fly patterns of Alaska is a great book for people tying for Alaska like I am. lots of great patterns, also woolly wisdom, the best book of woolly buggers ever!

When I was in the Half Price Books on Campbell Road in Richardson this morning, they had a few of Gierach's books for sale. I picked up a copy of Fool's Paradise cause it was there and I have not read it. They also had a copy of Still life with Brook Trout and several of his other books in paperback. I suspect they will go pretty good in this 100 degree heat.

Big Dale

I'll tell you a couple of fly tying/fishing books that are GREAT for Texas-style fly fishing if you do a bit of adaptation: Sylvester Nemes' works on tying and fishing soft hackle flies!

Nemes works are geared toward the trout angler, but if you simply "super-size" his patterns and concepts soft hackle flies and techniques work GREAT for pan fish and bass in streams and lakes!

A lot of bass fishermen don't know that even largemouth bass often eat more bugs than anything else. Migrating damselflies, dragonflies, and large chironomids are huge forage sources for Texas lake fish. And not knowing how to tie and fish imitations of these food sources is really a limit to the angler's options. Soft hackles are especially effective at catching pan fish.

And the big advantage of the soft hackle fly is that it BREATHES and appears LEGGY - simulating a wide variety of insect life more than sufficient to trigger the strike instinct of any predator fish. And there is no great soft hackle expert than Sylvester Nemes.

Sylvester Nemes
http://montana-riverboats.com/Pages/Fly-Tying/Sylvester-Nemes/index.html
Click on the slideshow and see some of his flies. I found this by doing a Google search. He does tie really nice flies, I had never heard of him, thanks for putting his name in the hat. I bet the BREAM WILL LOVE THESE FLIES!!!

The book that got me hooked on tying wet flies is Dave Hughes book Wet Flies. That sent me on a chase for tying materials that has lasted for about a decade and a half so far. Great book. It led me to buying four of Sylvester Nemes books and traveling to Montana and Idaho to watch Sylvester tie at various FFF conclaves thru the years. That reminds me that the FFF conclave in Loveland, Co. is coming up in a couple of weeks and it is time to get some reservations for a Denver area motel for a few days. If you are into tying flies, that is a great place to watch and learn from a bunch of the world's best...besides God made mountains for Texans to go to in the summer.

Big Dale

Clousers's Fly (GREAT BOOK...I personally have this one)

Anything you can get your hands on by Bob Popovics I suggest picking up and owning as well.

Here's a page on my blog that I keep listing out the fly tying books on my shelves:

http://awmiller.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/fishing-books-on-my-shelf/

I started out with Peter Cathercole's Fly Tying For Beginners. It has a section of core techniques which were great for getting me started.

Each of the fifty flies gets four pages of tying instructions and photos.

I caught a few bream this weekend on a hare's ear spider with a red thorax. Now I remember where I found that pattern - it is the first fly in the book.

Grashpr...that was my first book too, and I recommend it as well. It seems it is mostly for trout flies, but you can catch a whole lot of bream off of trout flies. I loved that book too. It is also a reasonably priced book for a beginner.

Streamer Fly Tying & Fishing by Joseph D. Bates Jr.

I could post a number of books but here are just a couple on fly tying:

http://www.amazon.com/Benchside-Introduc...4820&sr=1-1
Reasonable price by the same guy that wrote the following big brother $100 book to this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fly-Tiers-Benchsid...4820&sr=1-4 If you have some cash to spend on a reference fly tying book this is it.

My latest addition from Al Beatty: http://www.amazon.com/Rotary-Fly-Tying-T...4971&sr=1-1

I used the Amazon links but many of these can be found on Ebay for a few pennies less, but not a lot.

Rick

TFTBR might be a great book. For $100, all I can say is, "no thanks," "keep it," or, with a British accent, "Do us a favor!"

A used one just went for $50 this week on Ebay and you can find a new one for just over $60 if you shop, so you see that book holds it's value if you don't like it you can sell it. There are over 400 pages in a nice hardbound book. I have many $20 books that are 150 pages and are no where as complete. Again, this book is an investment and a wonderful reference piece. If you ever get a chance to put one in your hands, and flip through it you will see the value.

See if you can get it through one of your library systems to check out for a couple of days to see if you want to part with the money. It's not for everyone and that is why the little brother that is under $30 that I referenced as the first book is a great value by the same author. Read any reviews of those two books and the results are always the same - fantastic fly tying books. You have to make up your own mind though.

A friend of mine has the book, and it is fantastic. It may be the only fly tying book worth a lot of money...75 dollars is a better price...but still, they do have a LOT of stuff in it. If you can possibly afford it, the techniques in there will help you become a better tyer, no doubt. I give both of the books 5 stars.

My first fly tying books, the ones that got me started:

Skip Morris's Fly Tying Made Clear & Simple
Randall Kaufmann's Tying Nymphs and Tying Dry Flies
Chuck & Sharon Tyron's Figuring Out Flies
AK Best's Production Fly Tying

Other more recent books that are great manuals:

John Barr's Barr Flies
Bob Clouser's Clouser's Flies
Charlie Craven's Charlie Craven's Basic Fly Tying
Don Holbrook & Ed Koch's Midge Magic
Bob Linsenman & Kelly Galloup's Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout
Mike Mercer's Creative Fly Tying
Scott Sanchez's Introduction to Saltwater Fly Tying
Shane Stalcup's Mayflies Top to Bottom