A richly illustrated guide that offers precise terms for every part of the cast, with sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, and much more.

A richly illustrated guide that offers precise terms for every part of the cast, with sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, and much more.

Fly casting might look easy—you just move the rod back and forth, right? Yes, that’s true, but between “back” and “forth,” a lot can go wrong. The perfect marriage of human skill and dexterity to the cork and graphite of today’s fly rods takes a good bit of work, and this is the how-to book that gets you around common mistakes and bad moves so that you can develop the muscle memory that makes for easy, accurate, and highly successful fly casting. Author Al Kyte’s instruction, with numerous full-color photographs, breaks down the parts of the cast to get you to better understand what is happening and how to put all of the parts of your cast together to make noticeable improvements.

Flycasting is a skill of almost mythic proportions. Yet discussions of casting often bog down in a world of technical minutiae that is almost impenetrable to the beginner. Now, in The Essence of Flycasting, Mel Krieger has created a clear, indispensable manual for anglers of all skill levels. Through detailed instructions and dozens of precise photographs, Krieger dissects this arcane art into understandable and executable steps that 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. Book jacket.

Expert Lefty Kreh lays the groundwork for learning to cast, including teaching and practicing tips.

Storied Waters chronicles the author’s six-week odyssey from Maine to Wisconsin and back to explore and fly fish America’s most storied waters and celebrate the writers and artists who made them famous. In a 5,000-mile odyssey covering over 50 locations in eight states, Van Wie follows and fishes in the footsteps of giants from Thoreau to Hemingway, Robert Traver to Corey Ford, Louise Dickinson Rich to Aldo Leopold to Winslow Homer and many more. Storied Waters provides a virtual roadmap through 200 years of fly-fishing literature and a literal roadmap—complete with local fishing tips—to the hallowed waters of our sport. In each chapter, informative sidebars detail fishing spots, best times to fish, major hatches, and other intel. Storied Waters is a grand vicarious adventure, driving the backroads for weeks at a time exploring beautiful places, and meeting fascinating people who share a common interest. With an easy, conversational writing voice enhanced with spectacular photographs, Van Wie relates an eclectic mix of travel narrative, natural history, and fishing tips and advice, as well as a deep (but sometimes humorously irreverent) appreciation for the writers who have created such a rich legacy of stories about fishing over the past 200 years.

**Named One of the New York Post's Best New Books to Read ** FIRE IN THE STRAW is the witty and deeply felt memoir of Nick Lyons, a man with an intrepid desire to reinvent himself—which he does, over and over. Nick Lyons shape shifts from reluctant student and graduate of the Wharton School, to English Professor, to husband of a fiercely committed painter, to ghost writer, to famous fly fisherman and award-winning author, to father and then grandfather, to Executive Editor at a large book publishing company, and finally to founder and publisher of his own successful independent press.. Written with the same warm and earthy voice that has enthralled tens of thousands of fly-fishing readers, Nick weaves the disparate chapters of his life: from the moment his widowed mother drops him off at a grim boarding school at the age of five, where he spends three lonely and confusing years; to his love of basketball and pride playing for Penn; to the tumultuous period, in the army and after, when he found and was transformed by literature; to his marriage to Mari, his great love and anchor of his life. Suddenly, with a PhD in hand and four children, Nick embarks on a complex and thrilling ride, juggling family, fishing, teaching, writing, and publishing, the wolf always at his door. Against all odds, The Lyons Press survives, his children prosper, his wife’s art flourishes, and his books and articles make him a household name. Fire in the Straw is a love story, a confessional, and a beautiful big-hearted memoir.