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The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

Must-Reads in Classic Fly-Fishing Literature, with Michael Checchio

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Sports, Wilderness, Education, How To

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2023

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I get frequent questions from listeners on what I would recommend they read in fly-fishing literature, as there is so much out there it's tough to sort through it to find what's worth reading.  Michael Checchio [38:10] is a retired journalist and investigative reporter and a student of fly-fishing books, so we spend some time discussing what he feels are must-reads (or maybe just interesting reads) in the vast river of what has been written about fly fishing.
Here is Michael's list:
 
Fiction
  • A River Runs through It by Norman Maclean
  • "Big Two-Hearted River" by Ernest Hemingway (short story)
  • Ninety-Two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane
  • The River Why by David James Duncan
Non-fiction 
  • The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane
  • The Angler's Coast and Dark Waters by Russell Chatham
  • The Curtis Creek Manifesto by Sheridan Anderson
  • "Hat Creek" and "Deeds Among the Steelhead" by Bill Barich (magazine articles; may be tough to find)
  • The Spawning Run by William Humphrey
  • Trout Bum by John Gierach
  • "The Same River Twice" by David Quammen (published in Outside Magazine)
  • "A Sporting Life" by Jim Harrison (magazine article, may be tough to find)
  • My Story as Told by Water by David James Duncan
In the Fly Box this week, we have lots of questions and tips, including:
  • How do I know when to strip strike and when to trout strike?
  • Do I really need to go barbless on small dry-fly hooks?
  • How do I know what size material to use if I want to lengthen my leader?
  • A great tip from a listener on learning to cast with your "off" hand
  • A tip from a listener on wetting new tying materials befor you use them to see what color they will be
  • Why do I only see larger wild brown trout in one section of a river I fish?
  • How do I see my sighter in difficult lighting conditions?
  • If I am fishing for stocked rainbows and grayling, where should I place my grayling fly—on the bottom or on the dropper?
  • Should I use my 10-foot 7-weight Recon that I use for steelhead for streamer fishing from a boat for trout?
  • What is the main difference between a Helios D and Helios F rod when fishing for bonefish?
  • My bamboo ferrule only fits ¾ of the way to full engagement.  Is that OK?
  • Why do I see steelhead smolt in my river but never chinook salmon smolt?
  • Is there any way to get the bad smell off a bucktail?
  • Why don't people fish bucktails much these days?
  • Is there a way to tell a northern strain from a southern strain brook trout visually?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast. This is your host Tom

0:14.7

Rosenbauer and my guest this week is Michael Checkio and Michael has been

0:21.6

reviewing classic fly fishing books for many years in California flyfisher

0:28.2

and recently wrote kind of a roundup of what he believes are the best classic fly fishing books.

0:37.0

And I get this question a lot, particularly during the wintertime.

0:41.0

I get this question from people who want to go back and read some of the some of the older stuff and they don't there's a lot there are a lot of fishing books out there a lot of fly fishing books out there and they don't they don't know exactly where to start. So Michael presents us with an

0:56.6

excellent list of a varied bunch of authors definitely and most of the times I agree with Michael's

1:06.9

list so I guess that's why I had them as a guess but it's a fun podcast and if

1:11.6

if you've been interested in delving into some of the classic fly fishing

1:16.7

literature, not just really old stuff but newer stuff as well, I think you'll enjoy this

1:22.1

podcast. And before we do the flybox just

1:27.0

wanted to give you a heads up that there's a bunch of really desirable

1:32.1

products on sale on the Orvis website.

1:35.0

Things like H3 rods, which I don't know if they've ever gone on sale before,

1:41.0

Recon rods, ultra light waiters and boots.

1:44.0

Some of my favorite, the underwaiter pants, which, you know,

1:48.0

wintertime coming are going to be going to be valuable for winter fishing and really spring fishing.

1:55.0

And also a bunch of lines and reels.

1:57.5

So check out the Orvis website for the stuff that's on sale

2:01.9

and you might want to leave a hint for a Christmas present for your loved ones or from your loved ones I should say.

2:11.0

All right, let's get to the flybox.

2:16.0

And the flybox is where you send me questions and I try to answer them.

...

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