Three Orvis Streamside Guides (reviewed)

The Orvis Streamside Guide to Fly Casting
by Tom Deck
The Lyons Press, 2000
Hardcover, 134 pages, $16.95
ISBN 1-55821-987-0
The Orvis Streamside Guide to Trout Foods and their Imitation
by Tom Rosenbauer
The Lyons Press, 2000
Hardcover, 164 pages, $16.95
ISBN 1-55821-986-2
The Orvis Streamside Guide to Approach and Presentation
by Tom Rosenbauer
The Lyons Press, 2000,
Hardcover, 95 pages,$16.95
ISBN 1-55821-985-4

These three books are grouped for review because they are part of a series. Each will receive separate consideration. This Orvis series is structured for novice to intermediate anglers. These are mentoring books much as the Lefty Krey volume reviewed elsewhere in this issue but the problems addressed are fundamental to fly fishing not just tips that make it easier. The big question is do books written for the novice have a worthy message for experienced anglers. In a nutshell they certainly do. Maybe not if you fish daily through the season, time on the water teaches, but if like most of us you get only a couple of trips each year then there is plenty to learn from these small volumes. After 45 years on the stream my approach to the coming season will certainly be freshened by reading these three books. Perhaps I should look at the rest of the series.

The fly casting book is based on the Orvis Progressive Method as used by the Orvis casting schools to teach 10,000+ neophytes to cast the fly. It is not the only way to cast a fly or to teach how to cast a fly, see the Krey casting book reviewed elsewhere in this issue, but it is a precise distillate of the conventional wisdom. It gives value for money which means it works. The illustrations are excellent, mostly I think because they rely on clean drawings rather than cluttered pictures.

It is well written and recommended for the novice or intermediate angler. Of the three books this has least to offer the experienced angler but it takes only an evening to read through and I found it an evening well spent.

The volume on trout foods offers basic aquatic entomology for the angler. Of the three it is the most likely to find its way into a vest on the stream. It has excellent color illustrations and photographs. When the guy in the fly shop tells you the Hendricksons will be on in the afternoon he may or may not tell you that there will be a few other things floating around as well. This book substitutes for a gillie at your elbow telling you, "yup, that’s a Hendrickson." There is a lot of Latin bandied about on stream but there are also not a few of us who tend to think of flies as the big yellow one or the small grey one. This book can help. Highly recommended.

The volume on approach and presentation is a true jewel. Assume that you are standing above a new, to you, pool. Rod rigged, hatch matched and ready to step in and cast. This book is designed to help keep the neophyte from flailing dead water. After reading this it is clear that I have been guilty of flailing my share of dead water and I should have known better. The cover claims that it is a field guide to where to cast and why. It is. I read water when I should be reading structure. Our editor, Bob Linsenman has gotten after me about that and has written a definitive work about reading structure. I needed a primer and I found one here. Very highly recommended.

These three books are only part of the Orvis series. At $16.95 each they are not cheap but they seem to me to be worth the cost for the beginner/intermediate fly fisher. Skilled fishermen may have a problem deciding whether to buy. The cost benefit looks good to me. RWOL

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