Critical Concepts 1: Catfish Fundamentals

by In-Fisherman

North America's top catfishermen reveal the secrets to being a consistently successful cat angler in In-Fisherman's Critical Concepts 1: Catfish Fundamentals. Inside you'll find photos, charts, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892947277
• ISBN13: 9781892947277
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Outdoor Sportsman Group
• Length: 162 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

MUST HAVE!

This is a MUST HAVE if you want to up your learning curve in catching big, and lots of catfish. This is currently 1 in a series of 3, with a 4th scheduled. I learned a ton out of volumes 1 and 2. Volume 3 is marginal, but still a good read. I am NOT joking. We went from catching 1 to 3 pound channels to 30's, 40's, 50's flatheads in one year after I soaked up the know-how in volumes 1 and 2 of this series. Its a jump-start that you are not going to get anywhere else.

Buy It If You Want Cats

Very detailed, scientific, and professional (kinda an oxymoron when dealing with catfish, but true nonetheless) Up to the normal high standards of its publishers.

Fundamentals of Catfishing - Not so fundamental

If I were to have only one book on catfishing, it would not be this one but probably Catfish Fever, the In Fisherman predecessor to this series. Having said that, no catfishing library would be complete without this book and it contains scads of material, such as the chapter on the Changing Nature of Catfishing, that one is unlikely to find elsewhere. One would imagine that a book entitled Catfish Fundamentals might include information on tackle, baits and presentation. I read the whole book and, if it was there, I missed it. Instead, I found a section on trophy catfish. I don't really consider that a fundamental anymore than How to Wear Your Superbowl Ring is a fundamental of football but this is the only book I know to address this topic in such depth. Other unique tidbits include how to take pictures of your catch - including when you are the only person in the boat, catfish taxidermy, weighing without a scale and how to handle cats - from getting them into the boat to getting them into the skillet and everything in between. The section on who owns rivers was also unique. As one would expect from In Fisherman the book is very well written and the editors did a great job of combining pieces from several different contributors into a seamless work. The figures and illustrations are decent but some of the tables are a tad confusing and could be better labeled. I have a PhD in biosci and still couldn't figure out how the figures on page 110 illustrated the stabilizing affect of impoundments. I was also disappointed to find that at least two of the chapters in Catfish Fundamentals were exactly the same as those in the second book in this series, Catfish Locations. I suppose I can see why the chapter on categorizing lake, river and reservoir types might be in both. However I would've felt a bit less ripped off if the two at least looked different. In spite of my apparent negativity - I would buy both these books again and am looking forward to the third and fourth volumes in this set. If you are a serious cat man or thinking of becoming one, these are must haves for your library.