Probably more literature is written about the sport of fly-fishing than any other outdoor pursuit. I know that my reading (and rereading) centers around fly-fishing. This prose is not limited to "how-to" books, but also branches into informal essays and short stories. Some of these reads are a panacea for not actually fishing. I never leave the house without a book, even when I am going fishing. Which brings me to the question at hand:

1) What is your favorite fly-fishing book?
2) What is your most recent fly-fishing read?
3) What book to you take with you on trips (fishing and other types of trips)?

I will volunteer to go first:
1) Even Brook Trout Get the Blues by John Gierach
2) The Fly Rod Chronicles by Richard Landerman
3) Death Taxes and Leaky Waders by John Gierach

Thanks for sharing....

Allyn:

That's a hard one. I have a wall full of fly fishing books in my Tying Room, and a growing number in Kindle format on my iPad, which is how I travel with them now.

Favorites include:

-- Any of John Gierach's books
-- Spring Creek by Nick Lyons (read several times)
-- The Stoney Calhoun mysteries by William Tapply (Bitch Creek, Gray Ghost, Dark Tiger)
-- Scott Waldie's Travers Corners trilogy
-- John Graves's Goodbye to a River

Currently on my bedside table (and/or on my iPad, for traveling) are:

Harry Middleton's In That Sweet Country
John Gilligan's The Wind Knot
Jeffrey Cardenas's Marquesa
Pat Dorsey's Tying and Fishing Tailwater Flies
John Gierach's No Shortage of Good Days
Roderick Haig-Brown's A River Never Sleeps

I got a copy of "The Old Man & the Sea" by Ernie Hemingway

My fishing literature is limited to how to books, that being said I have seen some great fishing movies;

1) Jaws
2) piranha
3) Orca
4) a river runs through it
5) Debbie does Dallas(there's a little rod action in there)
6) anything with Jeremy Wade

The great American Novel... that is debatable. I can take both sides of that argument. The novel shows a man who could do what the author could not do in the end. Hemingway for all the bravado chose the cowards way out rather than die with "dignity and grace" like many of his characters.

Just a little FYI below that has softened a little bit how I view Hemingway's difficult legacy. I'm not here to defend him but it appears that his suicide was potentially related to a medical condition known as "copper diabetes."

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway#Idaho_and_suicide

"During his final years, Hemingway's behavior was similar to his father's before he himself committed suicide;[142] his father may have had the genetic disease hemochromatosis, in which the inability to metabolize iron culminates in mental and physical deterioration.[143] Medical records made available in 1991 confirm that Hemingway's hemochromatosis had been diagnosed in early 1961.[144] His sister Ursula and his brother Leicester also committed suicide.[145]"

In response to the questions posed, here are my answers:

1) What is your favorite fly-fishing book? - "The Longest Silence" by Thomas McGuane (epic writing IMO).

2) What is your most recent fly-fishing read? - "No Shortage of Good Days" by John Gierach.

3) What book to you take with you on trips (fishing and other types of trips)? - McGuane's book, anything by Gierach, or anything by my favorite overall hunting/fishing writer, E. Donnall Thomas, Jr. ("Redfish, Bluefish, Sheefish, Snook;" "Whitefish Can't Jump;" "To All Things a Season;" "Dream Fish and Road Trips."


(***Also a big fan of "Sea Level" by Jeffery Cardenas***)

Fortunately I have all of my books on a Kindle so I can easily take all of them with me where ever I go and for old guys like me the Kindle is very easy on the eyes. I had stopped reading for many years until I got one, now I read daily like I did in my younger years.

1. Goodbye to a River by John Graves
2. Alone in the Wilderness by Joseph Knowles
3. Chicken Soup for the Fisherman's Soul Short stories by many different authors.

1) What is your favorite fly-fishing book?

"The Drake" - OK, so it is not really a book. But I still look forward to each issue.

2) What is your most recent fly-fishing read?

"America's Fly Lines; The Evolution of the Modern Fly Line From Its Horsehair and Silk Beginnings" By Victor R. Johnson - This was a surprisely good read, but it is definately not for everyone. Currently in the middle of "Thunder Creek Flies; Tying and Fishing the Classic Baitfish Imitations" by Keith Fulsher with David Klausmeyer - OK, I'm a sucker for tying books marked down to $5. I'm going to have to tye up some these and give them a try.

3) What book to you take with you on trips (fishing and other types of trips)?

I've spent way too much time in airports, so my answer is boring - whatever random paperback I have with me. Paperbacks are small, disposible and don't use batteries.

FRY suggested Jeffrey Cardenas's Sea Level, so I checked it on Amazon. It was $179.95 new, $175 used, or $9.99 on Kindle. Guess which one I bought?

Yep, long out of print, the hard copies are pricey for sure.

You might also enjoy Jeffrey C's other book, "Marquessa."

It's based on a solid month he spent fly-fishing the uninhabited Marquessa island chain near Key West.

It's also out of print but $9.99 in E-Book form.

You can get it through Tosh Brown's "Departure Publishing" company based in Austin (BTW, haven't gotten a copy but here his essay/photo book "Blitzed" about the annual striper run down the East Coast is epic):

http://departurepublishing.com/marquesa/

I am pleased to know that I am not alone in my love of the literature of our sport.

Just a couple of quick observations:
1. I have to get a Kindle or reader. I read alot of pdf files for work, so I would love to have my professional reference papers handy. Also, the ability to have a couple of fly fishing books handy for a read in the hotel or airport would be super.

2. I never considered Goodbye to a River a book about fly-fishing. I always thought of it as a history book, and one of the best about the history of North Central Texas and near West Texas (as I refer to the area between I-35 and the Pecos River, beyond the Pecos is far West Texas). Rereading a little of it this weekend changes my mind. I always considered this a "book with trees", but I always focused on the story-telling and not the trip itself. I missed something in a book that I consider a favorite of mine. Thanks for the insight.

My favorite fishing story is 'Big Two Hearted River' by Hemingway - part of the Nick Adams Stories. A how-to book that I like to have around is Dave Whitlock's 'LL Bean Fly Fishing Handbook.' I'm currently working my way through Ted Leeson's 'The Habit of Rivers.'

Fly fishing seems like an activity almost custom tailored for literature:

Natural beauty? In spades.
Solitude in nature? Got it.
Man vs. Mythical, elusive creature? Yup.

Never really thought about it before, but now you guys mention it fly angling lit makes perfect sense. It would be nice to read someone else more eloquent than I wax poetically about such a great sport.

I think I am going to start with "Goodbye To A River". A book about a Texas River written by a Texan. Like it.

J.

Steve,

After you finish Goodbye to a River, you might give John Gierach a try. He has been described as the Mark Twain of fly fishing literature. He writes about fly fishing in a humorous, no nonsense way.

Norman Maclean captured the poety of the sport in A River Runs Throught It. I have never seen the entire movie, but the book is a much different experience. I am not much a fan of this movie, but I am huge fan of the book. I always hate when people use the cliche "The book was much better", but in this case they are not the same story just the same characters.

Good luck,
-Allyn