New Outdoors Books Appeal To Varied Tastes, Pocketbooks

The team of Ron Cordes and Gary LaFontaine is continuing to produce outstanding shirt-pocket-size guides that contain lots of useful information on fishing, hunting, outdoor photography, cross country skiing and emergency auto repair.

The latest in the series of 4x4-3/4-inch plastic waterproof guides, each priced at $12.95, are those on walleye fishing, lure fishing for trout in streams, fly tying techniques and fly casting. They’re published by Troutbeck and Greycliff publishing companies and Umpqua Feather Merchants.

The Pocket Guide to Basic Fly Tying Techniques is typical of the high quality of the miniature guides. Although it has just 26 pages, enough information is condensed in the book for a beginner to tie basic fly patterns.

Other outdoors books:

Garden Birds of America, by George H. Harrison, published by Willow Creek Press, $29.50. The author, nature editor for Sports Afield Magazine and field editor for wildlife magazines, said that “developing a bird garden in your own backyard is easy to do, relatively inexpensive and will add to the value of your property.”

In the 160-page book, illustrated with numerous outstanding color pictures of birds and bird gardens, he tells exactly how to create the gardens and discusses feeders, bird houses, bird baths and what to feed various birds. He also profiles 60 of America’s most colorful birds.

Bonefish Fly Patterns, by Dick Brown, published by Lyons & Burford, $45.

Brown provides details and color pictures of 160 of the most productive bonefish patterns, including the Gotsha, a “must” pattern for those who fish off Christmas Island, the Bahamas, Venezuela and Belize. To an avid bonefisher, the price of the book will be no barrier.

Sparrows and Buntings, by Clive Byers, John Curson and Urban Olsson, published by Houghton Mifflin, $40. To most Inland Northwest residents, a sparrow is a sparrow is a sparrow. To serious birders, sparrows and buntings are members of a widespread genus. Many species, when examined carefully, have more color than what’s at first apparent.

The authors include descriptions and natural histories of 150 sparrows and buntings of North America, Europe and Africa in their 334-page guide book, the first of its kind on the species. Many of the sparrows, such as the Song Sparrow and the Lincoln’s Sparrow, are common in the Inland Northwest.

Woodpeckers, by Hans Winkler, David A. Christie and David Nurey, published by Houghton Mifflin, $40. After I found a Northern Flicker that had been hit by a car recently along a Pend Oreille County road, I checked this outstanding book on woodpeckers and flickers for details about the bird. Besides a color picture of the bird, sometimes called a Yellow-shafted Flicker, the book has a location map and several thousand words about the flicker, including a detailed description, habitat, voice, habits, food and breeding information.

Details about the flicker are typical of the information about the 214 species of woodpeckers throughout the world.

A.K.’s Fly Box, by A.K. Best, published by Lyons & Burford, $40. Mention the name A.K. Best to the world’s best fly tiers and fly fishers and they’ll immediately know you’re talking about a professional tier who’s a stickler on color, realism, form and elegance.

All of the patterns he includes in his book are at least six years old but most, he said, are 10 to 12 years old, and all have been thoroughly field tested. As his friend, John Gierach, widely known fly fisher, said, he’s innovative, practical and methodical. “A.K.’s Fly Box” is much more than a pattern book; it’s a treatise on fly patterns and why they work.

Cathy Beck’s Fly Fishing Handbook, by Cathy Beck, published by Lyons & Burford, $24.95. Beck’s book is primarily for the woman who is just becoming interested in fly fishing and wants to know what to buy, how to cast and how to catch fish.

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

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review