With colorful, concise, and easy-to-follow illustrations, The L.L. Bean Fly-Fishing Handbook offers a fun introduction to the sport. This friendly volume coaches readers on the basics of fly-casting and assembly of tackle without demanding that the reader invest tons of time and money. The goal here is getting started, and this useful, portable book won’t sit on the shelf—it’s meant to be taken outdoors for easy consultation. Author Dave Whitlock covers the foods fish eat and how to imitate those foods, details the necessary fly assortment for novices, and provides a useful glossary. Chapters added in this edition include approaches to saltwater fish species, ethics and sportsmanship, and methods for fishing from boats and float tubes.
Now for the first time in ten years, The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide appears in a revised edition that solidifies its place as the flagship title of the Orvis brand. A best-selling, fully illustrated, and comprehensive book, this large-format volume has been required reading for every angler for nearly three decades. Included here are instructions for tackle selection; casting and presentation; flies and their specific uses; successful techniques on stream, pond, or ocean; and the select tackle, flies, and methods for pursuing every major gamefish in fresh and salt water, from bass to bonefish, tarpon to trout.
The Top Ten Guide to Fly Fishing will be a quick and easy reference to every aspect of fly fishing. Curious how to tie and use the ten best knots and rigging techniques? Or have you ever wondered what might be the top ten fly fishing destinations in the American West? Top ten things to look for when selecting a new trout rod? Saltwater rod? What are the top ten trout dry flies, top ten warm water flies . . . ? The Top Ten Guide to Fly-Fishing will be a fun and very browsable conversation starter, a lighthearted look at a serious sport presented in a small trim size. Beginners will be drawn to it for its instructional value even while more-seasoned fly-fishers will pick it up in order to quibble pleasantly with the author’s choices.
This essential book on fly tying will teach anyone how to tie flies. All the important techniques are illustrated with color photographs, from starting the thread on the hook to whip finishing. The book lays the basic ground work by fully explaining simple tying techniques, and then progresses to detailed tying instructions for some of the most popular, modern patterns. How to choose and prepare the correct material, and all the necessary tying steps for each fly, are detailed in superb, large, color photographs. Even if you have no previous tying experience, you'll be able to tie dries, nymphs, streamers, saltwater offerings, and bass bugs after just a few sessions with this book. The tyer is then advised how to progress to similar patterns using the same basic techniques. Also included is a huge reference of fly patterns - more than four hundred flies from the Orvis catalog are shown in full color, along with the tying recipes and proportions for each one. This book, drawing from the Orvis Company's vast resources and teaching experience and written by an author whose name is synonymous with Orvis, has become the bible for fly-tyers of all skill levels.
From the bestselling author of Saban, 4th and Goal, and Sowbelly comes the thrilling, untold story of the quest for the world record tarpon on a fly rod—a tale that reveals as much about Man as it does about the fish. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, something unique happened in the quiet little town on the west coast of Florida known as Homosassa. The best fly anglers in the world—Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Ted Williams, Tom Evans, Billy Pate and others—all gathered together to chase the same Holy Grail: The world record for the world’s most glamorous and sought-after fly rod species, the tarpon. The anglers would meet each morning for breakfast. They would compete out on the water during the day, eat dinner together at night, socialize and party. Some harder than others. The world record fell nearly every year. But records weren’t the only things that were broken. Hooks, lines, rods, reels, hearts and marriages didn’t survive, either. The egos involved made the atmosphere electric. The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. The drugs and romantic entaglements that were swept in with the tide would finally make it all veer out of control. It was a confluence of people and place that had never happened before in the world of fishing and will never happen again. It was a collision of the top anglers and the top species of fish which would lead to smashed lives for nearly all involved, man and fish alike. In Lords of the Fly, Burke, an obsessed tarpon fly angler himself, delves into this incredible moment. He examines the growing popularity of the tarpon, an amazing fish has been around for 50 million years, can live to 80 years old and can grow to 300 pounds in weight. It is a massive, leaping, bullet train of a fish. When hooked in shallow water, it produces “immediate unreality,” as the late poet and tarpon obsessive, Richard Brautigan, once described it. Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction that exists as a result—brought on by greed, environmental degradation and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster—and how all of it has shaped our contemporary fishery. Filled with larger-than-life characters and vivid prose, Lords of the Fly is not only a must read for anglers of all stripes, but also for those interested in the desperate yearning of the human condition.
A look at the development of the sport over the past six centuries. Once limited to trout and salmon, today fly-fishing techniques are used to catch every fish species from minnows to marlin in rivers, lakes and oceans from the Amazon to the Arctic. From the many thousands of fly patterns developed over the centuries, The History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies focuses on fifty iconic flies chosen to represent the evolution not only of fishing flies and fly tying but also the sport itself. Filled with illustrations and photographs of the flies (the fifty are just the starting point—more than 200 flies are mentioned or shown in the book), as well as profiles of key characters, The History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies charts the growth and diversification of this fascinating sport from the fifteenth century to the present day and its spread from Britain, Europe and Japan to North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, and now to every country in the world. The evolution of fly-fishing tackle—rods, reels, lines and hooks—is also covered in a series of essays spread throughout the book. Praise for The History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies “A delightful ramble along the stream of fishing history.” —Star Tribune “This glorious book of lures will get you itching for a new toy, a new boat, a new rod—anything to experience the relaxation of this old hobby.” —Foreword Reviews
This outstanding guide is filled with scores of practical observations on all of the trout foods of importance to fly fishers. The chapters include: * Concepts of Imitation * Water * How Trout Feed * Mayflies * Stoneflies * Caddisflies * Midges and Crane Flies * Dragonflies and Damselflies * Crustaceans * Forage Fish * Leeches, Eels, and Similar Trout Foods Superb black-and-white illustrations throughout reinforce the techniques outlined in this book. A central full-color section includes size and color charts for mayflies, stoneflies, dragonflies, caddisflies, damselflies, crustaceans, and forage fish.
