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Fly fishing and fly
tying books are a passion. Here you will find book reviews of books I have
read covering fly fishing for trout, smallmouth bass, muskellunge,
steelhead, and many other freshwater and saltwater species. You will also
find fly tying books covering the same areas. There are also books on
aquatic entomology, history of fly fishing and fly tying, hydrology, and
great prose having fly fishing as its main theme. There is far more to fly
fishing than casting a line, and there should be far more to a fly fishing
guide service web site than just costs and services offered.
Spey Flies &
How to Tie Them
by Bob Veverka
Stackpole Books
Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004
160 pages, hardbound
illustrated, Color and Black & White
suggested price $39.95
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
Bob Veverka is one of
the premier salmon fly tyers in the world today. He is also one of the
premier fly tying instructors. This book clearly shows both of these
attributes. The book starts with an Introduction that provides the reader
with the author’s background in salmon fly tying. The body of the book then
commences with a concise history of the Spey and Dee style flies from
earliest writings to the newest innovations and innovators of the Pacific
Northwest. The text is accompanied by flies tied to illustrate clearly the
dressings of this written history. The second chapter is devoted to
materials suitable for use in this type of fly tying. This chapter contains
information on many materials that have been used for hundreds of years but
have never before been so carefully described and detailed as has been done
by the author. This materials chapter is worth the cost of the book all by
itself for anyone interested in tying these beautiful and deadly flies.
The last six chapters are each directed to a specific style of
fly. Starting with Spey patterns, then Dee patterns, River Don patterns,
Eagle patterns, Spey-type patterns and finishing with Steelhead Spey
patterns. In each of these chapters there is short history introduction
followed by a step-by-step instruction section to tie one pattern of the
style, and ending with a list of pattern recipes covering the most famous
and popular patterns of the style. The book
concludes with a materials sources list, a bibliography, and a well-done
index.
The only disappointments for me were two minor points. First, in
the step-by-step tying of the Waddington Shank Akroyd Dee Fly the treble
hook is dressed with good instructions and then the Waddington shank is
dressed with good instructions, but the mounting of the treble hook is
forgotten and does not even show up until the 26th and last step
when the head is being finished off. Second, having the fly plates on a
whole page and the identification on a facing page requiring counting the
position of a fly of interest and then having to go to another page to count
the pattern name positions to find the correlation is cumbersome to the
reader. Other than these the editing, layout and printing are extremely well
done.
This book is so beautiful one could easily mistake it for a
coffee table art book. The color plates of the flies done by Michael
Radencich are absolutely outstanding. If you haven’t seen Michael’s work in
designing images of flies you will be in for a wonderfully pleasant
surprise. When Michael does fly photos even samples of dubbing become a work
of art.
Whether you are looking for a beautifully illustrated book of
Spey and Dee patterns, excellent step-by-step illustrated tying
instructions, or simply wonderful images of beautiful flies this book will
not disappoint. This volume is worth twice the asking price.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled
Flies
by Sylvester Nemes
Stackpole Books
Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004
173 pages, softbound
illustrated, Color
suggested price $34.95
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
Sylvester Nemes is
American’s only soft-hackle fly writer. His previous four books are the only
American volumes solely directed to this very old and still very effective
style of fly. With this fifth book the author provides the soft-hackle fly
fisherman and fly tier with a concise history of the published history of
the soft-hackle fly style. The writing style is interesting enough to make
this history fun to read and a pleasure to learn. This alone makes this an
important volume in the fly fisherman’s literature. But the author provides
a lot more than bare bones history. He provides the reader with the pattern
recipes from the various references as well as top quality images of those
patterns tied by him. And he provides excerpts and illustrations from the
references to provide the reader with valuable information on materials and
procedures for making and fishing this remarkable style of fly.
Here at last is a
top-notch reference compiling the historical works that record the
soft-hackled fly style published in the English language.
This book will bring
pleasure to everyone who enjoys fly-fishing, fly tying, and the rich field
of literature surrounding our favorite sport.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Tying
Small Flies
by Ed Engle
Stackpole Books
Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004
231 pages, hardbound
illustrated, Color
suggested price $34.95
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
The author has taken his
eleven years of Small Fly columns for Fly Tyer magazine, updated, revised,
and augmented them into a book that covers a practical approach to tying
small flies like no one before him. The book details pragmatic, efficient,
and productive methods and materials for the small fly tier. This may not
seem to be much of accomplishment to someone who has not tied on hooks below
size 18, but for those that do and those that would like to, this book is
unparalleled. The author goes way beyond simply listing successful patterns,
although they are documented here. Much more importantly he provides the
tier with the information regarding hooks, threads, synthetic materials, and
natural materials that lend themselves to use in tying on hooks in sizes
from 18 to 32. The chapter on the modern small hooks is worth the price of
the book by itself. There is also well presented information on weighting
small flies, and a short history of small flies. The balance of the book is
devoted to methods and materials to tie various classes of tiny insect
imitations. Included are chapters on Midge Larvae and Midge Pupae, Surface
Midges, Olives, Tricos, Microcaddis, Microscuds, and tiny Ants. The
remaining chapters discuss styles of flies that lend themselves to small fly
construction such as tiny parachutes, floating nymphs and snowshoe rabbits
foot hair to replace CDC in tiny patterns.
For anyone fishing waters requiring tiny flies this book will
provide you with every tool you need to tie flies successfully that take
fish. For Tailwaters, spring creeks, and hard-fished destination waters
these flies may well provide you with the edge you need to catch good fish.
The book itself is well designed, edited, and illustrated
allowing easy and enjoyably reading. It is also well designed for using the
book at bench side both as a pattern book, and as a method and material
reference book. A must have in every fly tiers library.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Trout of the World
by James Prosek
Stewart, Tabori & Chang
New York, NY, 2003
223 pages, hardbound
illustrated, Color
suggested price $32.50
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
The author takes us on a
trip of circumnavigation of the world by way of fishing for trout. Trout
from the well-known and famous places such as the chalk streams of England,
the tiny streams of Japan, the brawling rivers of Siberia, and the
Tailwaters of the western United States are all here. So too are trout from
the mountains of Turkey, the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, Iceland,
Russia, and the many Republics created from the old USSR. Each trout is
described as to its physical characteristics and location and accompanied by
a full-page watercolor image of the trout.
While the book title says Trout, the author includes trout,
char, and Pacific salmon. So there are Rainbows, Brook Trout, Lenok, Huchen,
and Cherry Salmon as well as Brown trout, and Atlantic salmon.
This is a wonderful collection of fish images from fish the
author and his friends actually caught. The book is easy to read, and a
pleasure to look at.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
The Color of Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing on the Olympic Peninsula
by Doug Rose
Frank Amato Publications, Inc.
Portland, OR, 2003
156 pages, softbound
illustrated, color plates
suggested price $15.95
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
The author has written a
layman’s wild steelhead manifesto. A call to arms to protect the wild
steelhead runs being systematically destroyed by the politics of the logging
and land development industries and their paid politicians. For anyone
concerned about protecting the diversity of life on this planet the
information in this book will be highly disturbing. This debacle by the
state of Washington is tempered by personal vignettes for fishing these
beautiful streams that hold some of the world’s most unique fish. And there
are even a few “good news” stories about beating the powers that be with
their own stick, though far too few. This is a disturbing history of the
political scientific pabulum used by the power interests of Washington State
to drive systematically a biologically diverse species to extinction for a
fist full of dollars.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Trout Flies of the West
by Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson
Frank Amato Publications, Inc.
Portland, OR, 1998
128 pages, softbound
illustrated, color
suggested price $34.95
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
This is an outstanding book of contemporary fly patterns from the western
United States. Fly shops and guides from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
Coast have proved the reader with some of the most interesting, innovative,
and fish catching flies for trout available today.
The book comprises nine chapters covering General Attractor &
Multi-purpose Flies; Mayflies; Caddisflies; Stoneflies; Midges, Craneflies,
& Aquatic Worms; Damselflies, Dragonflies, Backswimmers, Water Boatmen, &
Water Beetles; Terrestrials; Baitfish & Leeches; and Crustaceans. There is
also an excellent fly pattern index as well as an index of pattern
originators and tyers as well as a contributor information section.
Each pattern has a well-written recipe, comments section where
appropriate, a main photograph of the fly pattern with a green background,
and where appropriate additional photographs depicting alternate views and
dressings having a blue background. The different background colors allow
the reader to identify quickly the main pattern rendition from alternate
versions. Another nice touch is that no pattern is split over more than one
page. This means the reader never has to flip pages to see the complete
pattern or while tying a fly following the pattern.
The writing is clear and easy to read. The design and layout are
superb. The photographs are outstanding as has come to be expected of these
two authors.
For the fly tyer or fly fisher that desires to be on top of the
western fly patterns being used successfully today this is a great volume.
It is clearly well worth the price and provides excellent value to both fly
tyer and fly fisher.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Fly Fishing For Summer Steelhead
by John Shewey and Forrest Maxwell
Frank Amato Publications, Inc.
Portland, OR, 1996
47 pages, softbound
illustrated, color
suggested price $15.95
reviewed by
Bruce E. Harang
This book is divided into seven short chapters, the first six of which
provide the novice fly-fishing steelheader with the information necessary to
succeed in catching steelhead on a fly. These chapters are straightforward
and do not get cluttered with reams of information that can overwhelm the
novice trying to hookup to leaping chrome. These six chapters cover the
Confidence Factor, Tackle, Flies, Wet Fly Swing method of presentation,
Reading Water for Steelhead, and Greased-Line and Skating variations of
presenting a fly on the swing. The seventh chapter presents some information
on transitioning to winter steelhead fishing.
The most important piece of information is the one column on The
Confidence Factor. The authors have very succinctly and accurately defined
the essence of fly-fishing for steelhead. You absolutely, positively must
believe you will catch a steelhead on every cast. This is the true secret of
steelhead fly-fishing.
The writing is clean and easy to read. The editing is very well
done as is the layout and design. Some of the images are not of top-notch
quality which is a bit disappointing. In addition, some of the gear
information is now dated eight years down the road. However, for the
fly-fishing steelhead novice this little book will definitely get you into
the game with a good probability of success.
Overall, this book offers good advice at a good value.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Introduction to Spey Casting
by John & Amy Hazel
Cascade Mediaworks, LLC
Portland, OR 2004
1 video tape or 1 DVD
Full Color
suggested price $34.95
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Currently this is clearly the best beginner Spey casting video available.
Better yet it is available in DVD format making it tremendously easy to use
as a study guide by allowing the viewer to pick exactly the cast he wants to
learn and jump directly to it. It claims to be directed to the beginning and
intermediate Spey caster and it certainly meets its goal. I reviewed the DVD
version.
The DVD is divided into five sections covering an
introduction, equipment, beginning casts, intermediate casts, and a summary.
In turn the equipment section is divided into a chapter on rods & reels and
one on lines & leaders. The beginning casts section is divided into six
chapters covering the double Spey, reverse double Spey, reverse circle Spey,
circle Spey, single Spey and snap-T casts. Likewise, the intermediate casts
section is broken down into chapters covering the snake roll cast, reverse
snake roll cast, power roll cast, and the overhead cast. The summary reviews
all the casts covered in the previous sections and chapters.
The production is extremely well done allowing the viewer to see
the rod and line during casts so the viewer can more clearly understand what
is trying to be accomplished by each casting maneuver. The dialog is clear,
concise, and directly related to the task at hand. This combination of
top-notch script and production makes this the best choice of learning
material for the beginning Spey caster. The only improvement that should be
made is to rework Amy’s sound track a bit to tone down her shouting into the
microphone. This tends to make her voice a bit hard on the listener’s ears.
If you cannot have live instruction to learn to Spey cast this
DVD is the best available alternative for the beginning Spey caster.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Tying
the Classic Salmon Fly
by Mike Radencich
Michael D. Radencich
Holt, MO 2004
2 DVD set
Full Color
suggested price $49.95
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
If you have wanted to learn to tie classic Salmon flies but didn’t
quite know exactly how to go about it this two DVD set by Mike Radencich is
the hands down best instructional information available short of private
lessons with a master. Mike walks you through the complete tying of a single
pattern, the Jock Scott. Everything is here in clear concise discussion and
crisp clean images. You learn exactly how to mount the hook in a vise, how
to prepare the twisted gut eye and how to attach it to the blind-eye hook.
Over 192 minutes of personal direction by the author shows the viewer how
exactly to lay every wrap of thread and fiber of material. You not only
learn how to do the major steps such as wrapping a silk floss body and marry
strips of feather fibers together to form a complete wing, you will also
learn how to match the curve of the tip of the under-wing to that of the
tail, how to create a smooth underbody, and how to tie in all of the
materials creating the finished wing while maintaining the ability to finish
the fly with a tiny head. And tricks like how to recreate the crimp found in
authentic Indian Fruit Crow in a substitute made from ring neck pheasant
feathers. Just as importantly, Mike teaches you how to plan your salmon fly
and its parts so that your finished fly looks as you want it too. How to
select the various component parts for the raw materials and what raw
materials are available for the various parts.
To give an idea of
the detail in this production the forming and tying on of the Gut Loop is
covered in five steps and takes eight minutes. The tying of the Tip and the
Tag also is covered in five steps that take over thirteen minutes. And
creating and tying in the Under-Wing and Wing covers nine steps taking
almost forty-five minutes.
The production,
photography, video photography, scripting, music, and post production were
all done by Mike, and like his published photographs of salmon flies, it is
all done impeccably. This is quite simply the finest salmon fly tying media
production ever produced. The value of the information and instruction far
exceeds the modest price of the two DVD set. Using this DVD set will
jump-start your salmon fly tying by years over self-teaching or reading
books. Get these DVDs, pay attention, and start tying great looking classic
salmon flies.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Tying Fly Patterns for
Stillwaters
by Phil Rowley
TrueNorth Entertainment, Inc.
Delta, BC, Canada 2004
1 DVD
Full Color
suggested price $24.95 USD
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Phil Rowley is a
genuinely nice guy, first class fly tyer and fly pattern creator, and a good
instructor. This DVD showcases eighteen productive patterns Phil has
developed and tested for Stillwater fly-fishing. In the DVD Phil provides
clear and concise dialog to assist the viewer with all the information
required to tie the patterns. The patterns include mayfly nymphs, scuds,
scrimp, dragon fly nymphs, damsel fly nymphs, leeches, and
Diptera. For several of these classes of trout
food items more than one pattern is presented allowing the viewer to pick
and choose the best for his personal fishing conditions. The one thing the
author could do to make the production better would be to not hold his
scissors in his hand and have them block the view of the fly while he ties.
The DVD opens with a short useful introduction, moves to the
tying sequences for the eighteen patterns, followed by a great segment of
live video of the various classes of food items the patterns are intended to
represent, and ends with credits screen and a screen advertising other
products.
Unfortunately, the production of the DVD is poor. The
introduction could have been used to advise viewers to view the entomology
section first. This would have increased the viewers understanding of why
the patterns are tied and formed the way they are. The commentator’s script
was out of sync with the pattern series. It seems that the shooting was not
done in the order finally published so the comments to earlier flies come
before those flies are tied. In addition, the commentator doesn’t seem to
know anything about the subject and in several cases detracts from the
visual and audio presentation of the author. The materials lists presented
before each pattern are visual only and fade out far to quickly for the
viewer to read completely. The lighting is abysmal at best. The use of a hot
spot light on the center of the background and only a spot overhead of the
hook creates a situation where the tier’s hands block the overhead light and
the overly bright background leave the viewer to see only a black silhouette
of the fly in the vise. Color in many cases is completely lost so that you
cannot see the effect the author is discussing. The worst production
decisions however, was fading to black before each step in the tying and
having an obnoxious synthetic female voice tell you what step you are going
to view. The voice is so bad it makes HAL in 2001 a Space Odyssey
sound chatty. In addition, it breaks the viewer’s concentration and destroys
the intimacy between the author and his viewer.
Overall, this is a great set of Stillwater patterns that get
lost in the production glitz. Purchase the author's book
and save your money on the DVD until the remake.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
Streamer Fishing for Trophy
Trout
by Kelly Galloup
Cascade Mediaworks, LLC
Portland, OR 2004
1 video tape or 2 DVDs
Full Color
suggested price $29.95 VHS & $34.95 DVD
reviewed by Bruce E. Harang
Kelly Galloup is a
legend among those that seek truly large Brown trout. His techniques and fly
patterns are radical but they are also extremely productive. Kelly has
distilled years of trial and error into two hours of some of the best
instructional information available on catching trophy trout.
The information is available in both VHS video tape format and
DVD disc format. I would highly recommend the DVD format as it allows you to
go directly to the section of the information you want. Both formats cover
the same material however, so you will get the same informational value in
either format.
The information is broken down into nine chapters or sections.
These chapters are The Predator Theory, Rigging for Streamers, Holding
Water, Fishing the Far Bank, Wade Fishing Streamers, Jerk-Strip Retrieve,
Boulder & Pocket Water, Mid-River Holding Water, and Streamer Flies for
Trophy Trout. Literally everything you need to know to be successful at
catching trophy trout in moving water is covered and covered well. Two of
the most interesting and important items presented are the author’s
Jerk-Strip Retrieve including the logic behind this particular streamer
presentation method, and the fly patterns developed by the author and his
system of fishing these patterns. Once you view this production you will
have been exposed to a master’s system of catching very large fish on
streamers. If you have an interest in learning to fish streamers effectively
or to improve your streamer fishing this production will give you the tools
necessary to do it.
The production is well done with excellent cinematography,
sound, and script. The author’s style produces an easy to understand and fun
to see production that clearly presents the information in a useable manner.
The only small distraction is the fact that the navigation of the chapters
on the DVD is a bit eccentric, not a big deal, but a bit frustrating until
you figure it out.
This is a well-done production in all aspects and presents
tested information to allow the viewer to have a jump-start toward
successful streamer fishing. A must have for any serious large trout
flyfisher.
©
2004 Bruce E. Harang
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