I just picked up this book secondhand: Indian Fishing by Hilary Stewart ISBN 0-88894-332-6. It's a beautifully illustrated explanation of the many methods Pacific Northwest natives used to fish. Each chapter deals with a different technique and includes detailed instructions on how the tools (hooks, nets, gorges, floats) were designed, and used, to exploit the characteristics of the fish being sought.
It includes a page on that three-legged whirling lure that featured on one of Mears' programmes. I thought that was a bit unrealistic but when you see the context in which it was used it makes more sense.
There are three reasons I am recommending this book:
1. You know all the illustrations you see in traditional books about those oh-so-impractical-looking wooden fish-hooks or staking off parts of rivers to round up fish? Well, it appears they do work, but what is missing is the context; the how and why and "which fish" that these hooks were used to catch. For me, the big take-away from this book was that their fishing tools and techniques sprang from a completely different way of thinking about fish and fish behaviour. If you think a wooden fish-hook is a bushcraft substitute for a steel fish-hook and have an intuition that it won't work, this book will help you realize why it won't work and show you how the natives used it so that it does work.
2. Stewart's illustrations make the book a work of art in itself. My secondhand copy is in perfect condition and is "coffee table book" quality.
3. This is bushcraft-level. Stewart tried out many of the designs and techniques she had heard about so that she could figure out what people had forgotten or misremembered. On the strength of her attention to detail (AKA attention to reality), I have ordered her Drink in the Wild: Teas, Cordials, Jams, and More (ISBN:1550548948).
I wrote this rave review because this book filled in some areas of traditional texts about which I was somewhat skeptical.
I got my copy via Abebooks. I get a lot of secondhand books that way. There are a couple of secondhand copies of Indian Fishing in the UK according to Abebooks.
It includes a page on that three-legged whirling lure that featured on one of Mears' programmes. I thought that was a bit unrealistic but when you see the context in which it was used it makes more sense.
There are three reasons I am recommending this book:
1. You know all the illustrations you see in traditional books about those oh-so-impractical-looking wooden fish-hooks or staking off parts of rivers to round up fish? Well, it appears they do work, but what is missing is the context; the how and why and "which fish" that these hooks were used to catch. For me, the big take-away from this book was that their fishing tools and techniques sprang from a completely different way of thinking about fish and fish behaviour. If you think a wooden fish-hook is a bushcraft substitute for a steel fish-hook and have an intuition that it won't work, this book will help you realize why it won't work and show you how the natives used it so that it does work.
2. Stewart's illustrations make the book a work of art in itself. My secondhand copy is in perfect condition and is "coffee table book" quality.
3. This is bushcraft-level. Stewart tried out many of the designs and techniques she had heard about so that she could figure out what people had forgotten or misremembered. On the strength of her attention to detail (AKA attention to reality), I have ordered her Drink in the Wild: Teas, Cordials, Jams, and More (ISBN:1550548948).
I wrote this rave review because this book filled in some areas of traditional texts about which I was somewhat skeptical.
I got my copy via Abebooks. I get a lot of secondhand books that way. There are a couple of secondhand copies of Indian Fishing in the UK according to Abebooks.
(NB..25 quid off amazon by the way,some of the other books she has written look good reads also)
