An area where you can discuss books about angling, classic tackle, angling literature, your favorite authors, old and new, and any upcoming books you see of interest and of course all the classics as well.
We are downsizing and moving to a retirement complex where our unit will only be about 900 sq. feet. That means I will have to get rid of my 300 plus fishing library. To say it makes me sick to think about it would be a gross understatement. Got to get rid of all the flytying stuff too.
I'll be 75 soon and could not deal with ridding one's self of all fly-tying stuff...
And, I'm waiting on the delivery of a new 8' 4 weight Sweetgrass rod THIS month....
Top five:
Roderick Haig-Brown
Robert Traver (John Voelker)
W.D. Wetherell
Nick Lyons
Dana Lamb (late to the party here...)
Others I enjoy (wish there was more from most of these):
Jerry Dennis
Arthur Macdougall Jr.
Thomas McGuane
Ted Leeson
Steve Raymond
Ernest Schwiebert
Sparse Grey Hackle (Alfred Miller)
William Tapply
James Babb
M.R. Montgomery
Harry Middleton
Norman Maclean
John Gierach
John Holt
Jerry Hamza
E. Donnall Thomas Jr.
David James Duncan
...and others...
Non Literature:
Dave Hughes
Randall Kaufmann
Jack Dennis
Eric Leiser
Last edited by LeoCreek on 10/09/22 16:13, edited 1 time in total.
Great thread and interesting to see the frequently listed authors. For fishing authors, mine are in the correct order, at least for today…
1. Schwiebert
2. Middleton
3. Maclean
4. Ford
5. Tapply
All fine authors to be sure. However one not mentioned would be Eyre Methuen’s 1967 collection of Norman Thelwell’s ‘The Compleat Tangler’ series of drawings and narrative. Not all fly fishing but good fun none the less.
For instructionals or literature. For instructionals I like Humphries "Trout Tactics," and Syl Nemes soft hackle books. For lit I like the better Gierach, Tom McGuane, and Traver (who had many writing foibles, but a terrific rebellious attitude).
I read all the English chalk stream writers as I am basically a spring creek guy.
Caucus and Natasi were a great influence, even more tHan Swisher and Richards. 1976, we were on the Henry’s Fork and try to catch fish with the local no-hackle flies in fashion. They did not work very well, and were shot after one fish.
I picked a fly off the water and said “Looks like a Sulphuric to me”. After 3-4 fish “John, what are you using?”
“Sulphur Comparadun”. “You got any more of them?”
And soon, all three of us were catching fish.
But, Marinaro, Fox, Proper and McGuane get re-read. I even read McGuanes horse books, though his fiction is a mixed box. Some is too dark for me. John
