What’s almost as good as going fishing? Hearing, telling, and swapping great fish stories. Shaun Morey is a fisherman, a connoisseur of fish stories, and a journalist with a novelist’s eye (and vice versa) in this collection of over 100 incredible (and true!) fishing stories. Here are Remarkable Catches—like the time Billy Sandifer caught a 1,000-pound tiger shark in the surf (he released it after nabbing a souvenir tooth). Grueling Battles—like Bob Ploeger’s record-breaking 37-hour fight with a Pacific salmon. Hilarious Feats of Bravery, like the exploits of Matt Watson, who leapt out of a helicopter to land on the back of a marlin. And, in what can only be considered poetic justice, Shocking Acts of Fish Aggression, like Mitchell Lee Franklin’s visit to the emergency room with a 5-pound catfish attached to his chest via an impaled dorsal fin. Includes illustrations, photos, and links to videos on the author’s website.

From a grueling 37-hour fight with a Pacific salmon to the maimed fisherman whose severed thumb turned up in the belly of a Mackinaw trout. From extraordinary marlin quests to hair-raising tales of "fish catches man," here are fishing's 80 most unpredictable and spectacular tales. To get them, Shaun Morey-a fanatical fisherman and inveterate story collector-traveled from Alaska to Australia, Mexico, and the Caribbean to interview anglers, boat captains, guides and witnesses; to dig up photographs, and to confirm each tale. You'll read about Captain Jimmy Lewis who, in a moment of sheer bravado (or insanity), speared by hand-and landed-a 1,600-pound hammerhead shark. Or Bob Smith, fulfilling his twenty-year quest to catch all forty species of North America's wild trout on the bitter cold morning after his eighty-first birthday. Or the 800-pound blue marlin that made a final lunge-ripping up the deck and dragging a chair, with Paul Clause strapped in it, to the bottom of the ocean. (Paul survived; so did the marlin.) Truth is stranger than fiction.

True stories of spectacular catches made by "kids."

From the author of the wildly successful Sports Hall of Shame series comes, The Amazing but True Fishing tales. Its amusing and amazing fishing foibles and factoids are sure to hook anglers of all ages. From the one that got away to the big catch you had to see to believe, anglers love a good fishing story. And Amazing but True Fishing Tales is stuffed to the gills with incredible tales and remarkable feats of freshwater, saltwater, professional, and amateur fishing. The stories within Amazing but True Fishing Tales are all new and span from the turn of the 20th century to present day. Fishing enthusiasts will be amazed as they splash into stories that include great battles with fish, crazy accidental catches, bizarre fishing methods, outrageous angling mishaps, and astounding record breakers. Readers will learn how a man lost his class ring fishing, but got it back 18 months later after it was found in the belly of a fish at a processing plant 140 miles away. Then there's the remarkable tale of the angler who used his rod and reel to hook and save a drowning woman.Then, there's the story about an Arkansas fisherman who set a world record in 2001 by using Spam for bait to catch a catfish that weighed more than your average junior high-school kid. With its true tales, angling antics, and fish-filled facts, Amazing but True Fishing Tales will be the latest great catch of fishing enthusiasts everywhere.

Travel from Scottish streams to shark infested seas and from the frozen tundra to tropical reefs. There's every style of fishing, from the magic touch of the fly to blood-and-thunder battles with monsters of the deep. Shiver at ghostly tales from the river bank and marvel at incredible exploits with rod and line. There are stories of ones that got away as well as catches that set records. Discover a treasure trove of stories, invested with a drama and poetry that makes this essential reading for all fishermen, everywhere.