings and early years of TU in Pennsylvania. He was a prime organizer of the original 5-6 TU Chapters in PA. For anybody interested in the history of TU in Pennsylvania, Mike Klimkos of the Cumberland Valley Chapter wrote a concise, detailed and exhaustive organizational history back around 2000 or so. I have a copy of this as a Word document and would be happy to share it with anybody interested except that I do not remember where it stands as regards Mike's ownership and copyright of the work. It's been over 20 years.. I think though that it likely belongs to PATU and is available to any TU member. I'm not positive though..

Anyway, I said above that Bus was a "doozy". Back in the late 80's when Howie Gustafson from Port Allegany was PATU President, Bus used to torture him unrelentingly (but all in fun..) during state council meetings. Howie was rapid and hasty and tended to run the meetings at a stacatto, machine gun pace. Anything that broke his rhythm or slowed him down annoyed him mightily. Many times, Bus would interrupt to ask a question and then, with only the first half of his query spoken, he would lapse into a contemplative silence as his words hung in the air mixed with the ribbons of smoke from his ever-present cigar. Howie could only take about 30 seconds of this before he spontaneously combusted. He'd turn red, his feet would alternately tap out his impatience and both hands began scratching the sides of his head. He couldn't take the inertia and would bust out yelling, G--d----t Bus, get to the point for C----t sake! Bus would nod and smile and send a few more puffs of cigar smoke skywards and then finish his question slowly, word by word in his deep bass voice. It was hilarious to watch, especially because it was all in fun and these guys actually liked and respected each other a great deal.

Sorry for the long winded digression. It was on my mind..

Do you know how he got the nickname "Bus?"

 

[salmo]

My favorite book is not a fishing book but a fictional book regarding environmental collapse. It called Nature’s End by Whitley Schubert. It was written in the 80s but so much of the book has become true including the wildfires in the west and smoke on the east coast from fires in Canada. Highly recommend as science fiction.

 

[RLeep2]

Do you know how he got the nickname "Bus?"

I may have known at one time, Dwight, but not any more. A lot of stuff in the filing cabinets between my ears has disintegrated over the years...

 

[RLeep2]

Just a quick clarification regarding the Klimkos history of TU in Pennsylvania and then I'll be done going off topic. I believe the copy I have is a pre-publication draft Mike sent me for comments back in 2000 or 2001 and not the finished manuscript.

The book was published in 2003 and is available on Amazon. It isn't cheap.. $95.00. All the same, I'd buy it if I didn't already have it for all intents and purposes. I like Mike and he told me the funniest joke I ever heard,.

Amazon.com

 

[bringthepain]

While not all are 1st editions, the copyrights on my books that I listed are 1965, 1948, 1963, 1924 & 1916 while my copy of the Vanishing Trout is from 1931.

The 1931 edition may read the same, but it doesn't smell the same...

I actually bought it from Bill Haynes at Angler's Pro Shop for a song when he had a bunch of books there that he was selling on consignment.

He was a nice guy, had some interactions with him way back in the day