Fishing Small Flies [Hardcover]

This book is just an outstanding value. I remember when $40 was the going rate for the new high-end fly fishing/tying/entomology - related hard covers. Now we're up to $60. At under $20 and with the ideas this book encapsulates, it's a steal.

In less monetary terms...

With a serious tilt toward the on-edge tail water and spring creek fisherman, I do not think anyone from such a background could read "Fishing Small Flies" and not walk away feeling downright enlightened. Mr. Engle has embedded a rhythm to the book, candidly relating on-stream experiences at the beginning of each major topic that in themselves deliver a potent dose of small fly philosophy. The ensuing material is all the more palatable given his clear, concise, and down to earth style of writing.

I will confess I thought some of the topics were covered with unnecessary length. Perhaps having spent an inordinate amount of time nymphing throughout my fly fishing career, I found the time spent on nymph rigging to be overly long in duration. I have also spent plenty of time casting fruitlessly to rising fish and experimenting with a large array of slack-line casts, my education in this department being provided by many other articles of fishing literature. Of course, I also have to admit that even in these sections I probably found at least one or two informational nuggets that I had not learned previously.

Regardless of these minor hurdles, the knowledge imparted throughout the book is more than worth the price of admission. The anatomy of a small-fly river, spotting and observing fish, reading rise forms, freestyle nymphing, and the dynamics of the particular small-fly hatches - all of these topics had me staring wide-eyed off into space at the revelations they precipitated. Top it off with the concluding final chapter entitled "The Elements of Style", a fitting coda to this small-fly summalogica, and related in Ed's own freestyle prose, and you end up closing the cover feeling absolutely "chill" (as my generation would say - boomers substitute "hip").

The companion work, Tying Small Flies, serves as a fitting anthology of patterns with which to practice the techniques presented in this volume.

Knowing the audience for which this book is aimed, and what a multitude of trout water does not necessitate the use of small flies, I find it difficult to put it on a "must have" list for the fly fishing public. For those of the small-fly avant-garde, however, this book will surely serve as the definitive work on the subject for years to come.

This book covers the greatest amount of information on fly fishing for trout that I have ever read. This is an excellent book for the beginning to the advanced fisherman and the techniques are applicable to any size fly.

This book is packed with information for fishing small flies on tailwaters and other western water. Cover everything from patterns to tackle. A must if you like this type of fishing.