Must have books

[Fredrick]

That being said I HATE HIPPIES :-x

 

[DGC]

# 1 is the Humphreys Trout Tactics revised edition, as already mentioned by a few folks.

# 2 is Dave Whitlock's Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods, though the fly selection is a bit dated now.

 

[Montcopo]

There are a couple really excellent 'How To' books mentioned. My favorite that I reread every year or so is "Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout" by Charles Brooks. It is out of print but generally available in paperback. It will shave five years off your learning curve. For insect ID, it is tough to beat "Hatches II" by Caucci and Nastasi. Tom Rosenbauer's "Reading Trout Streams" contains a wealth of info for the novice and intermediate flyfisher. Flytiers have so many great tying books available, but if you can only have one, albeit expensive, "The Flytier's Benchside Reference" is an excellent choice.

 

[3wt7X]

Dave Hughes wrote a good book that I would consider a must have for Pennsylvania Fly Fisherman. It is called: Trout from Small Streams. It has a lot of good info on reading small stream holding areas and it is an overall enjoyable read due to all the fishing stories that Hughes includes. Happy reading and good luck taking care of JR.

 

[ryguyfi]

I like all the "how to" books... tying, tactics, stream guides, etc.

The one fiction book I have not seen mentioned yet is The Fly Fishingest Gentleman"

Now I absolutly HATE reading. Counting that book, I think I can count all the books I have completed since birth on 1 hand (counting the cat in the hat). I could not put that book down when I got it as a gift. (I will probably read it again this winter) I have since read, Lee Wulf, the Compleat, which is also an excellent read. That guy was amazing!

Just wanted to put my 2 cents in... with inflation, it's still not that much.



(ooo look what ebay came up with)


http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Fly-Fishingest-Gentlemen-Limited-signed_W0QQitemZ320329519363QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item320329519363&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50



Cheap one, I recomend you try it!


http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Fly-Fishingest-Gentlemen_W0QQprZ1322645QQtgZinfo

 

[AlwaysWading]

A great read that I found is Reading Streams by Orvis. It was my first fly fishing book and it helped get me to understand where fish can be found in a variety of water types. To this day I still find myself going back and reviewing sections of the book to keep that where the fish might be knowledge running.

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Highly reccomend these "travel"/fishing" story books:

Fly Fishing the 41st by James Proesek
River Music by James Babb
In the Company of Rivers by Ed Quigley

As I'm getting ready for peak steelhead seaon here in Ohio, I am enjoying rading "Rod Rage", written by various famous fishing authors on angling manners/etiquette (or lack threreof), edited by Rhea Topping.

 

[osprey]

For just reading....anything by Geirach, for instruction or information "Fishing the dry fly as a living insect" by Wright and "Tactics on trout" Humphries which is really IMO George Harvey info.

 

[volcanomil]

How about "Great Rivers, Great Hatches"
Fellow Penn Stater Greg Hoover has done alot of studies on my favorite Penns Creek and their green drakes.

Mecks "PA steams and their hatches"

I have alot of flyfishing books, but these 2 I seem to pick up these up the most.

 

[pete41]

There are a couple really excellent 'How To' books mentioned. My favorite that I reread every year or so is "Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout" by Charles Brooks.

ditto-great western writer-
Gary Lafontaine[sp]-should be taken with a truckload of salt
Trout-Bergman great for flashback-

 

[osprey]

Anything by Traver is good reading too..........the one about fishing up high in the brookie tribs , if you fish up there long enough you might catch a meremaid.......priceless.

 

[Tups]

I consider "how-to" books a necessary evil, like dropper loops, unless they are heavily anecdotal (the books, not the loops). Ray Bergman's "Trout" comes to mind as a pleasurable instruction book.

Here's my top ten. I heartily endorse:

1. "Fishing and Thinking" by AA Luce
2. "Fishing the Wilder Shores" by Sidney Spencer
3. "Fishing a Highland Stream" by John Inglis Hall
4. "The Compleat Fly Fisherman - The Notes and Letters of Theodore Gordon", edited by John McDonald
5. "Nymph Fishing - A History of the Art and Practice" by Terry Lawton
6. "The Essential G.E.M. Skues" edited by Kenneth Robson
7. "A Book of Trout Flies" by Preston Jennings
8. "The FlyFisher's Entomolgy" by Alfred Ronalds
9. "Streamer Fly Tying & Fishing" by Joseph D. Bates, Jr.
10. "George Harvey - Memories, Patterns and Tactics" by GWH and Daniel L. Shields

 

[tztrout]

I've always been a fan of Nick Lyons-The Seasonable Angler is one of the best collection of stories of a guy who is truly obsessed with fishing.

 

[salmo]

On my list of favorite books is:

"Trout Madness";

"A River Runs Through It":

Ted Leeson's "The Habit of Rivers";

Hemingway's "The Big Two Hearted River"

And from the 60's "Trout Fishing In America" by Richard Brautigan. Being from the 60's I can't remember what it was about.

 

[Gone4Day]

salmo wrote:
And from the 60's "Trout Fishing In America" by Richard Brautigan. Being from the 60's I can't remember what it was about.

The only thing in the book that has anything to do with trout is a short essay called “The Cleveland Junkyard”. Its a Brautigan fantasy about going to a junkyard to look over parts of a Colorado trout stream that was scrapped by the previous owner. Leaning against an an old barn were sections of stream, mostly shallow riffles, the bigger holes and long runs already gone. The vegetation was out back but was likewise picked over, with only some scrawny trees and sickly bushes left. The rocks were in another section with just the largest ones remaining, apparently too big to easily move, and so on.

Its a surreal image, in a late ‘50’s, San Francisco beatnik sort of way. We still chop streams up into sections, like you really could take them apart and sell them piecemeal.