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Nat Greene Flyfishers December 2005

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NAT GREENE CALENDAR

MEETINGS & EVENTS

Tuesday December 13, 2005 - Nat Greene Flyfishers 2005 Holiday Social. Light snacks and beverages and an evening of socializing, friendship, and door prizes. All are welcome. Lewis Recreation Center, 7:00 p.m.

Saturday March 4, 2006 - Annual Flyfishing Seminar and Spring Banquet, featuring Special Guest Speaker and Author Dave Hughes. 9:00 a.m. (Seminar) and 6:30 p.m (Banquet), Cardinal Golf and Country Club, 5700 Cardinal Way, Greensboro NC

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NAT GREENE FLYFISHERS HOLIDAY SOCIAL

7:00 p.m. Tuesday December 13, 2005 at the Lewis Recreation Center

Please come out and join Nat Greene Flyfishers as we celebrate the 2005 Holiday Season. Complimentary light snacks and beverages will be served for an evening of socializing, friendship, and door prizes. Come share your favorite fishing stories and photographs. Young and old -- all are welcome!

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Some Favorite Fly Fishing Books

Here we are again, caught in the rush of holiday shopping. This is the time of year when I really hide out. I detest shopping to begin with, having to endure Muzak and put up with strange smells just to buy something. But the holiday crush is unbearable to even think about. The crowds are overwhelming and the poor attempts at Christmas music piped over the intercom hurt my ears. I guess that’s why I chicken out and use catalogs and the net more frequently. I can find what I’m after providing the person on my list has proffered a reasonable hint.

By coincidence, I have recently had the pleasure of re-visiting some favorite books as part of a home renovation project. I am in the last throes of a project that includes building a library to house my collection of fishing books. While placing the books in their new home, I have been reminded of the pleasure these volumes have given me, sometimes many times over. And, of course, they can do so again at my whim.

So the need to deal with holiday gift lists and my re-introduction to some favorite books have collided and the ‘ole light bulb over the noggin shines brightly! Why not combine the two events to come to the aid of a fellow angler? If you are looking for a hint to help your spouse, check the list of some of my favorite fishing books. You just might find something you’d like to spend a winter evening with. Here goes:

1. A River Runs Through It by Norman MacClean. Best trout fishing story ever that my wife is quick to point out is not about trout fishing. Spawned “The Movie” and “The Crowds.”

2. Wisdom of the Guides by Paul Arnold. Series of interviews with western guides asked a similar set of questions about what clients (meaning anyone who fly fishes for trout) needs to know to catch fish. Surprisingly, it’s a short list. Great practical distillation of the sport.

3. Western Trout Fishing Guide by Craig Mathews. If you plan to fish out west and have not done so, I highly recommend this book. Very readable and I learned a lot from it even though I made sixteen or seventeen previous trips to the Yellowstone area before I read it.

4. Yellowstone Fly fishing Guide by Craig Mathews and Clayton Molinero. Aimed directly at the fly fisher exploring Yellowstone Park, trout Mecca if it exists anywhere. Gives excellent summaries of where to go, what type of fish to expect, and whether you might encounter bears or not. An excellent way to help plan your trip and get off the beaten path and away from car-bound tourists. On each trip I try to go someplace in the backcountry I’ve never been before and this book is a great help for setting up day hikes to less-fished waters.

5. Essential Trout Flies by Dave Hughes. Our banquet speaker next March has been a prolific writer of solid fishing information. This paperback volume organizes trout flies into types and so cuts down the number you need to carry and tie. Another fine distillation of the sport, this time with a heavy emphasis on fly tying and fly selection. Dave has also written a fine book on wet flies (titled Wet Flies, duh), which are a lot more practical and imitative than you might think. I don’t hit the stream without several sizes of black gnats.

6. Lefty’s Little Library of Fly Fishing by Lefty Kreh and a host of others. A series (twenty volumes?) of small books devoted to nearly every conceivable aspect of fly fishing from trout flies to international angling. Each book gives the reader an in-depth look at the topic. I highly recommend this series, which is unfortunately out of print. You might find this one from a used book seller if you look hard enough. It will be worth the effort. Portions of the overall library have been re-published as individual volumes and smaller groups of books. Check the net.

7. Practical Fishing Knots by Lefty Kreh and Mark Sosin. This slender volume is an absolute essential. No stories, just the straight stuff on what makes a good knot and lots of them. Also discusses how to tie a nearly universal leader (so simple!) and how to save money on trout leaders. Get a large hook and an old piece of fly line to practice with and master knot tying. You can’t land ‘em if your knot lets go.

8. The John Gierach series of stories. John has the enviable position of getting paid to write about going fishing, which, requires of course, that he has to go fishing. Not wants to go but has to go. With two graduate degrees, I can’t find a job like that. Good insight into the fishermen’s head and how things observed in nature can make you think. Primarily about the Colorado area but stories about Montana, Labrador and even Nebraska.

9. The Custom Graphite Fly Rod by Skip Morris. If you are interested in building your own rod, this is the book. The process is easier than you think as we proved in a rod-building course a few years ago. This book tells how graphite rods are made from manufacture of the blanks to how to correctly grind down the guide feet. Good photos too.

10. Fly fishing the Tidewaters by Tom Earnhardt. If you are interested in getting started in salt water fly fishing, the North Carolina coast is a great place to start and Tom has been there for many years. The book discusses tackle, flies, strategies and the many inshore species that will take a fly (most!). Great photography and a good introduction to fly fishing in the salt.

11. Saltwater fly fishing: Seven strategies for success by Mike Starke. More advanced and in-depth than the above volume. Loaded with practical advice. I have changed my fly designs based on this book and they do work better! Excellent section on casting (the speed cast is essential for false albacore fishing but easy to learn). Lots of solid info gleaned from experience and much of it applies to North Carolina fisheries. Excellent book.

12. The Founding Fish by John McPhee. This is not a fly fishing book per se, but an engaging story of the biological and political history of the American shad, the fish purported to have saved Washington’s hungry troops at Valley Forge from certain starvation. As one of the spring spawners in North Carolina’s rivers, the American shad has long been entwined with American history. They were pickled by George Washington and sold on the streets of colonial Philadelphia. And there is biological information I’ve never seen anywhere else, like describing the circling behavior I observed in the Neuse. Turns out I’ll not cast into fish having sex any more. Oh well, I didn’t know any better at the time. This book is something to settle into and enjoy over time. A truly enjoyable read.

Well, there you have it. Drop a hint or two and hope for the best. You can find all of these books on the net so you don’t even have to leave home to order them. Or you call a bookstore and order over the phone. Either way, you still minimize exposure to the holiday hordes. Good luck and good reading!

Jim Brady

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Dave Hughes to Speak at 2006 Annual Spring Banquet!

Great News! Nationally known author and fly tying expert Dave Hughes will speak at the Nat Greene Flyfishers Annual Spring Banquet and Seminar on March 4, 2006. Dave has officially retired from public speaking, but we've twisted his arm just a bit. He'll present a morning seminar on flies and tactics, followed by a casting demo after lunch. The evening banquet presentation will feature a presentation appropriate for for a broad audience.

Dave is one of the most respected and widely published writers in fly fishing. He is the author of 20 books, including Wet Flies, which has become an acclaimed reference on the subject, the popular Fly Fishing Basics, as well as four books in Stackpole's Dave Hughes Library: Handbook of Hatches, Reading the Water for Trout, and Tackle and Techniques for Trout. He contributes to the all the major fly-fishing magazines and is a regular columnist for Fly Rod & Reel. He was the founding president of Oregon Trout and received the Lew Jewett Memorial Life Membership from the Federation of Fly Fishers. He lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon.

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