Recreational salt-water fishing is serious business on the South Carolina Coast. For those who pursue king mackerel--inshore or off--billfish, yellowfin, blackfin, or bluefin tuna, or even grouper and snapper the huge investments of time and money are felt to be well spent. For these serious and usually thoughtful anglers, a good book about their sport is the next best thing to seeing a big blue marlin in the trolled baits at dawn in the Gulf Stream. George Reiger has written that book, again.

"Profiles in Saltwater Angling: A History of the Sport—Its People and Places, Tackle and Techniques" was originally published in 1973. Sadly, it has been out of print for many years, depriving newcomers to saltwater fishing of the opportunity to taste the days of discovery, for the most part long gone or disappearing, quickly or slowly, the really good old days of saltwater angling.

George Reiger, who has been our guest to fish the southeast coast for striped bass and winter trout, had the foresight and energy to catch many of the pioneers of saltwater angling while they were still alive in the late 1960’s and early seventies. When he was too late to talk to the angling pioneers himself, as with Earnest Hemingway, he spoke to people who had fished or worked with them in an attempt to get beyond the mythology of "The Old Man and the Sea."

(I regret that the useful footnotes of the first edition were left out of the second revised edition to make it appear more reader friendly: the note that Hemingway’s father, "Dr. Ed Hemingway committed suicide on Dec. 6, 1928" would be useful in understanding Hemingway’s death. The elimination of the bibliography in the revised edition is also understandable, but the lack of an index is the equivalent of forgetting the gaff on a king mackerel trip: one can get away without a gaff by grabbing a king by the tail, but a gaff or an index make fishing or reading easier and more enjoyable. I cannot resist noting the "gaff" in the revised edition in the caption under a picture of a wrecked Japanese longliner lured ashore with lights by Mexican fishermen angered by illegal fishing. On the facing page, an American sport fishing legend, Ray Cannon, is quoted as saying that the longliner fell prey to a net buoy radio transmitter that had been cut loose and moved ashore. Naturally, the new editor, not my friend Reiger, is to blame.)

The revised "Profiles," published by Quill Press, an imprint of Down East Books, Camden, Maine even has a simplified sub-title, "A tribute to great fish and great fishermen," plus three brand new chapters, making it a must buy even for those fortunate to own a copy of the first edition. The photos, many of which are new to his edition, are located, to good effect, throughout the book.

This edition of "Profiles in Saltwater Angling" is more handsome than the original. For those who left a fishing friend off their Christmas list or for fishermen who have a gift certificate from Amazon.Com or Barnes and Noble, the republishing of "Profiles" presents a great opportunity to gift a serious fisherman, even if it is oneself. (The book may also be ordered from the publisher, 1-800-685-7962.)

The second edition is also a tribute to a great fisherman and writer, George Reiger, who has fought the good fight not only with great fish but also to maintain some vestiges of the great fishing most of us missed.

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