Be Expert with Map & Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook
By Bjorn Kjellstrom and Carina Kjellstrom Elgin, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6000, www.wiley.com/WileyCDA, paperback, 256 pp., $18.95.
If your GPS device gets lost or broken, basic map and compass skills are essential. The late Bjorn Kjellstrom, a Swedish champion in orienteering, created this handbook with exercises to help practice orienteering skills, as well as tips for how to use your GPS in concert with map and compass techniques. The third edition, updated by Kjellstrom’s daughter, includes current Web site information and photographs for safe outdoor navigation.
Offshore Pursuit
By John Unkart, Geared Up Publications, LLC, Edgewater, Md., www.geareduppublications.com, paperback, 208 pp., $19.95.
With more than 40 years of offshore experience, John Unkart explains how to troll baits like a pro, tease marlins to the hook and find the most productive offshore trolling areas. Whether you are fishing for billfish, tuna, wahoo or mahi-mahi, these tactics will take recreational blue-water anglers to the next level.
Twenty Salmon Flies
By Michael D. Radencich, Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055, 717-796-0411, www.stackpolebooks.com, hardcover with DVD, 220 pp., 822 color photos and 24 black and white illustrations, $69.95.
From the simple to the complex, this book features the full range of classic salmon fly patterns. The book comes with a two-hour DVD that shows key techniques, and features an appendix with 100 classic patterns. Radencich, who is also the author of “Classic Salmon Fly Materials” and “Tying the Classic Salmon Fly,” has been tying salmon flies for 20 years.
Bug Water
By Arlen Thomasen, Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055, 717-796-0411, www.stackpolebooks.com, hardcover, 224 pp., 337 color photos and seven black and white illustrations, $39.95.
For fly-fishers who want to learn more about the foods fish eat and the best patterns to imitate them, this book of photos and narratives show bugs up close and personal. As a scientist and fly-fisher, Thomasen covers all popular trout food including mayflies, caddis, stoneflies and midges. One chapter illustrates what trout see underwater and the secrets of designing flies that work.
California’s Best Fly Fishing
By Chip O’Brien, Headwater Books, 531 Harding Street, New Cumberland, PA 17070, 717-421-4776, www.headwaterbooks.com, paperback, 240 pp., $29.95.
Before heading out on your next California fly fishing trip, consult these pages for detailed maps and hatch charts, fly patterns with recipes, the best places and times to fish, and local guides and outfitters’ tips for techniques and tackles. From northern California’s wild trout waters to the American River’s steelhead, stripers and shad, O’Brien provides a reference for the best fishing in the state.
Common-Sense Fly Fishing
By Eric Stroup, Headwater Books, 531 Harding Street, New Cumberland, PA 17070, 717-421-4776, www.headwaterbooks.com, paperback, 152 pp., black and white illustrations, $14.95.
As the owner of guide service Spruce Creek Fly Company, Stroup offers seven simple lessons on often overlooked fundamentals of fly-fishing like drift, reading water, position of angler and rod, casting, line control and mending. The common-sense principles cover dry fly-fishing, nymphing, best rigs and essential guide flies.
Sight Fishing for Trout
By Landon Mayer, Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055, 717-796-0411, www.stackpolebooks.com, hardcover, 208 pp., 235 color photos and 36 black and white illustrations, $29.95.
Mayer, a fly-fishing guide who specializes in sight fishing for trophy trout, shares his techniques learned through years of fishing, guiding and teaching. Tips include how to get close to a fish, cast with a short line, develop pinpoint accuracy and read fish behavior. Mayer also shares where to find fish, how to rig your line, how to fight fish and how to use the buddy system to increase your success.
Single-Handed Spey Casting: Solutions to Casts, Obstructions, Tight Spots, and Other Casting Challenges of Real-Life Fishing
By Simon Gawesworth, Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055, 717-796-0411, www.stackpolebooks.com, hardcover, 256 pp., 400 color photos and 88 illustrations, $39.95.
Whether you are a small-stream angler looking for tough trout, or a saltwater fly-fisher, this book features refined Spey casts for all one-handed rod needs including the single Spey, double Spey, snake roll, snap T, side cast, shepherd’s crook, reach cast and aerial mends. Gawesworth has fished in world championships and taught Spey casting around the world.
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