No matter how you fish for trout, fly-fishing, spinning, jigging, trolling or harling, this book will help you catch fish more often.
"Here is a piece of information all fishermen
need to know - at any one time, trout are found in less than
10% of the water they live in - often in much less than 10%.
This is an important piece of info. In any river, stream
or lake only 10 percent or less of the all that water will contain
trout."
If you want to become one of the 10% of fishermen who catch
90% of the fish you need to know where trout can be found more
often, and then how to fish for them, when you find them.
Tony Bishop has fished for over 60 years and written monthly fishing columns, first for the New Zealand Fishing News and then, New Zealand Fisherman.
His first fishing book ‘Fishing Smarter’ was first published in 1997,
and reprinted every year since (updated and expanded, and
re-released as ‘Fishing Even Smarter’). He has appeared on numerous
fishing programs on television, and hosted radio programs.
Many of Tony’s articles and stories have a recurrent theme -
an exploration of the many factors that determine the difference
between success and failure to catch fish.
Tony started fishing as a youngster around Christchurch, then
around the mouth of the Waimakariri River, where his family
lived for a time. Then trips throughout the South Island followed.
In his late teens the family moved to Auckland. Despite working
in the hectic world of marketing and sales management and helping
to raise three sons, Tony managed to fit in plenty of fishing,
both around New Zealand and overseas.
Finally opting out of the ‘corporate lunacy’, for
ten years till mid 1996 Tony owned and operated one of New
Zealand’s most well known tackle shops, Just Fishin’, in Auckland
“It only seems a short while ago that I was
reviewing Tony’s first book, Fishing Smarter. That’s
because it was only a short time ago - less than a year in fact.
Well, Tony’s been a busy boy since then and this latest
offering is proof that he’s becoming one of New Zealand’s
most prolific authors. Luckily, he’s also pretty good!
Actually I’m biased. I’ve always enjoyed Tony’s
writing and have had the pleasure of editing some of it for
the last few years. Quite a bit of the material in this book
is familiar to me and will be familiar to regular readers of
New Zealand Fisherman Magazine, as it first appeared in these pages. It is mostly worth
reading again. The rest is new, and as always with Tony’s
stuff its often slightly offbeat or tongue in cheek. As he writes
early on, what you won’t find in Fishing Smarter for Trout
is dogma.
What you will find are lots of practical hints and tips that
will help you find and catch trout, gleaned from Tony’s
own experience and wide reading. Its all arranged in easy-to-digest
‘bytes’ and written in no-nonsense prose. The anecdotes
are funny but its the practical stuff I really like - the book
is packed with it.
Nearly every conceivable aspect of trout fishing is covered
in Fishing Smarter for Trout, some of it in depth and some less
comprehensively. There’s an emphasis on fishing in the
North Island (that’s where Tony chases trout) but most
of the techniques translate to South Island fishing as well.
The lack of trout fishing ‘mysticism’ and over-use
of jargon, often such a feature of ‘trout books’,
is refreshing, but most important of all, the book is entertaining
and informative.
Try it, I challenge you not to learn something."
Grip and Kill
The way a trout is held when taking a photo, (aka 'Grip and grin'), can easily turn into 'grip and kill' if the fish is not handled carefully and correctly.
The area above the pectoral fins, (the fins just behind and below the gills) contains the fish's heart and other organs; too much pressure applied to this area can lead to the fish's death.
For the full story on releasing fish with best chance of survival: