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Fly fishing and fly tying books are a passion. Here you will find book reviews of books I have read covering fly fishing for trout, smallmouth bass, muskellunge, steelhead, and many other freshwater and saltwater species. You will also find fly tying books covering the same areas. There are also books on aquatic entomology, history of fly fishing and fly tying, hydrology, and great prose having fly fishing as its main theme. There is far more to fly fishing than casting a line, and there should be far more to a fly fishing guide service web site than just costs and services offered. reviewed by Bruce E. Harang The authors present some of the work of forty-seven fly tiers that they found interesting. Probably the best part of the book is the forty-seven fly tier biographies which will help to preserve some of the history of current fly tying in the United States. There are a total of 116 patterns described and illustrated with color images of tying steps. However, this is not a book for beginners because many intermediate steps are missing. The text descriptions are reasonably well done for the most part. The photographs are average and unfortunately do not always very clearly illustrate involved tying steps. For the most part these are patterns that are great to watch someone else tie at a fly tying show, but not patterns most fly fishers will actually spend the time to tie and fish themselves. There are some interesting procedures to be gleaned if one is willing to sort through the book as there is no table of contents or index of the patterns included in the book. The lack of overall design and layout is very unusual and surprising for a publication from Amato Publishers. Overall, this is a book may be easily done without. © 2005 Bruce E Harang
Best Streams for Great
Lakes Steelhead reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is a tour guide to
the best of the steelhead fishing and steelhead water in the Great Lakes
region. As such it highlights forty-two rivers in the drainages of the five
Great Lakes located in six states and one province. The author has actually
been to, and fished the rivers he is discussing. This is always a good thing
for a guidebook. The book opens with short chapters on the fish, the history
of steelhead in the Great Lakes, how to fish for these great fish in the
rivers of the Great Lakes, and a selection of flies that have proven
successful in the region including color plates. The second part of the book
gives clear, concise descriptions of the forty-two selected rivers arranged
by the Great Lake they enter. Thus, the reader can quickly find rivers in a
particular area by going to the chapter for a particular Great Lake. Each
river section also has a short highlight bar giving the rivers general
geographical location, nearest airport, local lodging, local fly shops, and
guides. This makes for a very easy to use volume. There is also an overall
map of the Great Lakes region with the Lakes identified and the rivers
discussed labeled. The book concludes with a suggested reading appendix, an
information sources appendix, and an excellent index. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
Speyflies – 101 reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is an introduction to tying Spey style flies using modern readily
available materials to produce high quality fishing flies. For the beginning
Spey fly tyer this video will give you the jump-start allowing you to avoid
much of the frustration of tying a style of flies that has great fish
appeal. The DVD covers only a single fly from start to finish but includes
every step and procedure so the viewer can actually tie the same fly and
have it come out looking just as good and be just as well tied as the one
tied by the author. A good part of this is because the camera angle used is
over the author’s shoulder so you see the fly being constructed from the
same viewpoint as you see the flies you are tying at your vise. Upon
completion of the tying lesson the author discusses and ties the different
wing styles common to these flies including the traditional Bronze Mallard
wing, the Syd Glasso style feather wing, and the Dee style wing. While the
Dee wing belongs properly to the Dee style fly, it is a wing that also
causes many beginning steelhead fly tyers to become frustrated so its
inclusion is a welcome addition indeed. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang No
matter your fly-fishing skill level if you haven’t fished for smallmouth
bass with a fly rod you are missing one of the great pleasures and
challenges of fly-fishing. The smallmouth bass is one of the most
aggressive, hard fighting, and fly friendly fish that swims. Add to that the
fact that smallmouth bass can be found in almost every location in North
America and you have a fly fisherman’s quarry second to none. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Spey casting DVD’s have been appearing quite regularly the last few years.
However, until now there really hasn’t been any instructional DVD’s on what
to do with your Spey casting skills once you have acquired them. Well Gene
Hering, of Cascade Mediaworks, has teamed up with John Hazel, a Spey casting
instructor and guide on the Deschutes River, to remedy this situation. The
result is a seventy minute DVD clearly explaining and illustrating how to
fish for steelhead with a Spey rod and Spey casts. The DVD covers how to
read steelhead water allowing you to fish the productive parts of rivers and
eliminate the areas unlikely to have steelhead present. Also explained are
the habits of steelhead and how these traits help determine how to work the
water and what type of fly and presentation to use. John explains and shows
how to choose and fish waking flies, skating flies, subsurface flies, and
wet flies. He also shows examples of each type of fly and discusses color
selection, how to rig the various types of flies, and what terminal knots he
has found most suitable. Fishing with both floating as well as sink tip fly
lines is shown. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is a beautifully
illustrated large format fishing map book covering the Pacific Coast and
Columbia River drainage fishing rivers of Washington. The book opens with a
Washington map showing the location and name of the thirty-four rivers
presented. This is followed by a page of color illustrations of the
Washington sport fish you will find in these rivers and a page of color
illustrations of the major aquatic insects, a hatch chart, and a saltwater
forage chart, a page of popular flies and another of popular lures, followed
in turn by four pages of general fishing techniques and finally a page of
popular fishing knots. All of these pages are well illustrated in color. The
balance of the book is full-page maps of a particular river or a section of
a particular river as the length of the river dictates. Also included on
each page is a fishing calendar giving the best times of year to fish as
well as general return numbers for steelhead and salmon, a list of services
in the area, general river information, a map legend, and a short
description of the river and the fishing and fish to be found. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang RIO
has produced their second Spey casting production. Once again it features
Simon Gawesworth one of the finest Spey casting instructors available today.
Most of the Spey casts currently used throughout the world are included in
this production covering twelve chapters. Just as importantly, if not more
so, are the eleven chapters explaining important items like stance, shooting
line, angle changes, and the like. All of the little things of Spey casting
that are critical to becoming proficient but which are seldom addressed in
instructional materials. Several other Spey casters have cameos doing casts
that they have experience with or have developed. It is great to see these
casters illustrate the casts but the audio should have been voiced over by
Simon to allow the best transfer of information to the viewer. The white
rods and bright fly lines make seeing what is happening during each cast is
one of the real strengths of this production. The viewer cannot help but get
an extremely clear visual image of each cast. Each cast has its own chapter
which is complete unto itself. The cast is explained, and each part
illustrated. The cast is then shown in its entirety in real time, and
finally common faults and problem areas are illustrated and solutions
explained. Thus, the viewer can pick a single cast and be able to study,
practice, and master it without the need to rummage around three DVDs. This
single complete cast in a single chapter is very well thought out and
executed. There is also a video glossary of many common terms that a Spey
caster will need to understand. This glossary is repeated on each DVD so
that, again, the viewer does not have to shuffle DVDs. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Here is the definitive guidebook to the Madison River. The river is broken
down into sections of wading water and sections of floating water. You are
presented with maps of the section being discussed as well as seeing the
river itself and Kelly Galloup fishing the river showing you the techniques,
flies, and gear suitable for success. Kelly’s easy manner and rich onscreen
voice make for a very pleasant time learning how to fish and enjoy one of
the world’s greatest trout rivers. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang For
fly fishermen that would like to catch great trout and become better rounded
in their chosen sport this DVD production is just the thing. In two hours of
superb film and commentary you will learn how to fish a cast of wet flies in
a manner practically unknown in North America. Davy Wotton a life-long wet
fly fisherman from the UK will open your eyes to a method of fishing for
trout that is both easy to master and very successful. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang Once
again the author has produced one of the best surprises of the year for the
fly tier. A second volume small in size but gigantic in fun and novel fly
tying techniques and materials. In only 68 pages of text and wonderfully
clear line drawings the author teaches how to tie twenty-five different fly
patterns he has created. Here you will find artificial fingernail shrimp,
quill body flies, stir stick damsels, wire reinforced ribbon streamers, and
frogs tied with foam blocks, and spider bodies using dry cleaners plastic
bags. Each and every one tied using novel materials found in out of the way
places and products designed for all manner of uses other than fly tying. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
Cannibal
Trout reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is a truly surprising little volume. The quality of the writing and the
excellent color photographs illustrating the text and the patterns make it a
real joy to read. For anyone looking to fish for large trout in the Pacific
Northwest coastal watersheds this book is truly helpful. The book is
comprised of and introduction, six chapters and an additional collection of
flies of which the introduction and first chapter, Born to Spawn and The
life Cycles, provide both background about the basis for the book and
insight into the importance of the Pacific Salmon to life in the Pacific
Northwest. Chapter two called Spring Time, describes salmon alevin, fry, and
smolts as well as tying flies to imitate the. Next is a chapter covering the
fishing of the fry and smolt “hatches”. The fourth chapter discusses the
trout feast of salmon caviar and chapter five provides information and tying
instructions for egg patterns. Chapter six covers tying and fishing “flesh
flies” such as the bunny leeches and woolly worms. The book concludes with a
section covering additional fly patterns of eggs and alevin. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
Simple
Flies reviewed by Bruce E. Harang This is a collection of very simple fly patterns of all kinds. Included are flies using only three materials plus hook and thread for trout including dry flies, wet flies, streamers, nymphs, and terrestrials. Bugs for warmwater and saltwater as well as saltwater flies are also covered. The patterns are all described with step-by-step text and photos which are of high quality. While there are no new patterns or ideas here, if you are looking for a concise collection of easy to tie flies this book is a good place to look. If you are a C. Boyd Pfeiffer fan you will want this volume. While there is nothing new here for someone looking for a collection of easy to tie flies this book provides fair value. © 2006 Bruce E Harang
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