Holy Fucking Shit. If I had to choose three words to sum up Rich Murphy’s encyclopedic Fly Fishing For Striped Bass, these would serve the purpose. The words hold special relevance to me in relation to this fish, because they are exactly what I uttered the first time I felt the whump of a striper inhaling a clouser fly. After reading this book, I expect to repeat them a lot more often.
This book will hook two audiences. For the poseur, its glossy good looks, compelling artwork,and hardcover format lend itself perfectly to coffee table adornment. For the serious striped bass angler, the book’s obsessive amount of information provides a masters in morone saxatilis for a $60 enrollment fee.
Murphy targets his book to beach anglers, breaking down the science of shore fishing into nine dense chapters that cover every aspect of these fish and how to fish for them. As there seem to be more striped bass anglers than stripers these days, a fly rodder looking to get an edge on the crowd would do well to read and reread it.
