Fly Tying & Pattern Books

[Fontinalis]

I cannot tell you when I was learning to tye flies 32 years ago how many pattern books I bought. I had pattern books for nymphs,, dry Flies, Streamers and my favorite Wet Flies. I remember sitting at my kitchen table way back when thumbing through those pattern books to find the next fly I would tye and fish with. Now at 52 years old I barely crack a book and just sit down at my tying desk and tye flies. The only book that I crack open for patterns anymore is my Ray Bergman books. There are some patterns that I see others tye on this web site that I want to know the pattern for because I feel the fly looks cool and I want to give the fly a try for fishing. I am at the point in in my tying where I love to tye creatively or tye artistically at times. When I am in a creative mood is when I tye modified patterns of flies (Mostly Wet Flies) that I feel will work on the streams I fish. When I am in the artistic mood my really beautiful married wing classic wet flies get tyed and do not stop for hours. When I feel I need a challenge and want to express myself more I tye classic Salmon Flies. It seem now a days that only Classic wing wet flies and Salmon flies is the only pattern books I look at any more. I own over three hundred books in my Library and only look at a handful any more for tying. Any one else like this on this web site.

[sandfly]

yep ! use only a few from my library too. I learned 45 years ago. my problem is I collect patterns, I have around 60,000 patterns I think now. I use the web, magazines, friends, books, etc. I have a few data bases with most. will take a lifetime to get them all in.

[billhouk]

I have 86 books in my library. I know this because "there is an app for that" and it keeps me from buying duplicates. I do look at them quite often looking for new patterns or recipes of flies I hear or read about. I did get rid of the "tactics" and "feel good I'm a fly fisher" books. (There's some rod building books in there too, by the way.)
I still browse the Internet sites for patterns and techniques.

[Jayatwork]

I have about 150 fly fishing and tying books. I refer to them only occasionally to look up a pattern or refresh a technique. I use the internet more and more for those things. These days, my most used books are probably the entomology titles.

[dave potts]

I have about 400 books on fishing, rod building and fly tying. Most are on fly fishing and fly tying. That sounds like a lot but it represents over 50 years of collecting. Also, many of the pattern books were obtained before there was so much available on the internet. I still enjoy reading and collecting them.

I have two grown sons but neither are that big into fishing, so I have instructed my family to donate all the books to a local library so others can enjoy them when I'm gone.

Dave

[Byron haugh]

I think every tier should have a good, comprehensive pattern book in order to see the materials list and the finished flies of classic fly patterns.
I have many fly tying books. The very best pattern book(s) I have is a two volume set of "Fish Flies" by the late Terry Helleckson. He provides snippets of the history of a number of the patterns. Most flies are shown as drawings, but in each volume, there are beautiful color plates of all the flies.
If I could only keep one book, this would be it. - actually a two volume set.

The books are over-sized and over 300 pages each.

"Ipad quality" examples of two pages: