which salmon book?

[corsican dave]

i know very little about fishing for salmon... (and not much more about trout! :lol:)

if you had to recommend a one-stop guide for a novice, which book/author woul you go for?

[Wildfisher]

Shug Falkus  "Salmon Fishing" is a very good book

Also commit the following essential  credibility phrases to memory and shout them loudly while strutting  confidently down   the left hand bank.

TOP HOLE WIVER OLD BEAN!

I SHOULD SAY SO!

DO YOU PLAY CWICKET?!

HAVE YOU SEEN WUPERT?!

:lol:

[Fishtales]

Falkus seems to be the de facto book to get. Not everyone agrees with his writing though.

There is also Neil Graesser

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Neil%20Graesser

[Malcolm]

I haven't read one. I've got several (Olglesby, Balfour-Kinnear, Falkus etc) but they are very dated and of questionable value. Flies and tactics have changed drastically in very recent years. If there is a good book on modern salmon fishing I'd hazard a guess that it will have been written by a Scandinavian.

FWIW I'd say look at DVDs for casting if you can't be with someone.

The things that have changed massively are the lines with a lot of use of shooting heads and spey lines both of which are combined with interchangeable tips.

Might be worth asking on the Salmon Fishing Forum.

[IrishFloatTube]

It doesn't have to be a new book does it?
The library, or abebooks.co.uk have plenty of access to older titles.

Righyni covered a lot in a sensible way long ago.
Crawford Little describes methods quite well.
If you fly fish for salmon in rivers and have not read "Flying Salmon" by Balfour Kinnnear you are not fully clued in.
And if you fly fish salmon in lakes then Sidney Spencer becomes an education.

For an up to date, just published last year salmon fly fishing book you could do a lot worse than to try
Paul Marriner's Atlantic Salmon  from http://www.galesendpress.com/

[corsican dave]

cheers guys!

i asked on here as i knew i'd get some sensible answers and not have to put on my posh voice or tweeds :lol:

fred, you missed a couple:
get orff my land!
bally kayakers ruined the fishing again

i'm also thinking the double-hander might work quite nicely for the salt, which would at least keep me closer to my working class roots!!

[Wildfisher]

Here?s another useful one Dave, but on no account use it later than August 11th or they'll suss you out as a fraud:

If there?s not much doing fish wise just  shout   Never mind chaps it?ll soon  be gwouse time.   

[corsican dave]

like it, andy! :lol:

problem is, my local river's the spey.... :roll:

[zeolite]

Don't you listen to those anti-snob snobs Dave. DH casting is an art form in itself a worthy of any amount of study. In fact I have been fishing the Fife Leven with a single hander  (it is a small overgrown river) and wishing I had a DH to get round the obstructions. i also found I would get a sore shoulder with the SH 7 weight that would never happen with a DH. Where backcasting is limited DH is the way to go. That is what a fighting butt is for IMHO
Bookwise I really can't add to the list so far but I must emphasise what Exerod said. Local knowledge is paramount. Find the good lie, get there as often as you can and drop a fly/spinner/worm at that place. Then worry about depth, speed and size. As Exe said timing and luck are paramount. Find a pal who can show you round.
Get a few DH lessons as well. There is a higher basic skill level than a single hander. I should add that after that I think that a SH is ultimately more difficult but that is probably just me.

[Fishtales]

Once you get whacked on the back of the head with a 3" brass tube with a #8 treble attached you appreciate the finer skills of double handed casting

zeolite

You can spey cast with a single handed rod to

I found this video of Falkus's quite handy he shows double and single handed rods.

http://www.angling.tv/fishing-videos/free-fishing-technique-videos This is just a clip.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falkus-Fly-Casting-DVD-Hugh/dp/B000CCE2BY