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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Writers Hook Bookworms

Fenton Roskelley Staff writer

A half dozen or more talented writers this year have enriched the rapidly growing fly fishing literature. Their books will be read over and over by present and future generations of anglers who appreciate good writing and well told stories.

All have one talent in common. They’re good story tellers and keen observers, not only of fish and their habits, but of the flora and fauna around them.

You’re there when Nick Lyons solves the riddle of what insects frustratingly selective trout are eating. You’re there when Dave Ames is humiliated by a beautiful, tattooed flower girl who catches one big trout after another after Ames and buddies nearly get skunked.

Here are the best, so far, of this year’s crop of fly fishing books:

A Flyfisher’s World, by Nick Lyons, published by Atlantic Monthly Press, $23. This remarkable book by one of America’s most literary outdoor writers is the distillation of one man’s life-long obsession with fishing for everything from pickerel to steelhead. It is, in a sense, a philosophical how-to book.

Every fly fisher who has experienced the satisfaction of evolving from a sloppy caster to one who makes one photogenic cast after another, who knows enough about entomology to identify and match most hatches and who has, after years of observation and experience, developed into a competent fly fisher, can identify with Lyons. His story of his progress as a fly fisher is every fly fisher’s story.

True Love and the Woolly Bugger, by Dave Ames, published by Greycliff Publishing, $24.95. The fact that Ames, a fly fishing guide when he isn’t off somewhere fly fishing with his off-the-wall buddies, wants to pursue life as a fishing bum tells you something about what he is like. And also what you can expect to read.

Ames not only is a great story teller; he’s a writer who has a sharp eye of details that make his wild, hilarious, often ribald, yarns come alive. His book, headed for classic status, is filled with insightful observations on everything from people to fish.

The Habit of Rivers, by Ted Leeson, published by Lyons & Burford, $22.95. Your education as a fly fisher won’t be complete until you read Leeson’s superbly written book. An English teacher at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Leeson writes about fish, books, fly tying, philosophy and a few other things in sparkling, unforgettable prose.

You’ll find yourself re-reading and even memorizing some passages in his brilliant essays. He often says what many fly fishers think but won’t say. For example, he admits that “I would rather chew little balls of tin foil than re-read Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler, a book universally admired by fly fishermen, none of whom have read it. … Walton’s much-vaunted literary virtues seldom rise above ‘quaintness,’ which is to say not very far.”

Pardon My Backcast, by Alan Pratt, published by Frank Amato Publications, $14.95. My only regret is that this hilarious book is only 80 pages long. Pratt, a Seattle Times cartoonist and a life-long fly fisher, has a chuckle or two for his readers on every page.

Examples: He says the famed double haul cast is very much like your first sexual encounter: all the best of intentions and high expectations, but mostly ending up all elbows and knuckles and heavy breathing.” Of fly fishing writers, he says “these story tellers are, for the most part, professionals. … fishing pros or writing pros (although occasionally they are pro orthodontists, proctologists or barristers who fish first, write second and ortho, proto or litigate merely to support their fishing habits.)

Dream Fish and Road Trips, by E. Donnall Thomas Jr., published by Lyons & Burford, $22.95. Your going to hear a lot more from the author of this fine collection of fishing stories. His yarns, told simply and graphically, are full of the kind of detail that’s lacking in a typical “Me and Joe” fishing stories.

Thomas, who has fished extensively in Alaska and Montana, has strong opinions. For example, writing about caddisflies, he said that, to him, “There are big ones and little ones, brown ones and gray ones, and that’s about it. For practical purposes, even this limited fund of knowledge will get you through a lot of caddis hatches.”

Waterside Reflections, by Van Egan, published by Frank Amato Publications, $14.95. The only disappointing thing about this insightful books by a former English teacher is that it’s published in paperback. It deserves a hard cover.

Egan lives on British Columbia’s Campbell River, home of the legendary Roderick Haig-Brown, whose daughter, Valerie, says in the introduction that Egan “has probably now spent as much or more time than my father did on both the fishing of the Campbell and the conservation.” Egan carries on the Haig-Brown tradition, both as an erudite writer and ardent conservationist.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.