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.
February 14th, 2000

Seasons of the Bighorn
An Angler's Year
By George Kelly
 Published by Willow Creek Press
PO Box 147, Minocqua, WI 54548
Phone: 1-800-850-WILD

There are several articles on FAOL which refer to the Bighorn River in Montana. And with good reason. The Bighorn is a wonderful tailwater fishery. By some accounts the best in the American West. If you have fished it you probably still have some mental pictures. If you haven't had the pleasure (yet) here is something to wet your fishing appetite. Either way, Seasons of the Bighorn is a lovely book, wonderful photographs (by Barry and Cathy Beck) with an extremely well-written text.

The author, George Kelly, George Kelly is a nationally published writer and owner of Kingfisher Lodge on the Bighorn River. He has been guiding fishermen in Montana since 1970, and on the Bighorn specifically since 1981. That all translates into sharing his appreciation and insights of the Bighorn in this outstanding book.

Seasons of the Bighorn

Kelly's narrative takes the reader through the four seasons of the Bighorn, providing comprehensive fly fishing and hatches information for the angler. A skilled naturalist, the author also interweaves a lyrical discussion of the flora and fauna within the seasonal text. Several photos of intense hatches may cause involuntary reflexes of your casting hand.

The advantages of the Bighorn fishery are many - something for everyone - from easy wading to floating water. All to the joy of a State estimated 5,000 catchable trout per mile in the first 13 miles below the Yellowtail Dam. All of the parts are there, and the author has broken it down into managable parts - including which insects and flies when.

I thoroughly enjoyed Seasons of the Bighorn and recommend it even if you don't think you will ever have the opportunity to fish it. There is great information for the fly angler. I've gone back and just enjoyed the photography several times. (There may even be drool marks on a few pages.)

True leviatan from the Bighorn

Willow Creek Press lists Seasons of the Bighorn as the first in their Great American Rivers series. I sincerely hope more follow of this wonderful quality. There is an excerpt from the 'Introduction' in our Eye of the Guide series. ~ DB

Seasons of the Bighorn, An Angler's Year
128 pages.
Hard Bound: $29.50 US
ISBN I-57223-124-6
Published by Willow Creek Press PO Box 147
Minocqua, WI 54548
Phone: 1-800-850-WILD

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