It may not have been clear in our pre-order availability emails - the pre-order price for Fly Lines - how to make them is $30, the retail price will be $35 once the book is in stock.

Also, we are running a promotion during this pre-order period - pre-order Fly Lines and receive a 20% discount on any of our other books (reel plans and DVDs are not included in this offer). In order to take advantage of this, you do need to email us with your selections so we can apply the discount and best shipping rate.

Fly Lines - how to make them is at the printer and is expected to ship the first week of May. We are now taking pre-orders. Don't miss your chance to get a book from this first printing, they are selling very quickly and will likely sell out soon.

We are pleased to announce that Fly Lines - how to make them is at the printer and should be ready to ship the week of May 5th! This has been our most anticipated book to date. We will be sending invitations for pre-orders over the next few days so if you are on the list, you will get an invite. There is a very good possibility that the first printing will sell out quickly so don't delay when you get the pre-order announcement!

Hello everyone! I wanted to post a quick update for the upcoming book "Fly Lines - how to make them" by John Betts and Michael Hacnkney.

The response to this book has been overwhelming! I have received more inquires and I get emails asking about it every week. John started this work 20 years ago and finished the book last year. I've been using early drafts of it to make lines for the last 3 years. In that time, a number of things have happened. 

First, Cortland stopped producing some of the materials needed to make several of the line weights. I spent over a year calling and evaluating alternatives. The good news is, I have found an off-the shelf option and I have been able to procure unsold stock of the original materials from Cortland in bulk form.

Second, as I made lines I explored a number of new directions including dying the lines, alternative formulas, especially for light weight lines, and a few tweaks on the fabrication method itself. John asked me to include this information and co-author the book with him, an invitation I could not refuse!

So, in November, I started adding the new information. This has delayed release by a few months but I'm happy to report that the work is almost complete and ready to go to proof. The updated release plan is end of March but I'll have a more accurate date when I take the book to the printer for proofing.

The current plan is to offer the book as a softcover only since it is a "working book" (although in John's inimitable style!). I'd appreciate any feedback from you if you would be interested in a limited edition hardcover, just comment to this blog post with any feedback.

Finally, to make it easy to get everything you need from a single location to save shipping charges, I'll be carrying materials and supplies for line making using John's technique on my Eclectic Angler site when the book is released.

Best regards,
Michael

We are pleased to announce that John's giclée prints are now available and the feedback is very positive! These are simply beautiful in John's inimitable style. Only one set of 11"x14" prints and 14 of the 8"x10" remain. Don't miss out on these wonderful images.

Check out our new Reel Lines Forum! We'll create a topic for each of the books in our catalog so you can keep in touch with the author, ask questions, or share information. We'll also add an Errata to publish corrections or emissions. There is only one rule to participate - "be polite".

We've just added an Authors Bio page with links to each author. Get to know our authors and see what else they've written, published or presented.