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Fishing by the book

Berman, with assistance from noted Bay area angler Gary Poyssick, provides tips that will be helpful to the most seasoned angler.

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By FRANK SARGEANT

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 14, 2009

Captain Mel Berman, longtime host of "The Captain Mel Show" on 970 AM, with assistance from noted Bay area angler Gary Poyssick, has just released a book called "Skinny Water," which as you'd guess covers flats fishing.

It's a great primer for anyone wanting to get started in fishing for snook, redfish and trout in shallow water, as well as offering many insider tips that will be helpful to the most seasoned angler - even tips such as using a mullet or ladyfish head for monster snook, a trick known to only the most hard-core lunker snookers.

The book is beautifully illustrated with color photos, and with more than 200 pages it gives coverage that's both broad and deep, though deep might not be the appropriate term for a book about fishing where your knees rarely get wet.

One of the most useful sections covers use of wind, tides, temperature and frontal passages as they affect flats fish. Learn how these factors fit together and it's a rare day when you can't find action, the authors say.

They also spend many pages investigating the most critical part of flats fishing: finding where the fish are. While many beginning anglers think they need only some secret bait or lure for success, the true key to flats angling - and all other fishing, for that matter - is learning where the fish will be and where they will feed on any given day.

The book does a particularly nice job of exploring the topography of the flats - where to find the holes, the mangrove undercuts, the sloughs and bars, and the points and bays that will hold fish, when others that appear very similar will hold none. Anglers also will like the Google Earth satellite photos, which show in exact detail what some of the productive flats areas look like. Making use of these high-tech tools can allow even an angler new to flats fishing to be successful.

The book also covers boats, tackle, live bait vs lures, recognizing the various flats species, how to handle big, fast fish on light tackle and, of course, cleaning and cooking, along with some of Berman's favorite recipes. It's a fast, fun read with lots of helpful information, and you can get it in time for Christmas. It costs $19.95 from www.capmel.com.

For those who prefer cold-water fish to Florida's more familiar species, Jim Casada's new 'Fly Fishing the Great Smoky Mountain National Park' can't be beat. This is a lifework of a man who fished the dozens of trout streams of the park from the time he was big enough to walk. And Casada, who made his living as a college professor, offers a graduate level course in these 440 pages. Anyone who visits the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee will find it an absolute bible of trout fishing there.

It's also a delightful look at the history of the park and the anglers who have visited there, dating to the 1800s. Casada personally knew many of the first serious fly-rodders to fish the area, and has managed to accumulate a treasure trove of historic angling and backcountry pictures from before his time.

The book covers 35 streams, and you can tell Casada has fished every one of them many times. He includes detailed guides of how to get to each, where to park, which trails are best to get to which pools, and tips on how to fish them, always interspersed with tidbits of the history of that particular flow and of his relationship to it.

The book includes the nuts and bolts of fishing these often-tiny mountain streams, including selecting the sometimes-minuscule flies that seem to be the only fodder that pleases the trout. He includes rules for fishing the park, camping tips and more. Anyone who likes chasing cold-water trout east of the Mississippi will enjoy and benefit from this book. It costs $37.50 from www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com.

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