I really enjoyed this book,even beyond the learning experience. I have been fishing all my life and yet never heard of this method of casting. The book is well written, mostly about the casting technique, but with his passion for surf fishing clearly displayed. You can cast further following his advice, if only from learning to examine what you are doing during every moment of a cast. Larry

This book has some great tips, but the illustrations are awful. Buy it and see for yourself. Or don't, I really don't care.

Hopefully, Ron Arra will write another book with more competent guidance. He is a great surfcaster and fisherman, but there are problems with this disappointing book. The main shortcoming is dreadful illustration -- the pictures reproduced on cheap paper are photographed from the wrong perspective with the wrong lighting. The drawings are sparse. You simply cannot see the fishing rod and line position that are the subjects and purpose of the illustrations. Because the book is billed as "Complete Instructions for Longer Casting..." you would expect an A-B-C guide to surfcasting. Other useful information may be ferreted out of what reads more like edited taped interviews of fishing advice and yarns illustrating how to fish. That is not all bad -- you may learn a few tricks as you re-read this opposite-of-a-textbook. If one looks beyond the sparse drawings and bad pictures, one can garner some good tips that may come in handy. Two things learned from reading the book over and over, trying to absorb the wisdom therein: you can cast very far if you know what you are doing, and the Eastern Seaboard has some great surf fishing. I am in in the Pacific Northwest where surf fishing mostly results in tasty perch. I was hoping I might find some wisdom that would reveal there are bigger fish that prey on those perch in that very same surf. This is an East Coast book that needs serious revision. This is a little weird as Lamiglas in Western Washington State makes a terrific line of Ron Arra rods. They need to buy him a Washington fishing license and finance a few months of surf fishing research. I believe there is a hidden fishery that Ron Arra could uncover.

When it comes to learning to cast long, this is a good book. But for a begginer: 1) pictures of rigging are too small to be helpful 2) there is no wide discussion on specific lures and baits for targetting specific fish species 3) most of the book is suited for east coast surf fishing and fishing for striper bass (and I am from the west coast and fish for halibut and croakers)

I gave it a 3 because the book contains good information despite not being entirely applicable to west coast surf fishing.

/bing