While there is no book that will make you a great fly angler simply by reading from cover to cover, there are many that can teach you the basics to get out there and learn for yourself. After sifting through the massive stack of books that claim to be best for beginners to learn fly-fishing, this post will recommend a few that have proven themselves valuable starting points for any beginner. All can be bought by clicking the titles below.
How To Fish From Top To Bottom
This book is one of those hidden gems that reveals itself through another book. It’s described in David Coggin’s The Optimist as being a near-sacred text for those who want to learn fishing. It’s not the newest or highest-quality-print book on the list by a long shot, but it has stood the test of time for a reason. It’s a true classic.
It should be noted that this isn’t a book devoted to fly fishing. It’s a book devoted fishing period. With that in mind, it may be a book that can be skimmed and parsed to learn what you want for the species you chase. But, read as a whole, the book will give you a deeper understanding of fishing. It’s the type of classic that distills wisdom one expects to glean from a grizzled mentor. It will give you a solid foundation to develop the specific skills and understanding of fly-fishing.
Buyer beware, because of the book’s scarcity, it’s hard to find a perfect version of the book. You may be to find an original used copy (for a higher price) online or at a used bookstore, but don’t count on it. The copy available HERE will still provide you with all the same information in the classic. You will simply have to overlook the spacing errors and minor aesthetic flaws in the pages.
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The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing
If I had never held a fly rod before, this is where I would start. The Little Red Book has taught thousands of aspiring fly anglers over the years and its reputation is unmatched. As the name implies, this is a not lengthy and overly-technical how-to book that will bore you to tears before you can finish it. It’s a simple and straight-forward.
The downside to reading a short book is that it will not make you a master fly-fisherman after one reading (no book will, really), but it will teach you everything you need to know to get outside and learn for yourself. It will take you through the basics of the cast, tell you how to tie on a fly, how select a fly, and how to read a river – everything you need to know to get out and start learning for yourself.
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The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide
Orvis has been printing and reprinting this book for years with updated information and images. It’s easy to read and reference and the writing inside is from Orvis’s world-class team of anglers. You can think of this book as Orvis’s textbook for fly-fishing. Like The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing, this guide will take you through all the basics that you need to know to start fly-fishing as well as provide some more advanced instruction for you to digest when you’ve mastered the basics.
The only buyer-beware on this books is that it’s not a traditional book that you can get in a stately hardcover that will look great on the shelf. It’s more like a thick high-quality magazine or journal with all the information of a book. If you’re buying it to put on a shelf and hope to impress your guests, you’ll be disappointed (And you should be – that’s not the right reason to buy a book). But this book is great to leave on the coffee table after reading for easy reference.
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Trout And Their Food
Similar to How to Fish From Top to Bottom, this book is not going to give instruction on how to cast or how to decide which fly rod is right for you. Instead, this book helps pour a solid foundation of knowledge that you can then use while working through the mechanics. This book is a great resource to read and then review throughout your fly-fishing life. It will teach you everything you need to know in order to best “match the hatch” and guess what the fish are eating based on the time of year, stream flow, temperature, etc.
Overall, the beginner’s books to learn fly-fishing should start with How to Fish From Top to Bottom to develop a timeless understanding of fishing philosophy. Then go with either The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide or The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing for beginner-friendly fundamentals. Along with those, pick up a copy of Trout and Their Food to better understand what their biting on for the rest of your career.
Click HERE to purchase.
After you’ve mastered these basic books to learn fly fishing, you can pick up books like The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing or John Atherton’s classic The Fly and The Fish. When you’re tired of reading how-to’s, grab ANY of John Gierach’s books or The Optimist for entertaining reads about fly-fishing adventures that just might teach you something along the way.