Good Flies: Favorite Trout Patterns and How They Got That Way - Softcover

""If Mark Twain were alive and a modern-day fly fisherman, he would still be hard put to top John Gierach." --"Sports Illustrated""

This intimate glimpse behind John Gierach's vise focuses on the trout flies he has found most successful and how he ties them. There are chapters on how he developed as a fly tyer - from being a hopeless tinkerer who tried every pattern there was to settling on a large handful of favourite patterns that now catch most of his trout. Gierach explores the tools he uses for his tying and advocates those that are simple and basic (and few), and he also makes a case for the use of natural materials. Then there are cogent chapters on the flies themselves - small, medium and large mayflies (which is how he arranges them in his fly boxes), spinners, midges, caddis, hoppers, nymphs and streamers. Throughout, the book is punctuated with fishing stories and observations on days astream as well as days at his vise, all in Gierach's inimitable style - rambling a little, following this thread and that, always full of wit and deft experience, and that special down-home style that has made him America's favourite fly-fishing author. No John Gierach fan will want to miss this book on the heart of all fly fishing - the fly.