Keither Fulsher -- Thunder Creek Flies

Thunder Creek Flies: Tying and Fishing the Classic Baitfish Imitations by Keith Fulsher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm probably overrating this book at 4 stars, but there's solid writing, great pictures, and clear tying descriptions. I would have enjoyed seeing more photos of the baitfish the patterns match, and I thought some of the non-recipe sections could have been a little more detailed, but I'll admit they're sort of tangential to the point of the book.

I haven't tied or fished any of the patterns yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

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Christopher Camuto -- A Fly Fisher's Blue Ridge

A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a very pleasing read, and not only because much of the book takes place on what I'm starting to think of as my home trout water. Camuto does a great job of mixing the scientific research with wilderness and historical narrative. Some of the research specifics might seem a little dated, given its focus on acid rain, but it's still a relevant topic and message (though I use that word a little hesitantly, as there's little of the polemic here).


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Harry Murray -- Virginia Blue-Ribbon Streams

Virginia Blue-Ribbon Streams: A Fly-Fishing Guide by Harry Murray

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is good for one it is, a relatively detailed overview of some of the major streams in Virginia. It's got useful details and good artwork, but the problem is simply that there are several of these sorts of books, and at least one that's far more comprehensive. If you can pick this one up cheaply, it's probably worth it to fill out your research, but it's probably inessential.


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Kevin C Kelleher, Misako Ishimura -- Tenkara

Tenkara: Radically Simple, Ultralight Fly Fishing by Kevin C Kelleher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It does its job perfectly, introducing tenkara fishing in a way that's as simple as the sport warrants, yet still relatively comprehensive. Experienced anglers won't be bored, and new anglers won't be overwhelmed.

You could probably just about go from knowing nothing to catching a fish simply by using the book. That said, it works best in the context of other fishing instruction/literature (and, of course, nothing teaches like time on the water, ideally with an experienced person). There's plenty of more room for talk about reading the water, etc. My only other wish is that the knot illustrations had been clearer (or shown more steps).

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Roderick Haig-Brown -- A River Never Sleeps

A River Never Sleeps by Roderick L. Haig-Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's pretty easy to see why this one's so highly regarded. Haig-Brown comes closer to over-writing at times, but doesn't, and everything's pretty straightforward in a rewarding way. There are more than just fishing exploits, but he writes those extremely well. His successes are rarely cause for self-congratulation, and his failures are never cause for misery. He seems to be perpetually exploring and learning, and it's engaging. By the mid-point of the book, I was pretty sure that I would have enjoyed fishing with Haig-Brown, and by the end of the book I was convinced I was born a half century too late, even if (especially if?) it would have meant roughing it for a living.

I think this one works best when it's read slowly and over a period of time, properly absorbed. There are a few spots that drag, but otherwise you'll want to both keep reading and keep slowing down.


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Doug Stange, et al - Channel Catfish Fever

Channel Catfish Fever by Doug Stange


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There's some pretty great stuff here, but some of it needs to be updated and some of it gets repetitive. The authors should have worked more anecdotes into how-to sections of the book.

The system here is pretty basic, and easily grasped. There are some interesting rigs explained, and the discussion about the longer European rods is particularly intriguing. I prefer longer fly rods (particularly for nymphing), but usually use relatively short spinning and casting rods, which I might want to re-think for certain situations.

Anyway, it's a quick read, and useful for novice cat-anglers. I've got no sense of the literature on the subject, but this seems like a reasonable place to start.

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C. Boyd Pfeiffer -- Bug Making

Bug Making by C. Boyd Pfeiffer


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a pretty great intro to the field (as far as a novice can tell). It's nearly encyclopedic in scope (covering foam, cork, balsa, injection foam, etc. for freshwater, saltwater, trout, bass, billfish, panfish, etc.), but at the same time it's succinct. Pfeiffer's description are clear and easy to follow, which is the main thing you want in a book like this one.

There are plenty of b&w pictures here, and they're useful, but it would be nice to have color plates to go with it. Not so much to see the colors of the bugs (you should know what color to use for your bee pattern), but to make everything a little sharper and more distinct for the trickier techniques.

Some of the info must be a little outdated (the list of suppliers/distributors, for example, and the bibliography), and I'm not sure what advances might have been made in materials since the book was written. Even so, the basic principles are clearly laid-out and very accessible, and the main points probably haven't changed too much.

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Ed Shenk -- Ed Shenk's Fly Rod Trouting

Wow, two months? Really? I'll try to get back to more blogging...

Ed Shenk's Fly Rod Trouting by Elisabeth Sheldon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one comes close. Shenk is clearly a talented angler and writer, and I'm sure anyone who's spent a day on the water with him had an enjoyable time. Unfortunately, the book's just boiled down too much. The early stories are almost journalistic in their I-used-a-hopper-and-caught-18-fish approach. The techniques are useful, and his writing on his love for the shorter rods is enlightening.

The real highlight here, and what makes the book worth the shelfspace, is the epic chase after Old George, easily one of the best fishing stories I've ever heard.

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Howell Raines -- Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis

Fly Fishing Through The Midlife Crisis by Howell Raines

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This turned out much better than I expected. Raines knows, importantly, what not to talk about, and he avoids heavy musings on the sorts of questions you associate with midlife crises, yet he's revealing at the same time.

In what I expected to be clunky insertions, he includes sections on famous anglers he's spent time with (such as Ray Scott and Bob Clouser) and presidents who fished. These chapters serve to further explorations about some of his key themes, and rather than being simple biographical snapshots, they're fascinating looks into the psyches, fishing habits, and the relationships between the two.

This is a fine read, worth it for fishing stories and historical overviews, but also for the autobiographical slant.

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Lefty Kreh's Longer Fly Casting

Lefty Kreh's Longer Fly Casting, New and Revised: The Compact, Practical Handbook That Will Add Ten Feet--Or More--To Your Cast by Lefty Kreh

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

This one's fine. It's a not-too-detailed look at how to improve your fly casting. It's mostly straightforward, but it's very brief, with drawings that are usually clear and useful. If you wanted to learn to (or improve) your fly casting, you'd want to go somewhere else.

Kreh teaches a different style of casting than I've seen elsewhere. I saw him demonstrate it at an outdoor show in Denver (where I couldn't hear him that well), so the sections on basic casting in this book made sense to me. However, I'm not sure how clear they'd be to someone who hadn't seen it in practice, especially since it goes against much of what we're typically taught.

There's not enough "why" in this book -- even if you learn the technique, I think it's always good to have a fuller understanding of why something works.


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Bob Clouser -- Clouser's Flies

Clouser's Flies: Tying And Fishing the Fly Patterns of Bob Clouser by Bob Clouser

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was going to wait to review this one until I had tied and fished more of the patterns in the book, but it's not necessary.

The book's strengths are obvious: clear descriptions, and big, colorful pictures. I've been tying Clousers for years, but one night with the book immediately improved them. Clouser gives detailed instructions even down to the level of how to properly anchor your eyes, how to epoxy, etc.

This one does have advice on how to fish the patterns. While it's certainly enough to get you started, I think it works best as a partner to his Fly-Fishing for Smallmouth Bass book, which goes into far more detail.

So, yeah, if you're tying for smallies, this one's probably essential.


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Mel Krieger -- The Essence of Flycasting

The Essence of Flycasting by Mel Krieger

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm reading one of Lefty Kreh's books on casting now, so it'll be interesting to compare. What I like so much about Krieger's is that he doesn't focus on precise mechanics (I feel like it's out of style now, but you still see writing that gets into the precise measurements, specific arm angles, etc.), but covers the "essence" (hence the title) of how a flycast works, primarily how the rod loads, what your loops need to do, etc.

The pictures are pretty useful here, b&w but very clear depictions of what Krieger's talking about.

There's a very small section on specialty casts. Nothing tricky here -- just stuff you'll actually need on the water (like the wiggle cast, etc.). This section's useful, but so brief that it feels a little tacked on. I'm not sure how I'd expand it, though, without getting into other entire areas.


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Dick Sternberg -- Fishing With Live Bait

Fishing With Live Bait by Dick Sternberg

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm looking at this more for a side project of mine than because I'm actually planning on using the techniques, so I'm not sure how useful it was ever going to be to me. It's an interesting compendium, and -- as is usually the case with these books -- there are some great photos. I approve of the idea of starting with the bait rather than a target species and building a book around that

Its broadness is a weakness, though. You'll pick up a few tactics here and there for whatever you're doing, but I don't know that it will substantially improve your catch rates (though I will say it helped me get my daughter on to some panfish recently).

As a non-qualitative aside, there's some pretty gross stuff in here. Take that for what it's worth.


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Bruce Ingram -- The James River Guide

The James River Guide: Floating and Fishing on Virginia's Finest by Bruce Ingram

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Much better than I expected. I thought it would be a pretty basic overview of the various floats on the river, but Ingram goes into some wildlife, history, etc. He dedicates some time to specific fishing locations and even lure suggestions (focusing on smallmouths). It's a quick read, but seemingly essential before tackling the James.

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Dave Hughes -- Trout Rigs and Methods

Trout Rigs & Methods: What You Need to Know to Construct Rigs that Work for All Types of Trout Flies & the Most Effective Fishing Methods for Catching More & Larger Trout by Dave Hughes

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's not exactly the kind of book you read straight through (though I did), but it's an amazing resource. Hughes provides tactics to cover pretty much every trout fishing situation you could come across, and explains it from rig to presentation.

Throw in the quick overviews on knots, gear, casting, etc., and you could just about use this book to guide your entire fishing. It's the kind of book that makes me wish I had this much knowledge about anything. I'm sure I'll be referencing it repeatedly.

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Fly Pattern Encyclopedia

Federation of Fly Fishers, Fly Pattern Encyclopedia by Al Beatty

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one's just not for me. There are some beautiful flies in here, but they're usually too complicated for my skills (and more complicated than what's necessary to catch fish). Between the complexity of the patterns and the use of unusual materials, it's not one I'll actually be using.

I'd also be interested to see some info on how/when to fish some of these flies. The backwards woolly bugger, for example -- when does this outfish the original? Some information like that, even if it meant the inclusion of fewer patterns, would have been great.

It's a book for fly tyers more than fly fishers. Good at what it is, but not for me.


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Dick Stewart -- Universal Fly Tying Guide

Universal Fly Tying Guide by Dick Stewart

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

An earlier edition of this book was the first fly tying pattern book I ever had, and that's probably where it should be. There's a decent introduction to a few techniques, and a good diagram of the proportions of some flies.

The pattern collection is pretty simple, and pretty small. Returning to it now, I don't always think these are the best versions of the flies (the hare's ear being the prime example), but there are no glaring problems here. As a cheap, concise intro, it's not a bad pick, but it won't served more advanced tiers.


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John Roberts -- Collins Illustrated Dictionary of Trout Flies

Over the next week or so, I'm going to be posting my thoughts on a handful of fly tying books. Here's the first, on one that I bought out of a bargain book newspaper catalog I used to get until maybe 2000 or so:

Collins Illustrated Dictionary of Trout Flies by John Roberts

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is one I just don't connect with. It's a great collection of recipes, with maybe 1000 patterns, and includes work by some great tiers. Just in the "W" section we get Whitlock, Wotton, and Wulff (and then throw in LaFontaine, Ruane, etc.).

So it's a great compendium, but that's it. There's not much instruction here, or instruction on how to fish the patterns. So I'm sort of criticizing it for being something it didn't mean to be, I admit.

It's also a bit British for my purposes, whether it's the certain terminology or certain patterns that just seem culturally off to me.

One oddity about using the book (though this is wise in terms of price and) is that the pictures of patterns are separate from the recipes, with a set of full-color plates in the middle of the book. It takes some flipping to see exactly what you're looking at and how to make it. But this is a reference volume, not an instructional manual. It's just not one that really does it for me.

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Bill Heavey -- If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?

If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat: Misadventures in Hunting, Fishing, and the Wilds of Suburbia by Bill Heavey

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, I'm probably feeling a little generous giving this one 5 stars, but it's the best of its sort of thing I've read in a long time.

I think of Heavey as the F&S humor columnist. He's usually funny without being hilarious (there are touches of McManus here, but very few, and it's a pretty different aesthetic). Heavey plays the average guy well -- he's self-effacing, but he rarely makes himself into a complete idiot. He's a guy like you, except he gets to go cool places. And he also does things like forget his pants and end up hunting in his longjohns.

What I hadn't remembered about Heavey is how well he does serious, too, whether it's tackling the death of a kid (in an article I did remember very well, even if I'd forgotten the byline), a sad but unforgettable mountain lion hunt, or a Hunt of Lifetime trip.

This book was supposed to kill some time between bigger works, but it ended up being my favorite read in sometime, and one I could barely spread out properly.


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Flyfisher's Guide to Virginia - David Hart

Flyfisher's Guide to Virginia: Including West Virginia's Best Fly Fishing Waters by David Hart

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's a very impressive overview of fly fishing opportunities in Virginia. From 2006, it seems pretty up-to-date (at least well matching the areas I've fished and even providing accurate directions to the locations). The hatch guides are useful, and while the quick run-down on necessary equipment is a bit perfunctory, the guide to assembling a basic fly assortment makes a good, quick intro to the subject. The takes on each fish species are very brief, but somewhat idiosyncratic, adding a nice flavor. This book would be pretty indispensable in exploring VA's fishing options.


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