Fly-fishers can reel in fine reading

If you could absorb even a fraction of the information contained in books on fly-fishing published the last few weeks, you would be on your way to becoming a master fly-fisher.

Seldom have so many fly-fishing books been published in such a short time.

Inland Northwest fly-fishers who spend most of their time on still waters can learn a lot from Fly Patterns for Stillwaters, $29.95, by Philip Rowley and published by Frank Amato Publications. The 106- page softcover book is a gold mine of useful information on insects that fish eat and patterns created to simulate them. Many of the patterns are popular in Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.

Hundreds of excellent color photos by Jim Schollmeyer are included.

In The Orvis Guide to Prospecting for Trout, $19.95, by Tom Rosenbauer, published by The Lyons Press, the author goes into elaborate detail to explain techniques for finding where trout live, why they live in certain spots and how and where they feed. By the time a fisher, whether novice or expert, finishes reading the 271 pages, he or she will be a much better fly-fisher.

Rosenbauer's long chapter on rich and poor trout streams will be a revelation to most fishers; it's worth the price of the book.

As experienced fly-fishers know, there's been a resurgence of interest in bamboo fly rods the last few years. Everywhere, it seems, fly-fishers and entrepreneurs are making bamboo fly rods. In the Inland Northwest, for example, numerous people painstakingly create rods out of split bamboo. A few books on building the rods have been available. Now, Handcrafting Bamboo Fly Rods, $50, by master craftsman Wayne Cattanach, has been published by The Lyons Press. Until now, the 210-page book was available only as a privately printed edition.

Cattanach provides step-by-step instructions on converting hard, raw bamboo into beautifully finished rods.

If you've fly-fished for several years, you likely tie your own flies. Most veteran fly-fishers do. Fly tying is an absorbing hobby, and there's satisfaction in catching a fish with a fly you've tied. Like most of us, John Gierach, author of Good Flies: Favorite Trout Patterns and How They Got That Way, started out as a tinkerer. He originated patterns that didn't work and gradually became an adequate tier who admires the work of professional tiers. He eventually settled on relatively few patterns.

In his latest book, his 12th, he tells how he selected his favorite patterns, how to tie them quickly and efficiently. The 179- page book, $22.95, published by The Lyons Press, is illustrated with numerous line drawings.

Stories written by such famous authors as A.J. McClane, Joe Brooks, Ted Trueblood, Lee Wulff and Zane Grey are among the many fascinating and informative tales in Sports Afield Treasury of Fly Fishing, $27.95, edited by Tom Paugh and published by The Lyons Press.

You'll add a lot to your fly-fishing knowledge by reading the stories told by the masters of storytelling. Some were written a century ago; most were written the last 50 years. All are as fresh today as the day they were published.

Lefty Kreh is one of the best known fly-fishers in North America. He has written several books and hundreds of magazine articles over his long career. Now, The Lyons Press has published two of his latest books, 101 Fly-Fishing Tips and Solving Fly-Casting Problems. The little paperback books are $14.95 each.

My favorite is the book on fly-fishing tips. Each tip is illustrated with a black and white photo. A fly-fisher who has fished with the best of the world's fishers, Kreh has learned ways of making his fly-fishing more enjoyable and easier.

The most entertaining book published in recent weeks is Green River Virgins and Other Passionate Anglers, $22.95, by Mallory Burton and published by The Lyons Press. A fly-fishing guide and linguist, Burton, who lives in Prince Albert, British Columbia, is a wonderful writer who adroitly describes the idiosyncrasies of fly-fishers, many of them men, in her absorbing, witty stories.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.