A richly illustrated guide that offers precise terms for every part of the cast, with sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, and much more.

A richly illustrated guide that offers precise terms for every part of the cast, with sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, and much more.

America's Favorite Flies: 9 x 12 inches, 656 pages, full-color, case bound with cloth, smyth sewn. America's Favorite Flies, a book by Rob Carter and John Bryan, is a landmark gathering of 224 persons from across North America, each of whom has provided a favorite fly along with comments and materials. Among the book's contents are stunning photographs of the flies and writings by the participants. The list of participants is compelling: President Jimmy Carter, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, fly-fishing matriarch Joan Wulff, salt fly legend Lefty Kreh, 1% for the Planet co-founder Craig Mathews, Riverkeeper founder Robert Boyle, rock musician Huey Lewis, artist James Prosek, author Tom McGuane, and on and on. America's Favorite Flies is dedicated to Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs through It, which spawned the movie that has had arguably more impact on fly-fishing than anything in its history. Norman Maclean's children, Jean Snyder Maclean and John N. Maclean, have given their appreciation and enthusiastic confirmation for this dedication. The book also includes approximately 100 artworks by some of North America's most beloved outdoor artists. 14 influential people in the world of fly fishing have contributed special essays. All of the profits from America's Favorite Flies are donated to two organizations whose work benefits ever healthier fisheries and waters. The James River Association is guardian of the 348-mile James River that begins with mountain trout waters and concludes amid bluefish and flounder waters where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The Native Fish Society plays a vital role in the conservation and recovery of wild, native fish in the Pacific Northwest, and is an active advocate both regionally and nationally.

Expert Lefty Kreh lays the groundwork for learning to cast, including teaching and practicing tips.

Flycasting is a skill of almost mythic proportions. Yet discussions of casting often bog down in a world of technical minutiae that is almost impenetrable to the beginner. Now, in The Essence of Flycasting, Mel Krieger has created a clear, indispensable manual for anglers of all skill levels. Through detailed instructions and dozens of precise photographs, Krieger dissects this arcane art into understandable and executable steps that take the raw beginner from piles of line on the ground to graceful loops in the air. And the seasoned veteran will advance from struggling with 30-foot casts to skillfully double-hauling vastly more line across the water. Book jacket.

Fly casting might look easy—you just move the rod back and forth, right? Yes, that’s true, but between “back” and “forth,” a lot can go wrong. The perfect marriage of human skill and dexterity to the cork and graphite of today’s fly rods takes a good bit of work, and this is the how-to book that gets you around common mistakes and bad moves so that you can develop the muscle memory that makes for easy, accurate, and highly successful fly casting. Author Al Kyte’s instruction, with numerous full-color photographs, breaks down the parts of the cast to get you to better understand what is happening and how to put all of the parts of your cast together to make noticeable improvements.

The third novel starring Montana's fly fisherman-cum-detective Sean Stranahan, for fans of C. J. Box and Craig Johnson Wolves howl as a riderless horse returns at sunset to the Culpepper Dude Ranch in the Madison Valley. The missing woman, Nanika Martinelli, is better known as the Fly Fishing Venus, a red-haired river guide who lures clients the way dry flies draw trout. As Sheriff Martha Ettinger follows hoof tracks in the snow, she finds one of the men who has fallen under the temptress’s spell impaled on the antler tine of a giant bull elk, a kill that’s been claimed by a wolf pack. An accident? If not, is the killer human or animal? With painter, fly fisherman, and sometimes private detective Sean Stranahan’s help, Ettinger will follow clues that point to an animal rights group called the Clan of the Three-Clawed Wolf and to their svengali master, whose eyes blaze with pagan fire. In their most dangerous adventure yet, Stranahan and Ettinger find themselves in the crossfire of wolf lovers, wolf haters, and a sister bent on revenge, and on the trail of an alpha male gone terribly wrong.

For three years, journalist Richard Louv listened to America by going fishing with Americans. Doing what many of us dream of, he traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from trout waters east and west to bass waters north and south. Fly-Fishing for Sharks is the result of his journey, a portrait of America on the water, fishing rod in hand. To explore the cultures of fishing, Louv joined a bass tournament on Lake Erie and got a casting lesson from fly-fishing legend Joan Wulff He angled with corporate executives in Montana and fly-fished for sharks in California. He spent time with fishing-boat captains in Florida, the regulars who fish New York City's Hudson River, and a river witch in Colorado. He teamed secrets of fishing and living from steelheaders in the Northwest, Bass'n Gals in Texas, and an ice-fisher in the North Woods. Along the way, he heard from one of Hemingway's sons what it was like to fish with Papa and from Robert Kennedy, Jr., how fishing changed his fife. As he describes the eccentricities, obsessions, and tribulations of dedicated anglers, he also uncovers the values that unite them. He reveals the healing qualities of fishing, how it binds the generations, how the angling business has grown, and how the future of fishing is threatened. But most of all, Fly-Fishing for Sharks is about the unforgettable characters Louv meets on the water and the stories they tell. From them, Louv learns about our changing relationship with nature, about a hidden America -- and about himself.

Storied Waters chronicles the author’s six-week odyssey from Maine to Wisconsin and back to explore and fly fish America’s most storied waters and celebrate the writers and artists who made them famous. In a 5,000-mile odyssey covering over 50 locations in eight states, Van Wie follows and fishes in the footsteps of giants from Thoreau to Hemingway, Robert Traver to Corey Ford, Louise Dickinson Rich to Aldo Leopold to Winslow Homer and many more. Storied Waters provides a virtual roadmap through 200 years of fly-fishing literature and a literal roadmap—complete with local fishing tips—to the hallowed waters of our sport. In each chapter, informative sidebars detail fishing spots, best times to fish, major hatches, and other intel. Storied Waters is a grand vicarious adventure, driving the backroads for weeks at a time exploring beautiful places, and meeting fascinating people who share a common interest. With an easy, conversational writing voice enhanced with spectacular photographs, Van Wie relates an eclectic mix of travel narrative, natural history, and fishing tips and advice, as well as a deep (but sometimes humorously irreverent) appreciation for the writers who have created such a rich legacy of stories about fishing over the past 200 years.