Think like a Fish: The Lure and Lore of America's Legendary Bass Fisherman FROM THE PUBLISHER
Tom Mann is an American original. Growing up in Depression-era Alabama, for him fishing was more than a recreational activity–it was a way of putting dinner on the table. Following his father’s simple advice, "to catch fish, you have to find fish," six-year-old Tom came up with an innovative way of finding the drop-offs in a creek where fish seek refuge from predators. As a young teenager, he began to design and craft special lures, always with an eye toward tricking the freshwater dean of the deep–the largemouth bass.
Tom's innate talent in outsmarting the competition above and below the waterline quickly took him from local hero to three-time world bass fishing champion to living legend. He also tapped into his skill for designing lures, building a multi-million-dollar enterprise that has sold over one billion lures to date in major sporting goods and fishing retailers around the world, all with his smiling face on the packages. Yet despite the prestige and fame of a forty-year career, he still resides where it all began–deep in the heart of the South.
Filled with touching childhood stories and hilarious down-home fisherman’s lore, Think Like a Fish reveals how Mann quite literally learned to "think like a fish." He explains the technique and mindset that enable him to lure a fish from thirty yards away into a circle the size of a hula hoop; how he “trains” bass to jump right into his boat; and how he purportedly managed to lure a shark to shore with rod and reel. But in addition to the fishing techniques and words of wisdom, Mann explores the path that got him where he is today–apoignant story of determination, Southern grit, and good-ole-boy charm. Full of gentle humor and wit, this book brings to life the allure of the South and one of its favorite pastimes.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
A fishy story from a pro with world championships, radio shows, and the famed Fish World resort to his name. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Master bass fisherman, fishing-equipment entrepreneur, and regional TV personality Mann lets fly a homespun, anecdote-rich memoir. Fishing for bass rates right up there with NASCAR as one of the miracle sports of the American South, tracing its lineage back to rural poverty as today's champions count their money all the way to the bank. Mann has been there to see it all, starting as a poor farm boy in Alabama fishing both for the love of it and to put food on the table. He brings a dose of humor to the recounting of those years ("I don't know whose idea it was to take a bicycle pump and inflate our dogs"), but he also gives a glimmering of what makes him such a fabulous fisherman-namely, thousands and thousands of hours spent fishing. Simple exposure would have taught him a trick or two, if nothing else, but Mann was both curious and observant; he used that knowledge to design fishing lures. They were so successful by word of mouth that Kmart picked them up, then Wal-Mart and Sears; pretty soon Mann was making a good deal of money doing what he liked to do most. Here, he relates how both the lures and the business worked, how he became part of the growing competitive fishing circuit, and how he left at the top of his game after 17 years, sick of the pressure and already rich (though this was before the $250,000 first-place purses of today). Occasional overwriting ("So join me now on a fishing trip whose lake is the pages of my life") and strange notions ("Dr. Samuel Johnson, an American clergyman, educator, and philosopher") give a Yogi Berra flourish to the proceedings. A story of dedication whose author merges with the object of his passion as much as any great violinist or cook.
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