Finesse fishing books...

[DitchPanda]

This year I've put alot of focus on getting better at finesse fishing...ned, wacky, light Texas rig etc. I've been primarily a power fisherman so I'm trying to get better at the whole light line small bait stuff. Anyway we are coming up on October fast so for me that means I may be down to my last 6-8 weeks of open water. So I'm looking for some finesse fishing books to read over the winter. Suggestions?

[Mobasser]

Charlie Brewers, " Slider Fishin". The book is dated now, but has a lot of good reading on light line fishing, that still applies today. You can order it from the Slider Company for 6.95.

[Fishes in trees]

Another recommendation for the Brewer book, "On Slider Fishing".  We've got access to MUCH better gear ( lines, rods, reels, everything, really ) than Charlie Brewer had when he wrote the book - or dictated it to some ghost writer or however that book happened.   The fact that this book stands the test of time is an indicator of how timeless his fishing notions were.  The man was an innovator.

 

Was he THE creator of finesse fishing - probably not.   Ned Kedhe and the other folks involved in Midwest Finesse have a different opinion as do several guys out on the west coast.  More than a few Japanese fishermen were doing finesse fishing, roughly around the same time.  Makes you wonder how much these guys talked to each other.

 

I know I was living in Columbia, MO, late 70's - early 80's and I fished alot and I never heard of Midwest Finesse fishing, but Brewer jig heads and 4" worms were readily available at the Bass Pro franchise.  Most of my finesse fishing derives from concepts I got from the Charlie Brewer book.

 

Another good read is the old Roland Martin book, 101 Bass Fishing Secrets.   This is more of a story book than step by step fishing instructions, but it is 100 short stories about how Roland caught fish at some point in time and there is lots of information that you can apply to your fishing situations.

[Bass Rutten]

Not a book but a long article by Rich Zaleski on finesse fishing that I re-read every so often, it’s old school but has some good fundamental info on finesse presentations.

 

http://www.richz.com/fishing/articles/finesse_87_in-fish.pdf

[Team9nine]

There’s only a handful of books that are worth mentioning. Brewer’s Slider Fishing book is a must. The RichZ article is also a milestone read, though not a book. Then you have Don Iovino’s ‘Finesse and the Sonar Connection,’ and Michael Jones’ ‘The Complete Guide to Finesse Bass Fishing.’

 

One you probably won’t find, but was the original book on finesse fishing is Nightcrawler Secrets by Bill Binkelman (1966). However, you can still find copies of “Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers” (1972, 1988),  which incorporated Bill’s first two books with Buck Perry’s structure concepts, and is also a must-read in my opinion.

 

Beyond that, the sections on stitching in Bill Murphy’s “In Pursuit of Giant Bass” book is worthy, as is time searching the old posts/articles by George Kramer on his website, Kramer Gone Fishing (great Road Runner and Dart head details among others).

[Chris Catignani]

3 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Charlie Brewers, " Slider Fishin". ...

One thing (from the book) I thought was pretty innovative was Charlie had reel where he had cut the bail off. It just had the roller. I've used reels like this in the past and currently have a "float 'n fly" rod like that. You pick the line up with your finger, make a cast, drop your finger down (catching the line) and reel it back on the roller.

I cant say enough about Slider fishing...the book and the technique.

2008 DVD produced in the 1980's

 

[Mobasser]

2 hours ago, Chris Catignani said:

One thing (from the book) I thought was pretty innovative was Charlie had reel where he had cut the bail off. It just had the roller. I've used reels like this in the past and currently have a "float 'n fly" rod like that. You pick the line up with your finger, make a cast, drop your finger down (catching the line) and reel it back on the roller.

I cant say enough about Slider fishing...the book and the technique.

2008 DVD produced in the 1980's

 

Yes. I made a post at one time about bailess spinning reels. Team9nine and A-Jay knew about this also. I believe A-Jay used bailess reels for saltwater fishing. I have an old Cardinal 4 that's bailess, but I've retired it now.                                                                Im not sure where this got started, but it was popular with Tennessee fisherman. Both Charlie Brewer and Billy Westmoreland were known to cut the bails off of Mitchell 308s, ABU Cardinal 3, and 4s.                             These older reels didn't have the ability to close the bail by hand. This was a way to alleviate line twist issues with light mono line. Now, with newer reels, we can close the bail by hand after the cast.                                   With a little practice, it's pretty easy to fish a bailess reel.           Forgot to mention, J Francho knew about these bailess reels, and I believe he's used them also.  One of those things that's kind of lost with younger anglers nowdays.                                    

[Smalliefan2]

I have two.

The Complete Guide to Finesse Fishing, Michael Jones.1991. West coast finesse, covers early techniques

Finesse Fishing w/ Mike Iaconelli, 2011. Covers the current techniques.

The Jones book is probably out of print, I guess look on ebay or Amazon. Ike's book may still be available as current.

I power fish more than finesse, but found ideas in both I use.

[WRB]

Don Iovino’s book already mentioned is a small paper back book. The sonar chapters are dated and Don Wasn’t into drop shot at the time of this book Finesse Bass Fishing and Sonar Connection. For the structure angler it’s excellent.

Tom

[QED]

The Complete Guide to Finesse Bass Fishing
Michael Jones, Brand: McGrady Media

 

The Ultralight Angler: How to Catch Big Fish on Light Tackle
Feldman, Mark

 

Ultralight Spin-Fishing: A Practical Guide for Freshwater and Saltwater Anglers Fishing How-To A Practical Guide for Freshwater and Saltwater Anglers

 

Ultralight Fishing (The Freshwater Angler)
Lilley, Tim, Brand: Creative Publishing international

 

These are decent books but may be hard to find.

[DitchPanda]

Thank you for the responses. I have the iaconelli book and its not a bad read. Think ill pick up the Brewer slider book and track down the Michael Jones complete guide to finesse fishing.