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Individual taste in books varies as much as the favorite rod or fly. With that in mind, we hope to review books and videos from the ever-growing fly fishing world, and share them with you. Books will be the best of all worlds, new and old. Many of the old books are now available in reprint, and the wisdom contained is timely today. Others can be found in second-hand book stores, or by mail order dealers. As we find videos we feel are outstanding they will be included. Be assured, reviews are based on what we have actually read or viewed, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.
UPPER COLUMBIA FLYFISHER
When I received this book from Amato Publications I realized that I had never considered the Columbia River as a fly fishing stream. I noted that the author was not writing about the entire Columbia River but the “upper Columbia,” or the “Shining Reach.” The author describes this section as:
“The term “upper Columbia” is ambiguous and often applied to parts of the Columbia too far downstream to be reasonably considered “Upper.” There is no
official designation that I know of so, for our purposes, I will mean the Upper
Columbia to be from the head of Lake Roosevelt to Lower Arrow Lake, just above
Castlegar, British Columbia. A distance of about 50-miles.”
Now this is big water! According to the author, “Much of the Upper Columbia isn’t wadeable. At one-quarter to one-half mile wide,[American Reach], an average of 60 feet deep, and up to 90 feet deep, with an average surface speed of six knots and a high-water flow of 200,000 cubic feet per second, the Upper Columbia is a river of superlatives.” Now there’s an understatement!
Despite those facts the author makes a compelling case for fly fishing on the Upper Columbia. While this is big water it is also big fish water. The author takes the reader through the seasons on the Upper Columbia using his years of personal fishing experience to introduce his readers to the angling opportunities on this river. The author explains what you can expect in each season of the year. This is very helpful for the visiting angler.
The final chapter of the book contains a list of patterns that the author has found to be useful when fishing this piece of water. Each pattern is illustrated by a color photograph and a list of the materials necessary to tie it. Elsewhere the author listed some of the tackle that he uses.
I am not certain that this is an exhaustive treatise on fly fishing on the Upper Columbia, but it is more than a mere primer. I would recommend this book to anyone that is planning on making a trip to fish the Upper Columbia.
Upper Columbia Flyfisher
Notes, Stories, & Secrets from the Shining Reach
Author: Steven Bird
Signed Hardbound Special Collectors’ Edition
6x9; 120 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1-57188-4480; $35.00