My uncle was a dedicated fly fisherman, and I remember the dining room table covered with vises and tiny hooks and filled with turkey feathers and multicolored deer tails. I would watch him create delicate mimicries and speak of matching the hatch. Hunting and fishing are both an important part of our Twin Tiers’ culture, and there’s something about the smell of gun oil, the woodstove’s searing heat, and a well-stocked fly box that has a place in any fisherman’s heart. No man deserves the title of sportsman who doesn’t feel a deep, honest gratitude for nature’s bounty. I grew up loving the woods, creeks, and the wild things in them. I thought every ten-year-old knew the difference between a stocked trout and a native brookie, and I couldn’t wait until the first day of trout season. If you are having trouble waiting too, here’s some reading material to keep you busy:
The ABCs of Fly Tying by Maurice Beliveau: A straightforward manual that any beginning flytier can use to get started. The book covers basic skills you need to learn, practice, and perfect: tying on, the whip finish, pinch tying, abrading, dubbing, working with wings and hackle, and the high tie method. After the basic techniques, the book moves on to step-by-step instructions for tying eighteen popular flies. Beliveau simplifies the intimidating world of fly tying and gives just the right amount of detail to get you started.
First Cast: Teaching Kids to Fly-Fish by Phil Genova: The author is a fly-fishing instructor at Cornell University and this book is based on a program that has taught thousands of youngsters to fly-fish. Kids can have fun learning to fish and learn respect and appreciation of nature at the same time. This book will take them from their first
half-hitch and Wooly Bugger to long casts over rising trout.
100 Weird Ways To Catch Fish by John Waldman: There’s more than one to catch a fish, and not everyone fly-fishes. The spear, the line, and the hook are perennial favorites, but there’s fishing with the bow, night knife-fishing in Nepal, noodling for catfish, and the less-than-subtle approach of using dynamite, which reminds me of a tale involving a game warden and a poacher.
Fishing with the Presidents by Bill Mares: “All men,” Herbert Hoover noted, “are equal before fish.” Perhaps nothing is more democratic than fishing. Just about all our presidents have fished, at least occasionally. George Washington was briefly a commercial fisherman; FDR had a special chair built into his boats to allow him to fish; and Nixon attempted to learn fly-fishing with disastrous results. Even “Silent Cal” was known to swear at the wiles of trout. This is American history you can wade into.
Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders by John Gierach: Writing is a lot like fishing. Both take patience, persistence, much time, an appreciation for the process, and both are harder than they appear. This anthology is sure to comfort the angler who stands in a cold river for hours and brings home nothing to show for it. Any fisherman knows there’s more to fishing than the fish, and like all of Gierach’s writing, these essays may first appear to be about, for instance, preparing camp coffee, but they are interwoven with themes of life and death, and, of course, fly-fishing.
Of A Predatory Heart by Joe Parry: Joe Parry, a Vietnam vet and an outdoor writer, has written for the Pennsylvania Game News, Field and Stream, Fins and Feathers, Turkey Magazine, and Sports Afield. His stories on hunting and fishing run from snort-milk-through-your nose funny, to bringing a tear to a seasoned woodsman’s eye. I could not stop laughing when I read the short story, “The Royal Roachman.” Anyone who has every tried to duplicate one of nature’s creations, will surely appreciate “Big Bill’s” gallant but feeble attempt, and the creation of the fly.
As my uncle once said, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll be drinking beer and spinning tales before you know it.”
Grab a hot cup of coffee, hunker down, and enjoy some great books.
Kevin Coolidge is co-owner From My Shelf Books in Wellsboro Pennsylvania. See them at: www.wellsborobookstore.com
ing the hatch. Hunting and fishing are both an important part of our Twin Tiers’ culture, and there’s something about the smell of gun oil, the woodstove’s searing heat, and a well-stocked fly box that has a place in any fisherman’s heart. No man deserves the title of sportsman who doesn’t feel a deep, honest gratitude for nature’s bounty. I grew up loving the woods, creeks, and the wild things in them. I thought every ten-year-old knew the difference between a stocked trout and a native brookie, and I couldn’t wait until the first day of trout season. If you are having trouble waiting too, here’s some reading material to keep you busy:
