In the fly fishing world we’re lucky to have some gifted writers who love (or loved) the sport as much as we do. Here are 7 books about fly fishing that we really like.
1. The Earth is Enough
This is just a great story about a boy growing up and learning about life from some mentors who happen to fly fish.
2. A Passion for Steelhead
Yes, Dec is a buddy of ours, but he’s also written the definitive modern book about fly fishing for steelhead. If you like anadromous fish, you need this one.
3. A River Runs Through It
The movie had a big enough impact on the fly fishing world that those of us in the industry simply call it ‘The Movie’. The book is a lot better than the movie, and you should read it if you haven’t already.
4. Dream Fish and Road Trips, by Don Thomas
A collection of essays about fly fishing in Alaska, Montana, Christmas Island, Siberia, and even more places than that. According to the back cover, “If Hunter S. Thompson took up fly fishing, he’d eventually find Don Thomas.”
5. The River Why, by David James Duncan
This one might turn into ‘The Movie II’. A young man comes of age while chasing steelhead in the Pacific Northwest.
6. A River Never Sleeps, by Roderick Haig-Brown
It was written in 1946 by a guy who probably caught more steelhead than all of us reading this combined.
7. Bonefishing!, by Randall Kaufmann
Of our favorites, Bonefishing! is the much less of a story and much more of a technical manual. That being said, if you like catching bonefish, or you want to catch bonefish at some point, you’ll read a lot by picking up this book.
Which books about fly fishing do you like? Leave a comment and let us know.
This list could get interesting… Curtis Creek Manifesto by Sheridan Anderson is on my list for the "if I bumped into an extra-terrestrial who did not fly fish but could read" situations in life. I'm still waiting to use it but I have the tattered tool at hand just in case.
The Longest Silence – A Life In Fishing. Thomas McGuane of course.
I couldn't put it down, and I'm the kind that has five books sitting on the nightstand, all half-read, all the time.
Ed from California weighed in via email:
Good stuff. Thanks. I own several of those mentioned and will add "The River Why" to my library asap. How cool would a well-done film focusing on the plight of steelhead be. A "Raising the Ghost" for the increasingly eco-minded general populace. Great idea!
While Dec's book is certainly a favorite. I offer for your consideration, John Larison's "Complete Steelheader". I found it a little more friendly for the neophyte, (like me). Finally, Bill McMillan' s "Dry Line Steelhead" is my Chromer Bible. Tight loops!
These novels by Dave Ames are excellent:
• True Love and the Woolly Bugger
• A Good Life Wasted"
And I'm also quite partial to the following books (since I'm the author) for kids and their parents:
• Olive the Little Woolly Bugger
• Olive and The Big Stream
• Olive Goes for a Wild Ride
Serious stuff and the bible on sea trout fishing, from a true master it has to be 'Sea Trout Fishing' by Hugh Falkus
comedy wise and just an awesome read that you can't put down ' Salmon fishing in the Yemen'
miss both at your expense….
@fbrglssmnfsto voted via Twitter:
The Longest Silence is a favorite of mine as well.
92 in the Shade, McGuane
The Color of Winter – Fly Fishing for Steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula by Doug Rose. Great book.
Three that I would add to the list are:
1. Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska by Lou Ureneck
This is a somber autobiographical piece about a guy a trying to connect with his kid during a float trip on my favorite river. Some of the prose he uses to describe Western AK tundra and skies have made me wish I could say things that purty.
Home Waters: Fishing with an Old Friend: A Memoir by Joseph Monniger
Guy goes on an epic road trip flyfishing with his dog. Sappy dog stories mixed with fishing are like Candygrams for Mongo. Spoiler alert: Facial tissue may be required. Unless you are a cat lover, in which case you probably fish with stuff in a Red can…Hills Brothers.
Dark Waters by Russell Chatham. Former Zoo Bar guest. Was a strangely quiet fellow in camp, did not really socialize with anyone, but turned out to be quite the eccentric poet in his book. Wish now that I had made more effort to engage him then.
Also, I sure hope that they don't screw up the River Why by putting it on film. Liked this book so much that my dog's middle name is "sigrid the strong".
Great stuff Mongo – thanks for the old-school knowledge!
“Trout” by Ray Bergman first published in 1938 reprinted six times ninth printing, July 1945
It contains 15 plates of flies in full color; each fly hand painted by Dr. Edgar Burke
Photographs of fly tying by Charles S Krug, also many diagrams in line by Ivin Sickles
Published by Alfred A. Knopf: New York
This book was magic to me, and I learned much from reading it, and tagging along with and observing my very tolerant grandfather while he was fishing.
I inherited this book from my Grandfather Walter Coyle, who lived in Walla Walla Washington and who fished Mill Creek, a tributary of the Walla Walla River, below the intake for the water supply of Walla Walla and above the Oregon State Line.
Anything and everything by Thomas McGuane – a master wordsmith with remarkable insight, humor and intellgence. I can and do re-read his writing time and time again.