Good Flies: Favorite Trout Patterns and How They Got That Way by John Gierach

Few anglers will skip knowing what a master angler and thinker prefers for his bly box. Covers a gamut of patterns essential to trout fishing in a variety of circumstances: dry flies, wet flies and nymphs, and streamers.

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 favorite 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 favorite fly-fishing author. No John Gierach fan will want to miss this delightful little book on the heart of all fly fishing: the fly.

B&W illus t/out; 6x9 inches, 192 pgs.