Morris & Chan on Fly Fishing Trout Lakes (Reviewed)

Morris & Chan on Fly Fishing Trout Lakes
by Skip Morris and Brian Chan
Frank Amato Publications, Inc., 1999, softbound, 94 p.
Color Illustrations, ISBN 1-57188-181-6

In French Canada they are lacs; in Ireland loughs, in Scotland lochs, the man made ones the English call reservoirs, and familiarly in the U.S.A. lakes and (beaver) ponds. The generic term should be stillwaters. It is trout habitat with a much underused potential in the United States. All salmoniods started as big water fish. They spawned in rivers and streams but it was big water that offered them the forage needed to achieve their full growth potential. That memory lingers on and most trout are comfortable with access to stillwater.
Except that it is wet almost everything about fishing stillwaters differs from fishing rivers and streams. The rig is different as is the presentation. The fly book will be remarkably different. On the stream the presentation involves using the flow to carry your fly to the fish. On stillwater it becomes positioning the fly to intercept the moving fish. This is different and takes some adjustment. This book is designed to introduce the neophyte stillwater angler to this new world. Both authors are skilled stillwater anglers. The book is profusely illustrated which facilitates transferring these skills to the rest of us. This is pretty much a beginner‘s stillwater book for experienced fly anglers.
Articles on stillwater trout have been increasing in number and it would be nice if this just reflects a rediscovered fishery. There also is the grim prospect that crowding on some rivers and streams has begun to erode the quality of that experience. Stillwaters offer a less crowded opportunity. Fishing in this style opens some new waters as well. The best example is fly fishing the flats on lake Superior’s North shore for cruising trout and salmon. Stillwaters cold enough to support trout abound. The Au Sable is an endlessly dammed river and above each dam there is a stillwater impoundment. The big water sections are big fish sections as well but only if your tackle and tactics are adapted to this new environment. That alone should be enough to interest most of us in this book. It is well done, informative, helpful and recommended. RWOL

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