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Guided Fly Fishing in West Georgia FLINT RIVER SHOAL BASS - CHATTAHOOCHEE STRIPERS
LARGEMOUTH BASS & BREAM LAKES - GAR & CARP
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS |
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INSTRUCTIONAL & EDUCATIONAL BOOKS There's a wealth, some might say a plethora, of instructional books for the fly angler. Either way you phrase it, choosing is difficult. These are my picks for the best-of-the-best. They belong on your bookshelf.
General Tactics & Technique Practical Fishing Knots - Mark Sosin & Lefty Kreh - a basic reference to the critical connection. Don't go to the trouble of finding and hooking them if you're not gonna' land them! Presenting the Fly - Lefty Kreh - Lefty has wriiten dozens of books that are all worth owning, but this one recent edition offers a a near-complete compilation of his best. I'd add his casting and saltwater books (below). Presentation - Gary Borger - This one will be hard-to-find as it's out of print (though a new printing is rumored). It's a comprehensive text, covering casting, entomology, tactics and more. Most copies in decent shape Reading Trout Water - Dave Hughes - Though not as comprehensive a text as those above, this is the best book I ever read on finding and understanding fish in moving water. Not just trout either - most fish, regardless of species, relate in many of the same ways.
Casting
Solving
Fly Casting Problems - Lefty Kreh
Fly-Casting Techniques
Casting Angles
Entomology Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods - Dave Whitlock - This is Dave's classic text - good stuff. Handbook Of Hatches - Dave Hughes - Another concise text from Dave Hughes - If you buy one book on entomology, this should be it.
An Angler's Guide to Aquatic Insects and Their Imitations
Saltwater Fly Fishing in Salt Water - Lefty Kreh - This list may seem monopolized by Lefty, but nobody has the experience and has packed it into good books like he has.
Where-To Books
Lots of good
ones out there, but I'll limit mine to the two definitive books on
Georgia fishing. Fly Fishing Georgia - David Cannon - This is the new guidebook to the area's top fishing spots, from trout to bass to saltwater. Included is the Flint River and the shoal bass, a fishery that is unique to Georgia.
Trout Fishing in North Georgia by Jimmy Jacobs - Terrific, reliable guide to Georgia trout fishing. After using this book in previous editions, I'm never hesitant to head for an unfamiliar stream that Jacobs reviews (and he covers most of them). If you trout fish in Georgia, get it! Jimmy also has books on southern Appalachians and and the SE coast.
An excerpt from AN OUTSIDE CHANCE
"...The fish, the first of six that day, broke off. So did the others, destroying various aspects of my tackle. Of the performances, it is not simple to generalize. The closest thing to a tarpon in the material world is a Steinway piano. The tarpon, of course, is a gamefish that runs to extreme sizes, while the Steinway piano is merely an enormous musical instrument, largely wooden and manipulated by a series of keys. However, the tarpon hooked and running reminds the angler of a piano sliding down a precipitous incline and while jumping makes cavities and explosions in the water not unlike a series of pianos falling from a great height. If the reader, then, can speculate in terms of pianos that herd and pursue mullet and are themselves shaped like exaggerated herrings, he will be a very long way toward seeing what kind of thing a tarpon is. Those who appreciate nature as we find her may rest in the knowledge that no amount of modification can substitute the manmade piano for the real thing - the tarpon. from An Outside Chance by Tom McGuane
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OTHER AUTHORS Here is a mix of fiction and non-fiction including some great literature. All contain a greater or lesser amount of fishing, but that may not be the focus. Regardless, I think there's something to learn from these, whether it be about fishing or about...
McGuane's a critically-acclaimed author, but don't let that dissuade you - he's the real deal. His biography reads like a novel and a fly fisher's dream, including living in the Keys in the early seventies hanging with Harrison, Brautigan, Buffet and many early icons of the sport and, more recently appearing on Pirates of the Flats. His collected short stories and essays are favorites. Lots of fishing here... An Outside Chance (1981)
To Skin a Cat - Stories Live Water (1996) The Longest Silence (2000)
McGuane's novels should be sampled too. Two of his first are what got me seriously involved with the fly... The Sporting Life (1969)
Ninety-Two in The Shade There are many more. And a note here - McGuane's early editions are in high demand on the collectors market. I have several that would tempt me to sell if I didn't love them so. So spend a few bucks and get a first edition, or get the paperback and just enjoy. See the complete works of Tom McGuane on Amazon.
Jim Harrison
Richard Brautigan
John Gierach Everything written by John Gierach is almost everyone's favorite(mine included), but this one has to take the cake for the best book title ever... Sex, Death and Flyfishing - John Gierach
An excerpt from TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA
"The creek was made narrow by the little green trees that grew close together. The creek was like 12,845 telephone booths in a row...with all the doors taken off and the backs knocked out. ...by going in there and catching a few trout, I kept the telephones in service, I was an asset to society. It was pleasant work... I was punching in at the creek. I put my card above the clock and went into that long tunnel of telephone booths. I waded about seventy-three telephone booths in. I caught two trout in a little hole that was like a wagon wheel,...one of my favorite holes. I always like to think of that little hole as a pencil sharpener. I put my reflexes in and they came back out with a good point on them. Over a period of a couple of years, I must have caught fifty trout out of that hole, though it was only as big as a wagon wheel". - from Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan |
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C o n t a c t
K e n t at
kent@flyfishga.com
or 7 0 6 - 8 8 1 - 3 2 4 9. |
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- Wisdom from the master, and
covers almost every casting situation
- Joan Wulff
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A somewhat different casting
style, and a perfect compliment to Lefty's book.
- Mac Brown -
The most
unique viewpoint of casting ever. Don't go here unless you really want
to know how to cast. It may take some time, but it's worth it!
- Rick Hafele -
Here's a very comprehensive guide to insect ID, but
with a focus still on fishing.
(1986)
