Tangled gift guide

What do you get the angler that has everything?

You start by realizing there is always something the angler does not have.

Such as a hip pack instead of a vest. After years of lugging around too much stuff in a vest, my back hurt, so I switched to a hip pack from Orvis, which I promptly overstuffed.But getting the weight off my shoulders helped some with the back pain. The pack in question is the Orvis Guide model at $179. The “PRO” version is waterproof, a little bigger and $100 more expensive.

I use a lanyard for tippet, clippers and clamp. There are any number of lanyards on the market. I use one from The Fly Shack at $14.95. I actually use two of these, one set up for trout and one for bass.

For tippet and leaders, I use Bozeman Flyworks. The 55 yard tippet spools in nylon and fluorocarbon start at $5 and have more material than the standard 30 yard spools from bigger outfits. The fluorocarbon is nice and stiff, even at thinner diameters, which I like for droppers. The nylon and fluorocarbonleaders come in packs of five in standard lengths and diameters, starting at $9.50, which is significantly less expensive than the above-mentioned bigger outfits. I change and rebuild leaders constantly, so these savings add up over the course of a season.

For those of you who don’t tie flies, you can pick up the basics inexpensively at The Fly Shack and Big Y Fly Company. For wet flies I recommend Ligas Discount Flies in Boulder, Colorado.Their soft hackle wets work better than anyone else’s, why I don’t know. Plus Wally will call to confirm your order and there’s a good chance you’ll wind up yakking with him for a while, which is both entertaining and instructional.

Also check out Brent Auger’s flies at Dragontail Tenkara. The Utah Killer Bug (12 for $15) and the War Bird flymph ($24 for 12) are very effective flies, especially in a tight-line nymphing rig.

What you should also do is drop in at the fly shop wherever you are and buy some flies made by local tyers, and buy something else for the good of the house. Or, if you’re shopping for someone, get a gift certificate, bearing in mind that fly fishing is hideously expensive and $50 barely flips the meter. Around here that means UpCountry Sportfishing in Pine Meadow, and you can get a gift certificate online.

Books: Pocketguide to Eastern Streams by Thomas Ames is in a new edition ($29.95). This sturdy paperback is loaded with info and photos of the bugs we love, including a few I never heard of and I’ve been around some.

John Gierach died earlier this year, and he was so good at writing about this sport it makes me want to bail out completely and take up macrame instead. Any of his titles would make a good present for your grumpy winterized housebound angler, but I am partial to “Trout Bum” and “Standing in a River Waving a Stick.”

And I still think Taylor Streit’s “Instinctive Fly Fishing”($14.95) is the single best general introduction to the sport. There is something for every angler, from the newbie to the crusty and certifiable (me) in this slender volume.

These books are in print and while Amazon is certainly handy, I urge you to get them through one of our independent bookstores if possible. UpCountry has a good book selection as well.