411#3: Saltwater 101 - Extended Reading List

Time/Date: 2225 CST,15-May-11
Location: Northern Saskatchewan

I posted my first reading list for my self-directed saltwater fly fishing course a couple months ago. Here are a few more titles I've been reading while waiting for stripers to arrive (and now waiting to leave here so I can return closer to saltwater).

I'm not completely through all of them yet but, based on what I've read of them so far, they would be good additions to any (wannabe) striper fisherman's library.

Fly-Fishing the Saltwater Shoreline by Ed Mitchell: This is the sequel of Fly Rodding the Coast and is more detailed with regards to various species found along the coast of Northeastern US (and, sort of by default, the Maritime Provinces). Like the previous book, this is a reference manual that will be handy to keep close at hand.
Fly Fishing the Striper Surf by Frank Daignault: This guy is a crusty old salt and well-known sharpie when it comes to fishing stripers. He's published about four thousand books about surfcasting (which I haven't read). This book is alright & I enjoyed his crustiness that comes through in his writing. You'll learn lots of useful tips from this book.
Striper Moon by J. Kenney Abrames: Don't be put off by this book being half the number of pages of a magazine: this is a good read. This book is written almost purely on opinions & observations, and not necessarily a how-to book. As Lefty Kreh wrote in the foreward: "My only regret is that Ken did not write a bigger book."

There would have been a fourth title to review in this post, but it's has been on backorder since the first week of March. Apparently (as I found out after the fact) it's a "must-have" title for anything & everything about fishing stripers on the fly; in fact, that's the title: Stripers on the Fly, by Lou Tabory.

I keep forgetting I ordered it, but Amazon keeps emailing me every 3-4 weeks to say the delivery date is going to be 4-6 weeks later than planned. So maybe in July I'll have a blurb about it.

Of course, by July, I'm hoping to have landed my first striper on the fly.

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I brought my fly-tying vice to Saskatchewan. And, unlike Mexico, I'm actually using it!

I find a bit of irony in tying my first flies of 2011, saltwater flies at that, while located in Saskatchewan, the furthest I have been from an ocean in over a year (I think...?).

I brought a very small sample of tying material with me: bucktail, yak hair, marabou, crystal flash, thread, eyes, stainless steel hooks, head cement.

It's been good practice for the last couple nights, which I sorely need: I've probably tied less than a dozen flies in my life. I hope to stay motivated to bang out one or two each night I'm here...or until my materials run out.

Here are a few examples (in chronological order, since Friday):