THE TREASURY OF ANGLING. By Larry Koller with special material by Clive Gammon.

(1966) 1967 reprint. Large 4to (209 x 299mm). Pp252. B/w and colour photographs, illustrations. Green cloth, gilt angling scene to upper board, spine titled in gilt. 50/-.

Especially well-illustrated with colour photographs and with reproductions from old engravings, this is a celebration of British freshwater fishing, especially trout, salmon, carp, pike and perch. Good chapters on the history of angling, on the development of tackle and on the Irish lakes. A large hardback book with over 250 pages - exceptional value for money! Chapters include: Angling in antiquity; Development of angling in Britain; Development of angling tackle; Fly-fishing in Britain; The salmon; Trout; The Irish lakes; The bass [American black bass]; The carp; The pikes; The perch; The water types and how to fish them. "When a literary comet flashes across the angling scene the reviewer's first instinct is to reach for his spectroscope to discover the content of the substance. (This book) is a case in point. The marriage of North American and British angling lore between 8" x 12" hard covers, on glossy-grade paper, with a gorgeous array of prints and colour photographs, is an ambitious undertaking. Too ambitious some might think in view of the average British game and coarse fisher's well-known conservatism; I would disagree. In well-couched prose, without too frequent recourse to the superlative, Mr Koller and his advisers paint angling as it exists on two continents, in historical as well as contemporary setting. The result is light in the hand, informative and very readable. Some of Mr Koller's authorities however are not, let us say, out of the top drawer. Nor do all his arguments lead to logical conclusions. To stay upstream of a salmon when playing it is the reverse of accepted technique - especially so when advice to the contrary is given elsewhere in the book. Like an expert skating on dangerous ice the author avoids the gaping chasms of brown trout dialectics with much skill. Only occasionally does he wet a nimble ankle as: 'Some anglers indeed still argue.. ..that exact imitation matters less than perfect presentation. This is rather unlikely.. One might quarrel, too, with the statement that 'the best salmon rivers do not provide good trout fishing.' Plenty of examples between Usk and Spey suggest otherwise. There is a classic non sequitur: 'A three year-old trout, from such a richly-endowed water as Lough Sheelin.. ..may be less than three years old'. Only slightly less astonishing was the information that Richard Walker turned to coarse fishing partly from a realization that fly-fishing had possibly been taken as far as it could be. Mr Koller attempted a difficult job, and I think he pulls it off admirably. The very modest price for so sumptuous a production argues well for Anglo-American co-operation in this widening field." F.W. Holiday, writing in Creel, January 1963.