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3. Book Recommendation

Hello all! I've been reading the site and forum for awhile and have really enjoyed it.

I've been poking through the forum and the links on the site. I was hoping I could get some recommendations for beginners book to begin looking at some of the different insects/hatches. I use the site quite a bit but it really got me interested in some bedtime studying.

Thanks

Kcnal-

We all have our favorite books, and I'm surely no exception. If you want to start out by learning about all aquatic insect orders, my recommendations would be either An Angler’s Guide to Aquatic Insects And Their Imitations by Rick Hafele and Scott Roederer, or Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermens Guide and Ecologists Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives by W. Patrick McCafferty, which is actually my first choice, but it's a bit pricey.

On the other hand, if you want to start out by learning about a specific insect order, like mayflies, my recommendations would be either Hatches II by Al Caucci & Bob Nastasi, or Mayflies, An Angler’s Study of Trout Water Ephemeroptera by Malcolm Knopp and Robert Cormier.

"hatches" and "hatches II" - caucci & nastasi
"in the ring of the rise" and a "modern dry-fly code" - marinaro
classics that are still very useful today

"mayflies" - fauceglia
"fly-fishing pressured water" - gonzales
"tying emergers" - schollmeyer & leeson

and anything roger and gonzo suggest
and anything about poetry that spence suggests

gut

Casey (Kcnal),

Welcome! Because you say that you would like to "begin looking at" some of the various insects/hatches, I imagine that books rich in photographs would be particularly useful. If most of your fishing is done here in the East, I would add Thomas Ames' Hatch Guide for New England Streams (Frank Amato Publications, 2000) as a fine general introduction. It is "vest-pocket" sized and relatively inexpensive.

Although it was written specifically for New England, the vast majority of the insects covered are common to much of the East/Midwest. Hatches/Hatches II and Fauceglia's Mayflies are excellent, but they deal only with mayflies. Ames' book pictures and discusses most of the insect groups that are important to fly fishers--mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and others. The taxonomy is mostly up-to-date (with only a few exceptions), and the insects are covered variously at the species, genus, or family levels. It also has the peculiar advantage of including photographs of a number of caddisfly "pupae."

"a beginner's book"...try "Fishbugs" by Thomas Ames, Jr. REALLY expensive, and worth every penny.

i like to think of it as entomology for the scientifically challenged; or, "Yes, Virginia, everything about a trout stream is beautiful."

the writing is as good as the pictures. perhaps a library could get it for you, though you would probably never return it. and you would have to sit up in bed.

Everyone:

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll order one or two of your recommendations today to get started.

I got a chance to get out this morning for a few hours and take and put back some rainbows (and some photos of their food!). I'm looking forward to digging into this.

Thanks for your suggestions!

while you specifically mentioned books (for bedtime studying) think about ralph cutter's dvd - "bugs of the underworld". really basic stuff with amazing video photography both above and below the surface

"The Trout and the Fly".
A lot water has run under the bridges since it was first published (1980 I believe), but I wonder if it ever gets old.