100 Weird Ways to Catch a Fish »

"Fascinating . . . a sense of fishing history, culture and lore. . . . "
--Anna Minicucci, Warwick Beacon

Fishermen who pursue fish in strange and difficult habitats have developed a panoply of interesting, innovative, and oftentimes downright weird ways of outwitting them.  Some of these are ancient and primitive, such as poisoning, foot fishing, shark noosing, and the suprisingly gentle art of tickling trout.  Some are old but sophisticated, like fishing with the aid of cormorants and otters.  Others are modern but primitive, nonetheless, such as noodling grabbing large catfish after feeling for them in muddy waters, or calling them towards baited hooks with noises made by klonking.  Yet others are modern and highly technical, such as gas ballooning for tuna off seaside cliffs and poaching fish with homemade electrical shockers.  These 100 essays mix fact, lore, and anecdotes in a humorous compilation describing the great lengths to which fishermen are willing to go to extract these relatively dimwitted yet challenging creatures from lakes, rivers, and the sea.

      On the cover, a retired school bus driver in Washington rigged a giant slingshot to the side of an ancient Volkswagen Beetle. By rearing back about twenty feet on the rubber sling, he could fire his railroad spike sinker and bait well out into the Columbia River to catch sturgeon. 

John Waldman is editor of Stripers: An Angler's Anthology, and author of The Dance of the Flying Gurnards and the award-winning Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor. He also writes for the New York Times, The Underwater Naturalist, and other outdoors venues.  He is a professor of biology at Queens College and lives within walking distance of the water in Sea Cliff, New York.