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Best Bass Fly Book

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I went to purchase my daughter a copy of Skip Morris The art of tying the bass fly and the cheapest copy I can find on amazon is $870.00 and the cheapest copy on ebay is $1200.00 can anybody tell me why the book is so expensive and is there anywhere I can purhcase a copy for under a $100.00? :bugeyes:

 

 

Hi all,

 

Skip and I felt we had to weigh in here since we are as baffled as anyone as to why his book, "The Art of Tying the Bass Fly" would be priced between $870 and $1200 (and then yesterday I saw a price for $2000...whaaaat???) . The first we heard of it was two days ago, when we got an email from a new tier looking for the book, and he told us what he was finding for prices on-line. The list price for that book is $29.95, and there is a DVD (still available) that you may be able to get in your local fly shop or on-line for $26.95. The DVD covers five flies (Hair Bass Bug, Dave's Eelworm Streamer, Clouser Minnow, Skip's Dad, the SMP; total run time is one hour and 45 minutes); the book has 18 flies that are tied step-by-step with an additional 33 patterns listed in the back.

 

Although this particular edition of the book isn't available anymore, Skip is in the process of updating it, and it should be released by Frank Amato Publications in about a year. The list price isn't changing as far as we know. Skip is mainly changing a couple of the tying chapters to patterns that he feels reflect more popular flies being used today, and also updating the fly pattern index in the back of the book to reflect the same.

 

Our friend Rick Hafele (an aquatic entomologist and fellow fly-fishing author) stopped by yesterday, and we asked him what he thought of the sudden and dramatic over-the-top price of this book, and he just looked at Skip and said, "Well...are you dead yet?" Uhhh...no. So...the mystery continues.

 

Our advice? Keep looking for a used copy of the book in a more reasonable price range, or wait until the updated version comes out.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Carol Ann Morris

 

P.S. I just posted this, and noticed the "Bait Fisherman" moniker which is a bit unnerving...though after a brief search of help, I understand that name changes after 10 posts, and everyone starts out with that...whew...!

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Besides the Tom Nixon book Kirk mentioned I have:

 

The Art of Tying the BASS FLY by Skip Morris,

 

Flies for Bass & Panfish by Dick Stewart & Farrow Allen, and

 

Hot Bass Flies Patterns & Tactics from the Experts by Deke Meyer

 

 

What would you consider the best book for a new guy starting out.

 

 

The Art of Tying the BASS FLY would be the best choice for someone starting out. It

provides pretty good step by step instruction.

 

The other two books mostly show a picture of the flies and follow that with a list of the ingredients.

For those a beginner might well have to resort to close observation and then thumbing through a

copy of either The Fly Tier's Benchside Referenceor Production Fly Tying to figure out what

is going would. That could be frustrating if you don't enjoy puzzling things out for yourself.

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Thanks for the help Carol. Looking forward to the release of the updated copy of the book.

 

 

Hi Bigfoot,

 

Just a note to let you know that the updated edition of Skip's book, "The Art of Tying the Bass Fly" should be available from the publisher any day now (it was published through Frank Amato Publications). We got a preview copy, and they told us it was on its way last week, so I suspect it is available now.

 

I think it went down on the list price about $5.00 (it was $29.95, I believe they're listing it for $24.95).

 

Hope that helps you out; just thought I'd let you know since it was released earlier than expected...

 

Hope you have a wonderful holiday...

 

best wishes,

Carol Ann Morris

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I have no bass fly tying books, might look to pick one up. I get about all of my info from 2 places: the Internet and mail order catalogs. Catalogs are free, easy to request, and great sources for ideas, in my opinion. Good ones are Feather Craft and The Fly Shop, among others. Orvis catalogs are good for some patterns, too. YouTube has a lot of great tying videos, and I use a site called www.flyrecipes.com as well as the extensive database here. The only tying books I own are saltwater books, but a lot of the patterns in them will cross over to bass fishing, too, all you might need to do is downsize a bit or change some colors.

 

I agree, ask questions here. I do all the time and get great responses that have absolutely helped me. Fire away!

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a friend posted this site on FB and as i was looking through it i found this link that has Skip's book for sale & it looks like a 'regular' price -- rather than what is posted on amazon....

 

My link

 

hope i posted this right....the book is about mid-page. OOPS sorry, it's a DVD, not the book...but may be a good reference anyway.

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Thanks for the help Carol. Looking forward to the release of the updated copy of the book.

 

 

Hi Bigfoot,

 

Just a note to let you know that the updated edition of Skip's book, "The Art of Tying the Bass Fly" should be available from the publisher any day now (it was published through Frank Amato Publications). We got a preview copy, and they told us it was on its way last week, so I suspect it is available now.

 

I think it went down on the list price about $5.00 (it was $29.95, I believe they're listing it for $24.95).

 

Hope that helps you out; just thought I'd let you know since it was released earlier than expected...

 

Hope you have a wonderful holiday...

 

best wishes,

 

 

 

Carol Ann Morris

 

 

I was able to order a copy directly from the publisher's website. Looking forward to an early Christmas.

 

- Charlie

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I have a copy of the original book. If anyone wants to pay me $1000 for it, I will personally deliver it along with a bottle of Jack Daniels.

 

Dave

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The second edition of The Art of Tying the Bass Fly by Skip Morris arrived today and I can't wait to start using it. Looks very well done!

 

Charlie

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<!--quoteo(post=456221:date=Mar 4 2011, 09:47 AM:name=bigfoot)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (bigfoot @ Mar 4 2011, 09:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=456221"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I went to purchase my daughter a copy of Skip Morris The art of tying the bass fly and the cheapest copy I can find on amazon is $870.00 and the cheapest copy on ebay is $1200.00 can anybody tell me why the book is so expensive and is there anywhere I can purhcase a copy for under a $100.00? <img src="http://www.flytyingforum.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bugeyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":bugeyes:" border="0" alt="bugeyes.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

 

I can't fathom why it's so expensive, but from a practical standpoint, I personally wouldn't pay any more than original retail, which if I recall, was either $19.99 or $24.99. I perused it quite a few times when it was still available at the local Barnes and when I consider all the information currently available from other sources, it just doesn't make any sense to pay more. But that's just me.

 

Another book to consider is "Bass Bug Fishing" by William Tapply, son of H. G. Tapply who came up with the famous Tap's Bug deer hair popper. This book provides an excellent introduction to tying and fishing deer hair bass bugs.

 

A couple of out-of-print books to watch out for are "Black Bass & the Fly Rod" by Charles Waterman and "Tying Bugs and Flies for Bass" by A. D. Livingston. One of the nice things about these books, including Tapply's book, by the way, is they also introduce you to some of the pretty cool classic bass patterns from the early part of the 20th century.

 

If you're into smallmouths, I would also look carefully at "Smallmouth Fly Fishing" by Tom Holschag and "Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass" by Harry Murray. The latter book, in particular, got me into tying strymphs, which I've had very good success with.

 

If you're into bluegills, Terry & Roxanne Wilson's "Bluegill Fly Fishing & Flies" provides a pretty good primer on the subject.

 

 

Speaking of books by Terry and Roxanne Wilson, their "Largemouth Bass Fly-Fishing: Beyond the Basics" is really good. Just finished reading it, I'd recommend it for anyone who fly fishes for bass. I like that most of the book is about tactics, fishing surface, mid-depth, and deeper water, selecting flies, etc.

 

Tom

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