Individual taste in books varies as much as the favorite rod or fly. With that in mind, we hope to review books and videos from the ever-growing fly fishing world, and share them with you. Books will be the best of all worlds, new and old. Many of the old books are now available in reprint, and the wisdom contained is timely today. Others can be found in second-hand book stores, or by mail order dealers. As we find videos we feel are outstanding they will be included. Be assured, reviews are based on what we have actually read or viewed, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.

The New Scientific Angling

Reviewed By Neil Travis - December 28, 2009

Book Review - The new scientific angling

Reed Curry’s book, The New Scientific Angling –Trout and Ultraviolet Vision, brings up another twist into the age old question of how fish, specifically trout, see and perceive the world around them. More specifically it raises the question of how trout see and perceive food items, and how the anglers might enhance their chances of fooling trout into taking their artificial by incorporating materials that have a UV signature.

In the introduction to his book the author makes a rather definitive statement concerning previous ideas about how trout see.

“From Art Flick’s groundbreaking work A New Streamside Guide to Naturals and their Imitations of the 1960’s through Clarke and Goddard’s excellent The Trout and the Fly [1995], with many other valuable tomes before and since, the premise of imitating the natural fly has always been that trout see as we do.

That premises is false.”

While it is true that the structure of the trout’s eye is different than ours the real question is not how trout see but how they perceive what they see. While this book offers some interesting theories about their ability to see light in the UV spectrum the correlation between their ability to perceive UV light and its ultimate affect on the trout’s food selection choices is tentative.

The book has numerous photographs of materials and flies taken under UV light sources. It would have been helpful if photos of the flies would have been taken under natural conditions, preferably from underwater.

For the angler that is interested in light theory and how UV light might affect the effectiveness of various imitations this book offers much to ponder.

The New Scientific Angling – Trout and Ultraviolet Vision
Author: Reed F. Curry
Buckram Publishing Co., 2009
ISBN: 9780984086306; $27.95

 

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