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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First Fish

A week ago we took the kids out for their first real fishing trip ever. Last year we went out briefly, caught a bluegill and then looked for frogs while keeping Jasper from cannonballing into the lake.

This time around, Ava was excited to be fishing, so I took her to the place I mentioned a while back that I hoped would work out for them. We had a Dora rod, a little tackle box, a bobber, and some nightcrawlers -- a perfect set-up for a three and a half year old. I had to do the casting (and provide varying degrees of hooksetting help), but it didn't take long until we brought the first fish (ever!) to hand:



The kids, happily, were thrilled. I didn't know how they'd respond, but they were both fascinated. Of course, some of us were equally interested in the bait as we were in the fish, but that's fine.



The kids took a break to go to the playground (and look at the mating frogs -- without explanation -- on the way), and after looking at some turtles, I started fishing. I had seen a huge bass earlier and was optimistic. The crappies were spawning, so I didn't go after them, but was hoping there were some post-spawners about.

I quickly took a decent bluegill and bass in the little cove. I moved back to the open area and switched to a topwater plug just to see what would happened. I had a strike from a huge crappie (hooked just enough to turn him and see the size) and then took a crappie and big 'gill.

Nicole and the kids came back, so I grabbed the Dora rod and went back to kid mode (mostly). Ava soon caught a blugill and a hefty 8-inch crappie, which put up quite a fight on the little rod. Unfortunately I didn't bring the camera to this part of the outing (although if I had I could also have photographed the northern watersnake the grown-ups saw). Then we hooked and lost a few. According to Ava, these fish wanted to eat the worm without trying to come up to say hi. Jasper started to get bored, and it seemed like a good idea to stop before Ava did, too. So even though she was still fishing intently. We stopped for ice cream on the way home, which was a perfect way to end a perfect day.

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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Fishin' in the Wind

A week or so ago I headed out to a local park with a couple ponds. I'd heard there were trout, bass, bluegill, and catfish in it, and I later learned that there are crappie as well (and possibly perch, although that term can mean different things to different people, and I've seen no signs of actual yellow perch).

Partly I wanted to catch fish, and partly I wanted to scope it out as a place to bring the kids (more on that in another post), so I just took my light spinning rod and a box of nightcrawlers. The day was rough, cold from the start, and I got hit by a slight shower.

I took an 11-inch bass and a reasonable sunfish pretty quickly. Both of these followed a slight disappointment. I already had my floating minnow tied on in the morning, so I started with that. I saw a silver flash come at it twice. I cast again, saw the same flash and paused the lure (sometimes a fish will come back to see why its prey stopped). A decent rainbow trout nosed up to lure and swam away quickly. It was the last sign I'd have of a trout all day.

The rain started and the fishing stopped, after such an optimistic start. After the rain, the wind picked up, probably the hardest I've ever fished in, and I knew I'd have to earn fish that day. I ended up with about 8 bluegill and 2 largemouths, not bad for just a few hours, considering the conditions.

The bluegill were of much bigger average size than I've seen around here, and the biggest was about 8 inches and fat. I caught him in a little cove, out of the wind, but on the side of the pond it was blowing into (the second bass came out of the same spot).

I checked the other pond in the park, which seemed to have fewer noticeable features, less accessibility, and more algae. However, I've sinced noticed that more people seem to fish that one. I'm not sure why.

Eventually I got out of the wooded area for fear of trees blowing down on me, but in the open it was hard. Without being able to simply pitch to structure, I had trouble casting, sometimes even letting the wind shoot my bait downwind, while I walked after it to take up the slack. Before long, it was too much work for too little expected reward (especially given that I was already pleased with the outing).

I was primarily happy for finding a place to take the kids, esp. my daughter, who's just becoming old enough to fish. There's lots of fishable water and plenty of panfish (with the chance of other species), so I think she can have some fun here. Today I proved myself right, but that's a post for another time...

Dave Hughes -- Essential Trout Flies

Essential Trout Flies by Dave Hughes

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I had seen on the book before I picked it up was a little misleading (or at least I misunderstood it). Hughes doesn't present 31 patterns; instead, he presents 31 types or styles of flies, such as traditional dries, Wulffs, flymphs, etc. For each of these styles, he provides 6 or 7 varieties, so you actually end up with 200 or so clearly presented patterns, primarily targeted for trout. For each grouping, he provides precise instructions with good pictures of each step.

He also provides some very brief tips (a sentence or less) on how to fish each variety, so at least you have some sense of what to do with what you're looking at if it's something new to you. The overview of tools and materials is decent, too.

The book's primarily targeted just-past-beginner tyers. You probably wouldn't want this as a sole introduction (and I'd recommend a DVD or a class for that), but it's a good early book. Even so, I think intermediate tyers would benefit from a clear and handy guide to this number of patterns.


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