Book Title: Fly Rodding the Coast

Author: Ed Mitchell

Publisher: Stackpole Books (USA)

ISBN: 0-8117-0628-1 (hardback)  0-8117-2617-7 (paperback)

After reading his ‘Fly Rodding Estuaries’ I’m now a big fan of Ed Mitchell.  This book is in the same vein – looking out for every conceivable change in feature, and contemplating what each can mean to the shore angler.  The trouble is it’s all on the New England coast, which seems to be teeming with striped bass and bluefish !  Although I’ll probably never experience that sort of fishing, I can’t help but think that many of these approaches can be applied over here – after all it’s still about sand, tides, weather, structures, estuaries and so on.

This book offers a mass of detail on what goes on under the surface, and although it’s with the fly-fisher in mind, you don’t have to be a fly-fisher to apply it. I’ve certainly learnt much from it – all I need now is a return to the fish stocks of the 1970s !

Seriously though, if you want to improve your understanding of tides, beach features, headlands, estuaries, man-made structures and the weather, and if you want to judge the likely fish movements and how your fishing can applied to suit – then this is your book.

This is a masterpiece in shore fishing watercraft and saltwater fly-fishing methods, from an author who has done it all for many, many years.

Your local library might be able to source it but I found it best to buy it from the secondhand sellers on the Amazon website. Expect to pay around £15 for the paperback and £25 for the hardback, both plus postage. Also I’ve seen it in London shops Foyles and Farlows, but at list prices.   

Thanks Geoff yet another excellent review.

Aitch