Fly Casting Books

 

This classic instructional text, used in flycasting schools around the world, is now available to the book trade for the first time. Fly-casting is a skill of almost mythic proportions. The gymnastic beauty of the casting scenes in the film A River Runs Through It sent thousands of new anglers to the shores of America's streams and lakes. Yet more often than not, discussions or instructions about casting bog down in a world of technical minutiae that is almost impenetrable to the beginner. Mel Krieger has cracked the code in The Essence of Flycasting. Through detailed instructions and dozens of precise photographs and diagrams, he clearly dissects this arcane art into understandable and executable steps to take the raw beginner from piles of line on the ground to graceful loops in the air. And the seasoned veteran will advance from struggling with 30-foot casts to skillfully double-hauling vastly more line across the water. This classic book of fly-fishing instruction belongs in every fishing library. The standard text used in flycasting schools around the world, Essence is now available to the general public for the first time. Illustrated with more than 150 clear, step-by-step b/w photos and illustrations.

Author Biography: Mel Krieger has taught fly-casting and fly-fishing in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. The Essence of Flycasting is the culmination of his 25 years of research and teaching. He produces a best-selling flycasting video and is well known in the fly-fishing world. He lives in San Francisco. Ben Blackwell's photographs hang in the permanent collections of The Spenser Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the International Center of Photography.

Editor fly-fishing-colorado.com note: I used this book last summer to take a fly casting class. My average distance was 50 ft on a good day before the class. Now I can reach out to 75 feet when I need to do so. A large part of that was due to Mel's Book. Mel developed the Certified and Master Certified Casting Instructors classes for the Federation of Fly Fishers.

Lefty Kreh is a born teacher, and his subject is his passion. The fly-casting instruction in this book derives from almost a half century of fishing and teaching, and no matter where you are in your fly-fishing life, from struggling beginner to the person with two rods in every weight, this book can help you do better.

Lefty begins with the fundamentals common to all good casts and then goes on to diagnose and demonstrate ways to eliminate a variety of casting problems (which everyone has to one degree or another), including how to:

• Tame tailing loops
• Cast in the wind
• Quickly and accurately change the direction of a cast
• Throw a backcast that stays clear of brush
• Quickly send wet flies and streamers deep with a tuck cast
• Skip a fly across the water to reach under low-hanging branches
• Make roll casts, effective mends, and much more

No matter how good fly-fishing tackle becomes, how well you deal with the variables on the water will always be a big factor in your fishing success. For as long as you fly-fish, this book will hold the keys.

Average Customer Review -- 3.5 Stars