Sorry for spot burning, folks. I know it is the biggest angling crime of the internet age. It is painful to divulge this secret because it means more crowds and more competition. All of that has a cost associated with it. But this is about the greater good.

And that greater good is literacy.

Fly fishing wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for books. Sure, you don’t need books to go catch fish; but the culture wouldn’t be as rich and well-documented without that great library behind each one of us. Thankfully that voluminous library is often within reach. I’m not usually about making guarantees, but I’m confident that you’ll at least appreciate fly fishing more if you incorporate reading books.

Go to Amazon. Go to a bookstore. Better yet, go to your local fly shop. Pick up the latest and the greatest. The photography-forward books coming out these days are a wonder to behold.

At the same time, don’t neglect some of the most productive spots. They’re off the beaten path and require some serious prospecting, but you’ll be rewarded with some real trophy tomes.

Used bookstores.

My wife and I have a book problem. Reading and writing are a big part of my real job. On top of all that, we homeschool. Which means that we’re constantly hunting for new books. Especially when it comes to kids’ books, used bookstores are a treasure trove.

As the rest of the family makes a beeline to the children’s section, I break off in search of my quarry. Fly fishing books. Here are my guideposts:

1. Find the nonfiction section. Generally, you’ll see the big, flashy coffee table style books. Birds, castles, motorcycles, and the like. If you’re seeing a lot of paperbacks and pictures of Fabio, you’re in the wrong part of the store.
2. Find the sports section. There will be a large format Sports Illustrated volume on college football, a biography on someone like Muhammad Ali or Brett Favre, and an outdated baseball statistics guide on display.
3. Look down. Now you’re seeing books on sailing, stock car racing, and the Tour de France. At this point you should realize that fly fishing is even deeper down the “niche sports” rabbit hole than sailing.
4. Look down further. Getting warmer; hunting, camping, and bass fishing! Remember this spot, as misshelved fly fishing books often find their way here.
5. You’ve found the John Gierach section… I mean, the fly fishing section!

I’ve gone through this process enough that I’ve come to expect that there are certain fly fishing staples in used bookstores. There will be Robert Traver’s Trout Madness, a book on striped bass, and an edition-once-removed regional guide for wherever the shop might be located. And, of course, three or four Gierach books. These are all worth getting, but they’re also the books that most folks have already.

Every once in a while, you’ll find a gem.

Pictured above is my haul from the past few trips. A reprint of Bergman’s Trout, The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane, and a still-shrink-wrapped Casting with Lefty Kreh. The price for each was ridiculously below what major online retailers are asking. As fun as the reverse sticker-shock was, stumbling across each of them was a thrill in itself.

Reading is important. Much could be said about how our digital culture might be losing something in its insatiable thirst for Tweet-sized information. Yet the culture of fly fishing should be pretty resistant. Being a contemplative activity, fly fishing lends itself to various literary forms. Since angling blends solitude with community, there is great diversity in the kinds of angling books one can pick up.

So even though it will mean competition, supply and demand, less for me, etc. etc.; you should head to a used bookstore and see what kind of fly fishing books they have. You might be surprised what you can find for just a few bucks. And for some of the classics and underrated titles, a few bucks is certainly worth the hunt.

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Want some suggestions on what kind of fly fishing books to be on the lookout for as you head into a used bookstore? Check out these articles for some suggestions.