The most recommended fishing books

Who picked these books? Meet our 29 experts.

29 authors created a book list connected to fishing, and here are their favorite fishing books.
When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

What type of fishing book?

Loading...
Loading...

Book cover of 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

Martin Bodek Author Of Zaidy's War: Four Armies, Three Continents, Two Brothers. One Man's Impossible Story of Endurance

From Martin's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Goal-achiever Ultra marathoner Voracious reader Semi-pro scrabbler Dad jokester

Martin's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Martin Bodek Why did Martin love this book?

I'm a sucker for survival stories, but I'm a durn fool for expertly written survival stories. The truth is, he had me at 438, and the rest could have been downhill coasting.

This fine writer, though, did not rest on laurels. He did what a story like this required: great reporting despite language barriers, detailed professional psychological/survivalist commentary at correctly curated junctures, evidence backing up the story, a detailed map of the unreal journey, and the mental state of the protagonist throughout and after.

The story is also strongly linear, which gives it forward momentum, which is key for a story like this, because you need to move forward to survive, and not look back and dwell on the past. This is a great story in great hands.

By Jonathan Franklin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 438 Days as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The incredible true survival story of one man's record-breaking fourteen months lost at sea.

On 17th November, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico for a two-day fishing trip. A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged his boat out to sea. The storm picked up and carried him West, deeper into the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Alvarenga would not touch solid ground again for fourteen months. When he was washed ashore on January 30th, 2014, he had drifted over 9,000 miles.

Three dozen cruise ships and container vessels passed nearby. Not one stopped for the…


Book cover of Messages from Frank's Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way

Marianne Wesson Author Of A Death at Crooked Creek: The Case of the Cowboy, the Cigarmaker, and the Love Letter

From my list on characters behind famous legal proceedings.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a law professor, I always regretted one aspect of the severely edited case reports in the textbooks that I taught from. Eager to get to the main point— analyzing the law that would govern the decision—they seemed to give only the most cursory account of the interesting parts of the story: what happened, who made it happen, and whom did it happen to? I worried that students would take on board the implicit message that the people whose lives were entangled in the law didn’t matter much compared to the law’s lofty majesty. This list and my own book represent my protest against this mistaken idea.

Marianne's book list on characters behind famous legal proceedings

Marianne Wesson Why did Marianne love this book?

Fifty years ago, a federal judge in Washington State issued a decision that upended the fishing economy and culture of the Pacific Northwest. United States v. Washington, which was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court, held that treaties between the government and the tribal peoples of that region must be respected and ruled that the tribes had a right to 50% of the annual catch. 

Wilkinson, one of the lawyers who advised and represented the tribal peoples, imbues his account of the lawsuit and its aftermath with Indian values and culture. Importantly, this form of storytelling includes numerous oral histories. They could serve the right reader as a sort of spiritual guide to how to behave when you, a peaceful person, find that your rights are being violated with apparent impunity.

By Charles Wilkinson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Messages from Frank's Landing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Billy Frank, Jr., has been celebrated as a visionary, but if we go deeper and truer, we learn that he is best understood as a plainspoken bearer of traditions, a messenger, passing along messages from his father, from his grandfather, from those further back, from all Indian people, really. They are messages about the natural world, about societies past, about this society, and about societies to come. When examined rigorously - not out of any romanticism but only out of our own enlightened self-interest - these messages can be of great practical use to us in this and future years'…


Book cover of Silver Shoals: The Five Fish That Made Britain

Amelia Dalton Author Of Pages from My Passport

From my list on the lives of those who pushed the boundaries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I ‘fell’ into being at sea by chance, through my father’s insistence I join him on a Scottish fishing boat for a week. I discovered I adored exploring unknown islands and lonely beaches, discovering wildlife and resilient small communities. In the 1990’s a female working amongst fishermen and commercial shipping was unknown, it was a wholly male, chauvinistic world. Using these skills I found a job being paid to explore – a dream job, pioneering but frequently lonely and dangerous. It resulted in my expanding the range and world of small expedition ships into areas with no infrastructure, unexplored and uncharted, lonely, empty coasts from the Arctic to Singapore. 

Amelia's book list on the lives of those who pushed the boundaries

Amelia Dalton Why did Amelia love this book?

This is one of the most eye-opening and fascinating books I have read.

Having spent much of my life amongst the islands and coastal communities of the British Isles I was intrigued learn more about the fish and I did learn so much. We all know the fishing industry has shaped these islands, but the author delves deeper into what has created and influenced the many varied communities of coastal Britain, as well as illustrating the development of our many styles of fishing vessels.

It is a colourful and enlightening account.

By Charles Rangeley-Wilson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silver Shoals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On these rain-swept islands in the North Atlantic man and fish go back a long way. Fish are woven through the fabric of the country's history: we depend on them - for food, for livelihood and for fun - and now their fate depends on us in a relationship which has become more complex, passionate and precarious in the sophisticated 21st Century.

In Silver Shoals Charles Rangeley-Wilson travels north, south, east and west through the British Isles tracing the histories, living and past, of our most iconic fish - cod, carp, eels, salmon and herring - and of the fishermen…


Book cover of Hawaiian Fishing Traditions

Dennis Kawaharada Author Of Storied Landscapes: Hawaiian Literature and Place

From my list on understanding Hawaiian culture before visiting.

Why am I passionate about this?

I taught traditional Hawaiian literature to college students and established Kalamakū Press in 1990 to publish Hawaiian folktales, narratives, autobiography, and poetry. I also worked for a decade as a writer for the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS), a scientific and cultural non-profit that builds and sails double-hulled voyaging canoes to explore how the Polynesians, without modern navigation instruments, found and settled Hawai‘i. Long before Europeans arrived in Hawai‘i, Polynesians discovered and lived sustainably for centuries on an isolated chain of eight islands. The practices and values of the traditional culture have a lot to teach communities struggling to find their way in an overdeveloped, overpopulated world today. 

Dennis' book list on understanding Hawaiian culture before visiting

Dennis Kawaharada Why did Dennis love this book?

Hawaiian Fishing Traditions celebrates famous Hawaiian fishermen. Fish was the main source of protein. The first story, by Moke Manu, tells of Kū‘ula-kai, who became deified as a god of fishermen because of his power to control fish. He built the first fishpond, in Hāna, Maui, to supply the chief and people with food. His son ‘Ai‘ai, featured in the second story, continued his father’s good work by locating offshore fishing grounds and teaching the people how to catch fish, practice conservation, and distribute the catch with generosity. Also included are the stories of other legendary fishermen and of battles with man-eating sharks. Two articles in the appendix describe the vast array of traditional fishing methods; a third article gives an anthropological account of the worship of shark gods.

By Moke Manu, Dennis Kawaharada (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hawaiian Fishing Traditions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A celebration of the great fisherman of ancient Hawaii, known for attracting and propagating fish, inventing fishing techniques, and bringing in extraordinary catches.


Book cover of Trout Fishing in America

Jeffrey Dunn Author Of Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance

From my list on big imagination and creative punch.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a happy child until I went to school. When my teacher turned her back, I ran home. My mom sent me back. The umbilical cord broken, I held a grudge. That enmity remained until my ninth-grade English teacher read us Richard Brautigan’s post-apocalyptic, proto-hippie fantasy In Watermelon Sugar. There was much to imagine: a multicolored sun, an infinite garbage dump, and mathematical, parent-eating tigers. Like the narrator, I wanted to live in a shack, not have a regular name, and hook up with a proto-hippie, hot cake-making artist girlfriend who made “a long and slow love” possible. Since then, I have devoured fiction, poetry, art, film, you name it. 

Jeffrey's book list on big imagination and creative punch

Jeffrey Dunn Why did Jeffrey love this book?

I was fourteen when I was introduced to my next pick. Our teacher read aloud The Kool-Aid Wino and The Cleveland Wrecking Yard, and I was lucky enough to find a copy at the mall as I read, bang! Trout Fishing in America Terrorists, bang! The Hunchback Trout, and bang! Sandbox Minus John Dillinger Equals What?

Brautigan grew up neglected and received involuntary electroshock treatments because he was hungry and threw a rock through a police station window. He never went to college but taught college classes. His imagination gave him a reason to live. It gave me one, too.

By Richard Brautigan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Trout Fishing in America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three counterculture classics by Richard Brautigan, literary icon of the 1960s, together in a single volume, including the unforgettable Trout Fishing in America.

Trout Fishing in America is by turns a hilarious, playful, and melancholy novel that wanders from San Francisco through America's rural waterways.

In Watermelon Sugar expresses the mood of a new generation, revealing death as a place where people travel the length of their dreams, rejecting violence and hate.

The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is a collection of nearly one hundred poems, first published in 1968.


Book cover of The Hollow House

Ryan Tim Morris Author Of This Never Happened

From my list on that leave you questioning identity and maybe reality.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I start a new book, my aim is to write something completely different from what I’ve written before. It’s challenging, but also important to keep things fresh. To me, a blank slate before each story is thrilling. To start with nothing, and end with something wholly original. This Never Happened, my third book, began with a feeling we’ve all had before: the feeling of not belonging. I asked myself, “What if I really didn't belong here, but was meant for somewhere else entirely?” From there, I created a character who grows increasingly unsure of his own identity and reality, themes that are also present in my selection of books below.

Ryan's book list on that leave you questioning identity and maybe reality

Ryan Tim Morris Why did Ryan love this book?

A man is driving to some oceanside cliffs to end his life. On the way, he stops for a night at a B&B in a small fishing village. He meets a girl, who has disappeared in the morning, and the man thinks, “What the heck. I’ll just stick around here and pretend I’m the girl’s boyfriend (who no one in the village has met before) and wait until she returns.” The villagers grow increasingly suspicious (about everything, it seems) and the man is soon caught in an uncontrollable deception of his own making.

This is a really odd, really well-written Gothic tale by an author I’d never heard of (who doesn’t seem to have written anything before or since), but I picked it up because its vagueness intrigued me. It’s the interplay of the main character trying his best to pretend he’s someone he’s not, for reasons even he’s…

By Carlo Dellonte,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Hollow House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A gothic tale of dark longings and fragile fantasies 'I used to look across the street from my window through the windows of others, but none faced me directly so I could never see more than thin slices of rooms. People appeared from time to time, like pearl divers, briefly coming back to the surface for a breath of air...I was in love with life after dinner, beyond windows that weren't mine, of people I didn't know' As a young man drives hard through the night to reach the sea, he is stopped by the harsh wind and by a…


Book cover of Two Years Without You

K.B. Andrews Author Of Shattered

From my list on beautiful romances that bloomed from trauma or grief.

Why am I passionate about this?

So many people want perfection. There are so many books out there where boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married, and have a happily ever after. But the books on my list show you that not everything is perfect. Life isn’t perfect. Things aren’t always good or happy. I like when something beautiful is born from something ugly, and every book on this list is exactly that. Perfect with imperfections.

K.B.'s book list on beautiful romances that bloomed from trauma or grief

K.B. Andrews Why did K.B. love this book?

I loved this book by Kelly Moore because of how emotional it was. I love when books are written so well, it makes you feel like you’re living the story, rather than reading about someone else. I love a book that you don’t want to step away from, and this was one of those books.

I loved the character development, the overall story, Kelly Moore’s writing style, but most of all, I loved how the emotions jumped off the page and right into my chest.

By Kelly Moore, Dark Water Covers (illustrator), Kerry Genova (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Two Years Without You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Maeve Archer's heart was caught between two brothers—Evan, who stole it in a chance encounter at the market, and Danny, the charismatic one who won her over when Evan inexplicably stepped aside for his brother to marry her.

Two years after Danny's tragic demise during a fishing trip with Evan, Maeve struggles to piece together her shattered life. Angry and abandoned by Evan's disappearance, she pours her emotions into letters, receiving no reply. Eventually, she resigns herself to moving on.

A celebration of life brings Maeve face to face with Evan, the man who has always owned her heart. However,…


Book cover of Deeper

T.L Oberheu Author Of The Shadow Dies Loudly: 27 Tales

From my list on for aspiring horror authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I read my first chapter book in Kindergarten, and have been fascinated by literature ever since. From writing a Halloween story in 3rd grade that made my classmates cry and the teacher call my mom, to graduating from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, literature has always been a big factor in my life. As a new writer myself and paired with my long list of books stored on my shelves and in my mind, I simply would like to give my two cents on the stories that caused my inspiration to blossom. 

T.L's book list on for aspiring horror authors

T.L Oberheu Why did T.L love this book?

A fun read, and while this book wasn’t the cause of a flooding of readers in bookstores when it was released, that does not diminish the quality of it. This story takes the Mythos from H.P Lovecraft and adds protagonists that put up a fight against the infamous Deep Ones that every horror aficionado should already know about from Lovecraft’s century-old short story “Dagon”. I recommended this book for the simple reason of writing a protagonist that doesn’t cower in fear doesn’t disqualify the terror if done correctly. As a matter of fact: I would argue it enhances the horror aspects, since showing violence toward a violent enemy early on, rather than a dramatic showdown, can get the hero in much hotter water than they initially planned on.

By James A. Moore, Alan M. Clark and Lisa Snellings (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Deeper as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There are rumors that Golden Cove is haunted. That's why Joe Bierden and his crew are hired to take a group of scientists to the area for a month of research. For Joe, it's easy money. He plans to do a little fishing, some relaxing and simply enjoy the easiest gig of his life. At least that's the plan. Sometimes easy money isn't as easy as you expect. There are things moving in the water, and ghostly apparitions which seem undeniably real. Joe's problems get worse when he and his crew save a drowning girl who disappears only minutes later,…


Book cover of I'm Fishing With Pop-Pop Today

Susan Coryell Author Of Kiki's Dream

From my list on that show young children to dream for themselves.

Why am I passionate about this?

My expertise and passion for the theme of children’s dreams for themselves and how they achieve them began with reading wonderful children’s picture books to my kids and grandkids when they were very young. After writing one young adult novel and four cozy mysteries for adults, I realize my true calling as a writer is to create books that little readers will not only love but return to again and again to reinforce their own dreams and sense of worth as well as awareness of others. Many picture books dwell on what elders dream for their children rather than what young ones wish for themselves.

Susan's book list on that show young children to dream for themselves

Susan Coryell Why did Susan love this book?

I found this book to be so true to life.

Rosie’s grandfather insisted he was the one to bait the hook, cast the line, and reel in the fish, when it was Rosie’s big dream to go through the fishing process from the worm to the catch all by herself. I love how the author highlighted Rosie’s close relationship with her grandfather which helps her to achieve her dream.

By Leslie Eva Tayloe,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I'm Fishing With Pop-Pop Today as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rosie wants to catch a BIG fish while fishing with her Pop-Pop. She realizes her Pop-Pop won't allow her to hold her own fishing pole, bait her own hook, cast her own line, or reel in her own fish. Will Rosie ever get to catch her own BIG fish? Read on to find out in this charmingly illustrated book for children.


Book cover of The Birthday Cake: The Adventures of Pettson and Findus

Elsa Blomster Author Of Retrieving for All Occasions

From Elsa's 5-year-old's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Dog trainer Business analyst Reader Author Hiker

Elsa's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, Elsa's 5-year-old's favorite books.

Elsa Blomster Why did Elsa's 5-year-old love this book?

Pettsson and his talking cat Findus go about their every day life and all the books have lovely drawings where you can spend a lot of time finding different details. In this book they are going to make a birthday cake for Findus, but a lot of problems arises on the way.

By Sven Nordqvist,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Birthday Cake as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

A hilarious cumulative story about baking a 'pancake-cake' for the cat with three birthdays a year!

When Pettson sets out to make Findus a cake, he finds that he's missing a key ingredient. This starts a hilarious chain of events resulting in Pettson distracting a bull, climbing through a skylight into his attic to find his fishing pole to fish the key out of the well, so he can open his shed, fix his flat tire, then ride to the store to buy some flour (and a new pair of overalls), then made a tasty cake for Findus!


Book cover of 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
Book cover of Messages from Frank's Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way
Book cover of Silver Shoals: The Five Fish That Made Britain

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,473

readers submitted
so far, will you?