There are literally thousands of books on the subject of fly-fishing. Guide books. Instructional books. Books waxing poetic about flies and rods. Fictional coming of age tales. The true stories of the grand adventures of complicated men bonding with nature over one of the all-time great pastimes. Poetry; fly-fishing as a metaphor for life. The list is endless. Ask any fly-fishing devotee, you will get countless different answers. And yet, certain names come up over and over again. LaFontaine. Gierach. Haig-Brown. Masters like Lefty Kreh. Passionates of the sport. Hemingway, of course. Beloved classics like The Longest Silence or The River Why. More obviously but no less deserving: A River Runs Through It, a book (and film) both merited for popularizing the sport and blamed for over-crowding the rivers. The list goes on. It was impossible to narrow down; many made the cutting room floor. But here, we have assembled our list of ultimates. Whether you’re a long time connoisseur or just curious enough to give it a go… enjoy, and happy fishing.
“Fishing is not really about fish, in the end—or even in the beginning. It’s about what we allow ourselves to think, what we see reflected back when we look in the mirror of nature.” – Mark Kingwell, Catch and Release: Trout Fishing and the Meaning of Life
