In a sport where size often does matter, Rich Murphy’s Fly Fishing for Striped Bass fits the bill. It’s big--457 pages--like a 50-inch striped bass with a mouthful of mullet. Murphy is an engineer by trade, and the analytical approach he brings to his fishing reflects an occupational zeal for meticulous detail.

In his study of tides, Murphy probably shares more than the average fisherman needs to know, but it’s there if you want it. For instance, he writes: “As the moon and sun declinations change, the magnitude of high tide in a given place fluctuates. This is diurnal inequality: the difference in amplitude between the morning and evening tides in a given location. If the moon stands north or south of the earth’s equator, one bulge or high water is in the northern hemisphere. Under these conditions, a point at the middle latitudes on the earth’s surface passes through only one crest or high tide or one trough or low tide each tidal day. A diurnal tide, often called a declinational tide, is formed.”

In addition to tidal analysis, Fly Fishing for Striped Bass includes charts and sidebars on everything from what stripers eat while summering in New England to how they react to spawning risks, space, light, prey, and how fish perceive sound.

Murphy’s how-to fly-fishing information is equally dense. His chapter on new striper flies has photos, recipes, tying comments, and explanations of the Conomo Special, Pamet Special, RM Rock Dart, Das Skate, RM Flatside, Lucille, and RM Shortfin Squid, to name a few.

Other chapters follow the story of a wild Atlantic migratory striper--Morone saxatilis--and its travels from the Chesapeake Bay to places like North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Chapter 2 covers striper anatomy; locomotion; growth; metabolism; the senses of taste, touch, and vision; and where stripers--including Pacific transplants--live, and what they eat.

The latter half of the book wrestles with striped bass tackle, history, techniques, and practices for targeting beach, estuary, rock/shoal, and flats fish. The tackle section includes three pages of knots with tying diagrams, a thorough history of striper tackle, and a subchapter on “Better Casting Through Chemistry.”

The book includes photos, charts, graphs, satellite images, maps, and illustrations highlighting striped bass environs, their lies, and the best techniques for reaching them, including single-handed and Spey-casting approaches for fly fishing with and without boats.

Fly Fishing for Striped Bass covers stripers in encyclopedic fashion and is a good resource for all fly fishers who pursue America’s favorite saltwater gamefish.

Limited Edition Barr Flies
Barr Flies by John Barr. Stackpole Books, 2007, 172 pages color, $250 leatherbound with slipcase, signed, numbered, limited edition, ISBN 978-0-8117-0276-8.

Get the regular ($39.95) version of Barr Flies for your fly-tying desk--you won’t mind if you drip epoxy on it or soil the pages with dye-stained fingers as you mimic Barr’s Copper John or Meat Whistle. [See the full review of Barr Flies in the March 2008 issue. The Editor.]

If you are a collector, you might want something a little nicer on your bookshelf or coffee table. Barr’s leatherbound, signed, numbered, limited edition (250 copies) of Barr Flies is available at barrflies.com for $250.