I think it is caused by the common misconception in the sport fishing community that only fly fishermen are smart enough to read. Catfishermen always have grubby hands, from stink bait, live bait, or some such. Bass fishermen are too busy changing lures, or running from point to point on the lake, throwing up wakes, disturbing fish, and capsizing jon boats. Anybody can learn to bass fish from TV, so there. Crappie fishermen only come out at night, anyway. Walleye fishermen are always in a tackle store, looking for the latest and greatest in their pursuit of the elusive walleye. Salt water fishermen are too crusty. Anglers who will catch lesser fish, are not worthy of writing too, or about. Therefore, only the fly fisherman is worthy of the effort setting words down on the printed page.

I don't really think good information is any better or worse in electronic media as opposed to print...just different. The important part is knowing how to interpret each one. Print has the advantage of having to stand the test of time to make it into your hands. Many, many people have had to read this material and find it worthwhile, or else it would have never been printed. The best books (Hatches, Caddisflies, Trout, etc.) are still obtainable because those who came before felt they were so important that they deserved to be continued in print.

Electronic media, such as blogs, forums, websites, etc. Lack in reputation, but make up for it by being the most accurate (all together), current source available. We dont know what 1-5% of what's popular today will make it to print 15 years from now, but the host of sites and blogs out there really have their finger on the pulse of the sport. The flipside, of course, is that anyone with an internet connection can pass themselves off as a fishing guru. Sifting the wheat from the chaff is the key to benefitting from e-media.

i still see plenty of books on all types of fishing and prefer them over the internet, but have also noticed how much more expensive they are. sometimes you have to go where you can afford it in order to get information. sorry, but the postal service is doing the same thing...raising their prices and then complaining when everyone goes to the internet to send e-mails. i'll do what i can with the finances i have.

I'm with Elk, at the ripe old age of 29, I find it easy to find tidbits of info on the net, but if I want to delve into a subject, give me a book. I am particularly interested this year in a book full of walleye tachniques, but have not gone out and looked for such a book yet.

Interesting feedback - not what I expected to hear from the younger anglers. Sounds like you should write a book!

Give me a book any day!
I usually carry a pencil and a Foray Highlighter to mark the areas of importance or revelation, so I can reflect back and ask,"What was I thinking?"

It's certainly a lot more convenient, especially when your wife is shopping and boredom begins to creep in, or when nature calls and one heads to the throne.

A digital library? Nada.

Books are much, much better than digital media (I am 28).Don't Mr. Merwin I think your job as writer is very safe. I don't think books will ever go away. Newspaper might because they are yesterdays news, I can get today's today. I agree with the over complicating comment, there is probably a standard 10 flies will catch you fish 75% of time. And, I think fly fisherman are more likely to buy a book, like a duck hunter is more likely to buy an autoloader than o/u. Therefore the gunmakers will 10 autoloader models for duck hunters before they make a O/U model for the same purpose.

I enjoy the older books.They also make great gifts.You can pick them up for cheap most of the time in 2nd hand stores\yard sales.

Lures and lure fishing, please! I still love books.

As a fly shop owner, from behind the counter, I see what sells day in and day out. For our shop, local guide books still dominate.
The category of books I have seen the slowest sales in have been fly tying books. There are so many fly tying websites, blogs, forums, etc. they have made fly tying books obsolete.
Example, a couple new tying books came out in the last year. Craven's basic fly tying, skip morris released two tying books, and AK Best released a new tying book. Out of those 4 titles that were new this year I stocked 8 copies (2 of each). We've sold 2. And that was over the winter when book sales are usually higher and when people are tying flies! Furthermore, we had 10 or 12 people this winter take our intro to fly tying class as well as an additional 60 people take other tying classes, the interest in fly tying is huge. Not to mention that our tying inventory is the best around.
These books I mention are exceptional. So it's not their fault. People are really missing out on these treasurers.

The bummer about the internet is that you have to wade through a lot of mediocre stuff to find some cool flies.

Perhaps if authors did a more aggressive book tour they would help create a following of newer readers.

I think that alot of lure and bait fisherman read paper, they just read magazines. It's a little more appealing to read a recently written magazine article that to read a book that may have been written 5-10 years ago, like many of them availible. The old books aren't wrong, it's just hard to read a book from the pre braid/fluro days. I've also noticed that the fishing books that appeal the most to be are more availible at the tackle store rather than the bookstore. When I've looked through bookstore fishing books, it seemed like i've never even seen the equipment for half of the techniques mentioned. What I did see for things that were practical to use were things I already knew about.

Collectively I don't believe fly fishing, or other fishing books for that matter, have become less valuable. Individually though, their value varies a great deal. Mostly because too many of the books are about the fish. The best books are really not about the fish. That's why I wrote the book, It's Not About the Fish. Check it out on my website www.bryanmcmurry.com.