Fly Fishing: The Lifetime Sport

This title is essentially a “book on DVD” allowing viewers to select chapters comprised of text and graphics, as well as individual video clips. Although this can be watched on TV (indeed, viewers can call up the video-only content using the chapter menu), viewers may find this more useful when accessed through a computer's DVD-ROM drive, due to the text size—which has lower resolution on a TV screen than on a computer monitor, and may strain all but the most patient eyes. Where the video section really shines is in demonstrating techniques such as tying knots (cinch knot, BC knots, Duncan loop, and others), finding fish by observing the characteristics of various streams and lakes, and actual sessions on fly fishing—in this case, moving pictures are worth a thousand stills, which are in turn worth 10,000 words. The footage is nicely shot, showing the catch-and-release of fish in the wilds of Oregon, Utah, Montana, and other locales. The filmmakers state that the DVD will be taught in several universities as a credit course, and estimate it will take viewers about 12 hours to get through the whole text-and-video program. Considering the depth and breadth of the content, this is a bargain purchase for sports collections. Aud: C, P. (C. Block)