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, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.
April 5th, 1999

The Art and Science of Fly fishing
By Lenox Dick and Friends
Frank Amato Publications, Inc.
P.O. Box 82112, Portland Oregon 97282 Phone: 503-653-8108, email Frank Amato Publications

Let's say you take a guy who started fly fishing when he was thirteen and spent nearly the rest of his life reading, fishing and studying about the sport and decided it needed a darn good book for beginners. He vowed "someday I will write a book that will actually show the reader how to fish with a fly."

So he wrote one that has been a basic for many fly fishing schools.

He spent a few more years perfecting and expanding all he had learned and came out with a second edition, even though his first was hailed for it's simplicity and clarity of instruction. That author is Lenox Dick. His first book did just what he wanted it to. His second edition improves upon it, taking the beginner through everything he needs to get a good start on the sport.

Here are the chapters: Basic Tackle, Casting Basics, Advanced Fly Casting & Presentation, Reading water, Aquatic Insects & Other fish food, Flies, The Caddis That May, Wading, Opening Day, The Delights of June, The Middle of July, Nymph Fishing, Soft-hackle flies, Bush-whacking Feeder Streams, Spring Creeks, big Limestone Trout, Winter Fly Fishing for Trout, Night Fishing, More About Fly fishing Equipment, Steelhead Fly Fishing Vagaries, Summer Fly Fishing for Steelhead, Winter Steelhead, Fishing Sink-tip Lines for Steelhead, The Camera Killer, The Best Fishing is Between the Pages of a Book. It seems to me that about covers it.

Ok, add to that a few of his friends like Pearson, Locke, Jewitt, Gierach, Hafele, Hughes, Powell, Supinski, Rahr, Green, Bachman, Amato, Sherman, and Hart, and you have an impressive list of contributors all of whom help make up a book which should be regarded as a classic for the beginner.

Included are many photos, both color and black and white and plenty of line sketches to make everything clear and easily understood. A fine and noble work, whether for yourself or a gift to someone just starting out. Notable also is the fact that all royalties from the book are donated to 'Oregon Trout' for the conservation of wild fish.

This book could easily been titled "The Beginners Fly Fishing Bible."

by Alan Pratt

The Art and Science of Fly fishing is softbound, 134 pages. The price is a bargin $19.95, ISBN: 1-878175-141-6. ~ JC

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