November 22, 2018

How About Another Book for Christmas!

Christmas and gift giving season is coming up fast, and if you are like me, my family is often at a loss on what to get me. I don't need another tie. Tenkara stuff is not in their vocabulary, and besides, I tend to buy my own tenkara stuff. Gift giving can sometimes be pretty challenging.

But here's an idea, how about a great book! It's not a tenkara book, rather it's a fly fishing book that can be incorporated into tenkara style techniques. It reads well, illustrates flies and techniques applicable to tenkara anglers, and is not too expensive.





The book is Fly-Fishing Soft-Hackles (nymphs, emergers, and dry flies) by Allen McGee; 2017 Stackpole Books.

I have all the books on soft hackles that Syl Nemes and Dave Hughes have written. They are great and are some of my most used references. Even though they were top patterns in the old days, soft-hackles are not often fished by western fly anglers nowadays, and that's a shame. It seems that Euro nymphing and streamer fishing seem to be dominating fly fisherman for the past decade. Those are fun ways to fish, but I like soft hackles. This new look at these classic style of wet flies is fun to read and frequently brings a head nod and a "that's interesting" from my mouth.




The book presents thoughts on bringing progressive materials and methods to some old fly designs. It outlines soft hackle flies which mimic various insect types. Fishing presentations are also included, and although the author uses a western fly rod, the techniques he shows are very useful to those of us who have embraced tenkara and fixed-line styles of fishing. In addition, there are plenty of patterns shown to stuff your fly boxes.

Anyway, it's a nice book and would make a great addition to any fly fishing or tenkara library. Happy gifting!






1 comment:

  1. Tom I've had that book for about a year and it's fantastic.

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