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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
In fly-fishing there are a few seminal
works that stand as benchmarks and cornerstones of the sport. I believe this
book is one of those works. The author has decades of spey casting
experience as a caster, fly fisher, and as an instructor. He has taken this
wealth of practical as well as intellectual experience about spey casting
and written a comprehensive course of spey casts and spey casting.
© 2004 Bruce E Harang
Modern Spey Casting and More reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
The author presents a
master class in modern spey casting techniques using the popular short head
spey lines and lightweight, fast action spey rods. This is not an
instructional program for beginners, but instead is aimed at the spey caster
that has mastered the basics and is looking to improve and fine-tune his
spey casting technique when using the short head and shooting head lines
with the lightweight, fast action spey rods so popular in the Pacific
Northwest and Scandinavia. The author shows you how to use a compact style
of rod movement which allows you to cast all the line you desire with a
minimum of arm and body movement. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
Salmon Camp reviewed by Bruce E. Harang This small volume is a fun read about one of the traditions of the pursuit of Atlantic salmon with a fly rod. The Salmon Camp has played an important part of fly-fishing for Atlantic salmon all over the world. Now we have a well written, easy to read history of one of these private salmon camps that have contributed so much to the lore and legend of the King of fish. The Boland Brook Salmon Camp is also the story of a remarkable woman who lived a life from the end of the 19th Century thorough most of the 20th Century, a life that would be considered unique even today. If you enjoy reading about the history of fly-fishing and the people who have given us the traditions we honor today you will find this an interesting and fun book. Well written, and documented with photographs covering the whole sixty-five year history of the Camp, this is a wonderful story for a rainy or snowy evening in front of a fireplace when there is no fishing to be had. This is definitely one of the best fishing stories to be printed in a long time. The fact that it is a true story makes it all the more incredible. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Plank cooking salmon is
a regionally popular in the Pacific Northwest. However, there are many other
foods that can be enhanced by the smoke flavor imparted to food cooked on
hardwood planks. In addition, this method of cooking lends itself to foods
favored in all regions of the country. This well written and illustrated
cook book introduces the adventurous chef to interesting and flavorful
recipes for plank cooking foods such as seafood, fish, beef, pork, poultry,
wild game, as well as appetizers, vegetables and desserts. These recipes and
ideas will add a new dimension to anyone’s cooking as well as providing a
great topic of conversation at parties and family gatherings. And the method
of plank cooking is simple and easy to learn. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Chico Fernandez is one
of those rare individuals that can transfer knowledge to almost anyone with
ease and grace. Everyone seems to “get” what Chico has to say. This book is
no exception to the author’s ability to pass knowledge on to others. Here is
a complete course in being successful at the game of bonefish fly-fishing.
Without a doubt anyone who takes the information in this book to heart will
have the opportunity to catch bonefish, and even catch big bonefish. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
Deer-Hair Fly-Tying Guidebook reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This small volume is
indeed a guide not a manual. It has some interesting ideas for using deer
hair as a material for designing fly tails, bodies, extended bodies, wings,
and spun as heads. However, the instructional portions are extremely brief
and a bit sloppy in development and layout. The instructional section on
materials includes suggestions for at least one hook model no longer
available. If you are looking for a good teaching aid to learn to use deer
hair this is not it. If, however, you are looking for ideas on how to use
deer hair in the design of flies this book will get you started. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
Fly-Fishing Coastal Cutthroat
Trout reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is a well-written
book directed to a fly-fishing quarry rapidly gaining popularity, the
Coastal Cutthroat. Easy to read and well illustrated the book is a pleasure
and contains a wealth of information about a species for which little has
been written. The color photographs and black & white drawings are well done
and well chosen to illustrate and further elucidate the information within
this fine book. There are chapters on the range of the Coastal Cutthroat,
its life history, and on how to identify the Coastal Cutthroat from its
neighbors the various other trout and salmon. This is followed by a chapter
on the Coastal Cutthroat in each of the states and provinces in which it is
found including the current state of the species well-being. There are then
chapters on fly patterns, tackle and accessories and fishing tactics for
both fresh and salt water. The book finishes with a first class bibliography
and index. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
Western Mayfly Hatches reviewed by Bruce E. Harang Rick Hafele and Dave Hughes have joined forces to once again provide the western angler with the finest hatch information available in an easy to read and easy to understand format. This book originally was going to be a revised edition of their now classic Western Hatches. However, they soon realized that there was simply too much new and revised information to cover such a broad topic in a single volume. Thus, the first portion of the Western Hatches revision is this book covering the Mayfly hatches of the West. Even with this more focused subject matter the resulting volume contains 264 pages. But what pages they are! Well-written and easy to read with top quality photographs and illustrations and designed to provide the reader with convenient access to all of the information contained within its pages. This book may be about the science of bugs for fly fishermen, but it is done so that everyone can understand this important information. The reader is provided with the keys necessary to identify the insects as well as with patterns that imitate them and with tactics for presenting these fly patterns successfully. The book is arranged in five major sections, Matching Mayflies, Mayfly Swimmers, Mayfly Crawlers, Mayfly Clingers, and Mayfly Burrowers. The first section covers the authors’ philosophy for matching hatches, collecting and observing Mayflies, how to recognize Mayflies, information about the Mayfly group, and the timing and importance of finding and fishing Mayfly hatches throughout the West. The final four sections break the Mayflies down into easily recognizable divisions and contain an introduction to the group as well as a chart of the important families and genus of each group. Within each of these sections is a chapter on each genus to be found in the West. These chapters each contain a general description of the genus, emergence and distribution, a hatch importance score which relates the importance to the fly fisherman, a graphic emergence table, patterns to represent the insect, and presentation tactics for fishing the patterns successfully. Included, are excellent drawings of the insect as a nymph, dun, and spinner clearly illustrating the key identification factors and life size silhouettes of each phase of the insect covered. Also shown, are photographs of both the insect and the fly patterns that represent the insect. Overall, this is a superb fly fisherman’s book of western Mayflies. For anyone wanting to be able to match and fish the hatches of the West this volume is a must.
© 2004 Bruce E Harang
Hairwing &
Tube Flies for Salmon & Steelhead reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
This is a beautifully
executed book on a very interesting segment of fly tying, hairwing and tube
flies for Atlantic salmon and steelhead. Probably the most striking feature
of this book is the computer generated color illustrations of the flies.
These illustrations replace the currently traditional photographs of actual
flies and while they are clearly more functional in showing detail, they do
lack the soul of a real fly reproduced photographically. From a practical
point they are excellent instructional aids however. The writing is very
well done and easy to read and the design of the book is also excellent
making for a book that will be read and re-read many times. © 2004 Bruce E Harang
Splitting Cane reviewed by Bruce E. Harang If you are an Ed Engle fan you will of course buy this book. If you are looking for out of date information on a few randomly selected cane rod builders this book is right up your alley. The author is simply republishing a series of short magazine articles from a now defunct niche magazine. The articles remain unrelated to one another and the “update” paragraph or two at the end of each article chapter does not make this a book. With so many really fine volumes on cane, cane rod building, and cane rod makers this is a book you can easily do without. © 2005 Bruce E Harang
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