The Little Red Book Of Fly Fishing

Two highly respected outdoor journalists, Kirk Deeter of Field & Stream and Charlie Meyers of the Denver Post, have cracked open their notebooks and shared straight-shot advice on the sport of fly fishing, based on a range of new and old experiences—from interviews with the late Lee Wulff to travels with maverick guides in Tierra del Fuego. The mission of The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing is to demystify and un-complicate the tricks and tips that make a great trout fisher. There are no complicated physics lessons here. Rather, conceived in the “take dead aim” spirit of Harvey Penick’s classic instructional on golf, The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing offers a simple, digestible primer on the basic elements of fly fishing: the cast, presentation, reading water, and selecting flies. In the end, this collection of 240 tips is one of the most insightful, plainly spoken, and entertaining works on this sport—one that will serve both novices and experts alike in helping them reflect and hone in their approaches to fly fishing.

A licensed fishing guide’s observations on the common mistakes made by anglers, A Guide’s Guide to Fly-Fishing Mistakes provides practical tips on how to improve fly-fishing techniques and break bad habits. Licensed fishing guide and instructor Sara Low offers remedies to freshwater anglers on topics that include correctly approaching fish, improving fly selection, proper presentation, consistent and accurate casting, efficient hooking and landing of fish, as well as pointers for fishing spring, summer, fall, and winter. Although written for anglers with experience, the notes will be just as helpful to anglers who have not had time to develop bad habits. Low elaborates on how to fix the mistakes many experienced fly-fishers make. Supplementing her methods are tales that illustrate different mistakes made on the water with her suggested correction for each mistake. Taking these suggestions to heart will provide you with that “ah-ha!” moment you’ve been waiting for. As a guide, Low sees the same mistakes being made over and over again. Now you can see them too with this must-have resource. More fish, bigger fish, better fish—whatever the goal, the experienced and novice angler will find meaningful advice for greater fishing success.

An Advanced Course in Fly Fishing The mission of The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing was to demystify and un-complicate the tricks and tips that make a great trout fisher. There are no complicated physics lessons in that book. Rather, The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing offered a simple, digestible primer on the basic elements of fly fishing: the cast, presentation, reading water, and selecting flies. In this, The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing, authors Kirk Deeter and Chris Hunt take you to the next level, building upon what Deeter and Charlie Meyers did in The Little Red Book. The Little Black Book will helps fly fishers build upon what they learned in the Little Red Book. Read this valuable, thought-provoking guidebook, and you'll be at the point where you'll be catching fish when no one else is, and you'll know exactly why you are. Advanced casting, presentation, reading the water, fly selection, and much more, including proper gear selection, are all covered. The table of contents, below, explains it all. The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Part 1: CASTING A double-haul is really important, and not just in the salt Teaching someone new? Start with Tenkara Everybody needs a casting lesson. Everybody. Casting longer leaders ‘Casting’ nymphs under indicators Get a practice rod How to cast a 15-foot leader (and why you should) Casting at taillights The cast killer Your casting stroke follow joints by size Challenge your cast Great casts are the ones that get bit Score your casts like golf strokes; fewer is better The sand-save cast A reach cast is worth a thousand mends Five feet short on purpose (the linear false cast) Be Lefty in the salt, and Rajeff in the fresh Give yourself a “D” Beating wind Don’t out-kick your coverage Part 2: PRESENTATION Fast strip for saltwater predators A swirl, not a rise Casting streamers upstream Carp: Not just for city kids Step out of your comfort zone What are the birds after? The potato chip fakeout Why natives matter But I still love brown trout best Micro-drag: where you stand matters You’ll never beat a fish into submission Take it to the lake Float tubes and garbage cans Food never attacks fish A case for the dry-fly snob Go Deep in the name of fish research Roll fish for fun They’re in skinny water for a reason The cafeteria line The escape hatch Part 3: READING WATER (AND FISH) The stripset Covering water Skate and twitch big flies in low light Rod tip down for streamers Weight an unweighted fly with fly-tying beads instead of split-shot Urban angling Get in shape. Stay in shape. Dry your fly first, apply floatant second Most fish (and some bugs) face upstream—present accordingly Head up, game over Step when you streamer Babysit your flies ID the “player” and get after it Gin clear water Flat calm water Developing “TSP” (trout sensory perception) A fish doesn’t see like humans do Walk on The 10 second rule Like a dog on a leash Tip up or tip down? The keys to spotting fish The full-court press usually fails Use the whole spice cabinet River personalities and handshakes What the cloud layers tell you Knowing what they are not doing is equally important as knowing what they are Upwelling v. the straight seam The speed of the strike is proportionate to the depth of the water (in rivers) See this, do that Part 4: FLIES UV resin in home-tied flies Nymphs on the swing Multi-purpose flies Sparse for saltwater UV parachute posts Tip the fly for tying parachute posts Caddis: the most dishonest fly ever Wire or tinsel for dry flies The “pellet fly” you can feel good about Practice, practice, practice Peacock herl … and why it works The mystery of the Purple Prince Nymph Profile is everything The Adams family Lethal mice The Mole Fly miracle Bob Behnke on colors Terrestrials are opportunity bugs The end of the duck Colors change with depth Un-matching the hatch The monkey poo fly Part 5: MISC. (Everything from gear, to fighting fish and angler ethics) Fly reels for trout are just line holders Fly reels matter for saltwater fish Faster rods aren’t always better You get what you pay for Pride cometh before the fall Sheet-metal screws Wire for predators Quick-dry attire for the flats ABC. Anything But Cotton Snip your tippet at an angle Rod weight depends on fly types The best loop knot… perfection 7X tippet is BS Colors and camo above the surface Guitars and fly rods Bucket list places Tiger snakes and long hemostats It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n roll Score fishing like cricket It’s okay to fail I cheer for the fish

The most comprehensive fly fishing guide with the best tips, old school-techniques, tactics, and up-to-date gear reviews. Filled with over three hundred hints from the best anglers in both salt and fresh water, the editors of Field and Stream give you everything you need to make the perfect pitch, find a secret spot, and score a fish. TOOLS: From the best flies of all time to the best reel for the job and when to change your hooks, learn about the tools you need for the job—as well as practical skills like tying a Palomar knot, how to unravel fly lines, the five-minute fly, tying a clouser minnow, and how to lose the tailing loop. TECHNIQUES: From old to new, everything you need to know to strike in the night, put a different spin on it, spot and stalk, shoot the breeze, and find where they feed. TACTICS: Put yourself in the best position for the catch: get up the creek for a late-season trout, find a secret spot, sneak up on more fish, fish headwaters for autumn trout, fish with your eyes, hook more rising fish, take the long shot, and dominate the shoreline. Whether you’re fishing for salmon, bass, or carp, this guide will help you improve your technique, upgrade your equipment, and hook your prize fish.

Over 1,001 of the best fly-fishing tips. One-of-a-kind collection of practical advice from more than twenty-five fly-fishing experts.

Streams mentioned in the text include: Bloody Run and Spring Branch in Iowa; Ontonagon River, Escanaba River, Pigeon River, Au Sable River, Pere Marquette River, and Muskegon River in Michigan ; Whitewater River, Root River, and South Branch Root River in Minnesota; Brule River, White River, Namekagon River, Oconto, South Branch, Oconto River, Willow River, Kinnickinnic River, Wolf River, Tomorrow/Waupaca River, Timber Coulee, West Fork, Kicapoo River, Big and Little Green River, Castle Rock, Pine River, Willow River, White River, Mecan River, and Black Earth Creek in Wisconsin.

“After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master,” (Forbes) and his newest book only confirms this assessment, along with his recent induction into the Flyfishing Hall of Fame. In A Fly Rod of Your Own, Gierach brings his ever-sharp sense of humor and keen eye for observation to the fishing life and, for that matter, life in general. Known for his witty, trenchant observations about fly-fishing, Gierach’s “deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…his alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). A Fly Rod of Your Own transports readers to streams and rivers from Maine to Montana, and as always, Gierach’s fishing trips become the inspiration for his pointed observations on everything from the psychology of fishing (“Fishing is still an oddly passive-aggressive business that depends on the prey being the aggressor”); why even the most veteran fisherman will muff his cast whenever he’s being filmed or photographed; the inevitable accumulation of more gear than one could ever need (“Nature abhors an empty pocket. So does the tackle industry”); or the qualities shared by the best guides (“the generosity of a teacher, the craftiness of a psychiatrist, and the enthusiasm of a cheerleader with a kind of Vulcan detachment”). As Gierach likes to say, “fly-fishing is a continuous process that you learn to love for its own sake. Those who fish already get it, and those who don’t couldn’t care less, so don’t waste your breath on someone who doesn’t fish.” A Fly Rod of Your Own is an ode to those who fish that “brings a skeptical, wry voice to the peril and promise of twenty-first-century fishing” (Booklist).

Essential Fly Fishing is a full-color handbook presenting the fundamentals of this great sport quickly and effectively. It's filled with proven techniques aimed at the beginning fly fisher.