Big Indiana Bass

There have been tons of articles and books written on the subject of fishing. I've read a lot of them over the years. I was sitting in my office and browsing through some of the many I have stored in my library when I got to thinking about which ones were the best. It kind of ties in with the post I made a couple days ago about articles I like, but goes one step beyond. Which ones do I consider essential reading, the basis or foundation upon which all others merely add to. I whittled it down to 5 "must haves":

The Secret Teachings of In-Fisherman Angling Wisdom & Knowledge:

That's a pretty lofty title, but my #1 piece of writing is a little 60 page handbook. Inside, the complete details of the In-Fisherman F+L+P=S formula are spelled out, still the one essential piece of knowledge upon which all fishing is based upon (IMO). Also included are chapters on calendar periods as well as the classification of natural lakes, rivers and reservoirs. Copyrighted in 1987 by Al Lindner, if you could only have one piece of literature on your coffee table, this is it.

The Old Guide's Secret Calendar of Fish Activity - Seasonal Rhythm and Response:

(ISBN 0-929384-68-7) Another small handbook by the folks at In-Fisherman, this time from 1995. It takes the smaller subtopic of calendar periods from the previously mentioned book and goes into much greater detail. As they state in the introduction, "Seasonal and even daily changes in weather and water temperature affect fish far more than they affect birds and mammals. Their feeding activity, digestion, metabolism, and growth rate are influenced by season and water temperature, in accordance with their genetic makeup. Angling success depends to a large extent upon understanding seasonal activity of various fish species."

Essential piece of reading material #2, it then goes into great detail about the calendar periods of 6 major fish species, including seperate sections for largemouth and smallmouth bass.

One thing I like about both of these books is that they are smaller handbooks as opposed to larger reference books. This makes the information direct and immediate, something that can easily be covered and digested in a matter of hours as opposed to days. That said, if you prefer more robust reading material, you could substitute my first two suggestions with " Smallmouth Bass: An In-Fisherman Handbook of Strategies" (ISBN-10: 0929384504) - 246 pgs. and "Largemouth Bass: an In-Fisherman handbook of Strategies" (ISBN-10: 0929384113) - 336 pgs. and be perfectly fine.

Essential piece #3 is actually 2 magazine articles authored by Paul Prorok. The first, written back in 1987 (In-Fisherman Book #72) is without question, in my mind, the best magazine article ever written on the subject of bass fishing. "Rick Clunn's Seasonal Patterns for Bass (Narrowing Down the Options)" is an absolute gem of a piece on Rick's system of breaking down a lake and applying seasonal patterns to your aproach when bass fishing. Bassmaster and others wrote similar lengthy articles on Rick and this subject later, but none captures the process better than this original piece.

The second, "Rick Clunn's System for Finding Bass (Eliminating the Alternatives)" came in 1989, a few years after the original piece. Detailing how Rick goes through his process of eliminating alternatives for bass once a particular seasonal pattern is generally established. Lots of specifics are given as Rick fishes and wins a B.A.S.S. tournament on Bull Shoals Res. during the spring period.

In the #4 spot, another magazine article, this one appearing in the January 1986 edition of Field & Stream. "Bass, Professionally Speaking"  gives insight into Rick's thought process on the many smaller details of catching bass. As the author leads, "Rick Clunn will catch bass when you can't. The difference is in how he thinks, and you think." Twelve 'lessons' are given in this great little piece offering insight into the man voted by bass fans as the "world's greatest angler".

Finally, #5 is a book, but more specifically just one chapter in said book. "Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer" by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (ISBN-10: 0029080614 - 231 pgs.) published in 1988. You hear lots of talk and discussion about 'fishing intuitively' or 'going with your gut feeling'. Nothing else written that I've come across covers this particular subject in more depth and clarity than chapter 4 of this book, entitled "Expert Systems Versus Intuitive Expertise".

According to the authors, there are 5 basic steps which everyone proceeds through when trying to move from the most basic understanding stage of learning and performing a task (novice) to the most advanced stage (expert). This piece breaks each step down in great detail, and gives easy to understand examples that allow you to assess exactly where along the process line you fall with your fishing ability, and what characterizes the behavior of people at the more advanced stages. A fascinating read when applied to the task of catching fish at the highest levels.

My absolute favorite fishing quote comes from professional walleye angler Mike McClelland. " 

“It’s like the trunk of a tree. Magic baits, secret lure colors, stuff like that are the tiny outside branches of the tree. Most fishermen dance on branches. They can’t see the big picture for the tiny branches. They worry about changing colors before they know if they’re over fish. The average fisherman spends his time reading about, worrying about, and trying to deal with fine-tuning presentation. Fine-tuning is important. But most people don’t catch fish because they don’t find fish.”

If you want to understand the big picture and be one of those people that catches bass because you can find them, most any time on most any water, the 5 pieces of writing above will get you there.