BETTER NOT POUT, GIVE A BOOK WHEN IN DOUBT; EIGHT TITLES FOR THE ANGLERS ON YOUR LIST.

Byline: Brett Pauly Outdoors Editor

Overviews of recent books anglers on your holiday gift list might enjoy reeling in:

There are few areas that have more angling books dedicated to it than the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Thank goodness, for there is always room for more titles as fans of the magical waters of California's backbone gladly accept all comers.

The 120-page ``Fly Fishing the Sierra Nevada'' (Aguabonita Books; $24.95) by long-time Northern California newspaperman Bill Sunderland is the latest edition.

The author's reviews and assessments - from the underappreciated Yuba River to the overfished Owens River - are superlative, if brief. Much of the artwork, including some memorable motion-blurred streamside photographs by Paolo Marchesi, is terrific. The maps are more than adequate to get the interested recreationist on the water.

Sunderland is a matter-of-fact writer and the chapters certainly come off as no-nonsense. Don't expect poetry, but keep a pen and paper handy to jot notes and pick a site.

One can't help but harken back to days of angling as a mere pup after gazing upon the cornball and comedic postcards of trout fishermen, the full-page ads for fishing rods when the top hollow-cord steel construction was $12.75 and a chapter titled ``My First Fishing Pole.''

It's all here in ``100 Years of Fishing'' (Voyageur Press; $39.95), strung together in gangion fashion by the publishing house's editors.

Pick your decade; the writings of such luminaries as former presidents Grover Cleveland and Jimmy Carter, brilliant authors Zane Grey and Ernest Hemingway and renowned fly-anglers Joan Wulff and Nick Lyons grace this unique fishing perspective in chronological order. I identified with the 1967 essay by beatnik Richard Brautigan of ``Trout Fishing in America'' fame.

With its stunning photographs and strange blend of class and kitsch, the 224-page ``100 Years of Fishing'' has something for everyone. It's the best of this bunch herein.

Penned by 26-year editor at Field & Stream magazine, ``Ken Schultz's Fishing Encyclopedia: Worldwide Angling Guide'' (IDG Books Worldwide; $60) is massive if nothing else. When was the last time you heard of a fishing book that had 1,916 pages between the covers? At the very least it would make a good rockcod sinker.

Happily, it is much more than a paperweight. This encyclopedia is the be all and end all of angling references. Where else can you find an entry - and engaging illustration - on unsnagging? Consider: ``Before applying direct, hard-pulling pressure . . . first try taking the line ahead of the rod tip, bringing it taut, and then making a snap release.''

I didn't know that. Bet you'll find a ton of things you didn't know in this over-the-top publication, replete with 2,000 entries and 1,400 pictures.

Serious ocean shore-fishing is fairly defined by striped bass on both sides of the country. Stripers have a remarkable reputation as a game fish and apparently have enjoyed an equally remarkable comeback in recent years.

More for the angling techie, ``Stripers on the Fly'' (Lyons Press; $40) will provide a closer examination of the tackle, fly patterns, casting techniques and fish-finding skills that could improve odds of success on the spirited anadromous fish that hatch in freshwater (and thus often swim upstream into lakes; Castaic, for example, has a huge population) and spend most of their days in estuaries, bays and coastal waters.

Connecticutauthor Lou Tabory should have the know-how (and 284 pages to flaunt it); he is billed on the book jacket as ``one of the great pioneers in Northeast saltwater fly-fishing.''

``Trout Unlimited's Guide to America's 100 Best Trout Streams'' (Falcon; $18.95) is a great idea. Even if none of the rivers is on anybody else's list, it's a winning concept because people will go fish waters profiled in such a manner.

Fortunately, the source is reputable, to say the least. Author John Ross, a columnist for Sporting Classics magazine, was provided with data for the impressive list from ballots cast by 1,200 members of the conservation group Trout Unlimited.

So that there were no arguments over placement of rivers on the list, they are provided in geographic order over the 352 pages, from east to west.

We appreciate that the Eastern Sierra's Hot Creek, Owens River and San Joaquin River were included, but to omit the East Walker River is unforgivable.

Making the leap from novel writing to the art of authoring an outdoors title wouldn't seem to be particularly difficult, especially for someone with the credentials of Craig Nova, whose name is found on the cover of ``The Good Son'' and other acclaimed works.

Prominent reviewers have all but dubbed the writer a super Nova for his 111-page autobiography ``Brook Trout and the Writing Life'' (Lyons Press; $20).

While Nova has a lifetime of experience angling for brookies in New York, Vermont and Maine, his publishers have already put the book in the same vein as Hemingway's contributions and Norman Maclean's classic, ``A River Runs Through It.'' Impressive company; you be the judge.

Two illustrations per page. Not many, one might say, but that's definitely the best part of ``The Field & Stream Fishing Knots Handbook'' (Lyons Press; $9.95).

If you've ever tried to duplicate a knot presented in one of those complimentary but all-too-often dinky and hard-to-decipher handouts provided at tackle shops, you'll appreciate the clarity of the step-by-step images of such angling necessities as the clinch knot, Palomar knot, dropper loop and surgeon's knot.

Graphic artist Peter Owen gives a yeoman's effort in this 107-page volume from Field & Stream magazine's Hunting and Fishing Library of handbooks for outdoorsmen.

Of all the titles that have come across my desk, this will be the one that goes in my tackle box.

It may not offer much more than an occasional laugh. But if ``The Laws of Angling: A Stringer Full of Fishing's Eternal Verities'' (Andrews McMeel Publishing; $9.95) can even illicit a smile from some cranky old salt, it's worth the price.

With such pearls of wisdom - har-har - as, ``The first thing you catch after sharpening your hooks will be your ear'' and ``The surest way to lose an expensive lure is to use it,'' this square, 5-1/2-inch-wide book is good for a stocking stuffer but not much else.The best place for it on board is undoubtedly the head.

While mostly tongue in cheek, author Randy Voorhees does offer some sincere notions in the 92 pages. ``Few anglers are born with a natural talent for catching fish,'' he pens, ``but nearly all could lie like hell while they were still in diapers.''

Amen to that.

And here's to happy reading and a merry millennium.

CAPTION(S):

8 photos

PHOTO (1) Fly Fishing the Sierra Nevada

(2) 100 Years of Fishing

(3) Ken Schultz's Fishing Encyclopedia; Worldwide Angling Guide

(4) Stripers on the Fly

(5) Trout Unlimited's Guide to America's 100 Best Trout Streams

(6) Brook Trout and the Writing Life

(7) The Field & Stream Fishing Knots Handbook

(8) The Laws of Angling: A Stringer Full of Fishing's Eternal Verities