Away back when I first started flytying in the 90's Tom Stewart's Four Volume set of 50 popular Flies books were recommended to me most ironically by a man called Tommy Stewart (No Relation) who ran the Airdrie & District Angling Club flytying classes.
Tommy was a fantastic flytyer and tutor and is responsible for teaching many A&DAC flyfishers and flytyers including myself.
It didnt take me too long to find the four volumes though I did get them separately over a period of a few months.
They were a great source of information to me as a novice flytyer though I wasnt familiar with some of the flytying terms at the time described in the books.
These four volumes were first published between 1962 and 1973 and might now seem old fashioned and out of date to the modern day flytyer.
However I am fascinated by the history and tradition of old fly patterns as I'm sure many others are too and find these to be a great insight into the background and source of long forgotten fly patterns.
Recently I noticed a few omnibus editions of these books for sale on a well known online auction site. I wasnt aware that there was such editions available and was surprised to learn that they had been published in the 80's.
I was pleased to see these and recommended them to a couple of flytying friends who went ahead and got the book for themselves.
I didnt thinking of getting the omnibus edition myself until I noticed a copy of it going for an unbelievably super bargain price of £1. Which I snapped up immediately. I have noticed that there are still copies of this available from time to time. Therefore if you are interested in old style trout and salmon fly patterns? Do yourself a favour and get you hands on this old book. I highly recommend it.
To give you an idea of the patterns you will find within the book here are a couple of Sam Slicks as described in Volume One
Tom Stewart recommends this fly to be fished deep on difficult days when the weather is dull and Scoury and not much fly life about on the Loch! "On such days trout invariably take the artificial fly deep down!"
I wish you had mentioned this on the WFF Alan. I have two copies and you could have had one for nothing, although £1 is a good investment :)
ReplyDeleteThanks anyway Sandy. Good few long forgotten and out of fashion patterns in that book! As you alluded to £1 is quite the bargain for a great wealth of information.
DeleteGreat book.
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