WarrenP,
My benchside Reference is just that, my benchside reference. Should I run across a technique I don't quite understand or remember clearly I grab the book. I don't use it all that often, but when I need it, I'm sure glad it's there.
REE
WarrenP,
My benchside Reference is just that, my benchside reference. Should I run across a technique I don't quite understand or remember clearly I grab the book. I don't use it all that often, but when I need it, I'm sure glad it's there.
REE
Happiness is wading boots that never have a chance to dry out.
I'm with Warren on this one. I think that the Benchside Reference is arguably the best book ever produced to help teach people the techniques used to tie flies. If all I had was a photo of a pattern and I have never spun deer hair before, or mounted wings on a wet fly, it would be a long and frustrating road to learning. If I could only pick two books, the FFF Fly Pattern Enclopedia would be one and the Benchside reference the other. Just my opinion.
Jim Smith
If the question was about ...
... the most complete, best written, and best illustrated book on all things fly tying, I would be the first in line to recommend the Benchside Reference, regardless whatever price it is now selling for.Originally Posted by James Smith
nyfisherman asked for suggestions regarding one book for fly patterns for trout. It's been a while since I gave my copy away, but my best recollection is that you could open the "Reference" to any, and eventually all pages and never find a picture, recipe, and tying instructions for a fly pattern for trout.
John
The fish are always right.
After the FFF encyclodedia, I would probably have to say Trout Flies For Rivers by Carol and Skip Morris. Great book full of very practical patterns.
If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.
There is no such thing as a worthless pattern book. I suggest Fish Flies, The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art by Terry Hellekson (2005). And, of course, Trout by Bergman. Take a look at Hatches Magazine Ray Bergman Collection by Don Bastain http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hat...an-collection/.
fly tying book
if you can only buy one fly tying book for fly patterns for trout that would it be
For patterns I always look first at one book "Fly Patterns of the Umpqua Feather Merchants" by Randall Kaufmann
Be Safe
Steve
ps: I just googled it and it can be had for $ 75.00 worth it, IMO anyway...
..
Last edited by Steve Molcsan; 12-04-2010 at 03:28 PM.
Relaxed and now a Full Time Trout Bum, Est. 2024
My original answer assumed the poster was a newbie to fly tying and not an accomplished tyer as you all assume that he/she is or might be. I guess its one of those “my bad” for assuming.
Even though i was ridiculed for my answer, my answer stands. The “Fly Tyers Benchside Reference to Techniques and Dressing Styles” is the “BEST” book for techniques until someone writes a better one.
My answer also included “learn the techniques first and then the patterns” but nobody even got that far in reading my answer.
Most fly pattern books are just that “pattern books”. Pictures and recipes. Nothing on how to tie them.
So back to “nyfishermans” original question “if you can only buy one fly tying book for fly patterns for trout that would it be”, well "ONE" book couldnt satisfy my interest and i'm sure the other posters have more than "ONE" book laying around the tying room, so heres a list of books to consider:
The Dry Fly (Lafontaine)
Caddisflies (Lafontaine)
Trout Flies (Lafontaine)
Trout Flies (Hughes)
Barr Flies (Barr)
Fish Flies (Hellekson)
Emergers (Swisher/Richards)
Tying Emergers (Schollmeyer/Leeson)
Midge Magic (Holbrook/Koch)
Modern Midges (Takahashi/Hubka)
Wet Flies (Hughes)
A.K.’s Fly Box (A.K. Best)
Wet Fly Tying and Fishing (Fogg)
Clyde Style Flies (Reid)
Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing (Bates)
Trout (Bergman)
Tying and Fishing the Fuzzy Nymphs (Rosborough)
Soft Hackled Fly Imitations (Nemes)
The Soft Hackled Fly Addict (Nemes)
The Art of the Wet Fly (Fogg)
Thunder Creek Flies (Fulscher)
Flies (Leonard)
Bucktails and Streamers (Bates)
Wet Flies (Sawada)
Trout Hunter (Harrop)
Essential Trout Flies (Hughes)
The list could go on and on and on. There really isn’t “ONE” pattern book that is the “MOTHER OF ALL PATTERN BOOKS”.
You can already see the bias being built toward what everybody thinks is the “ONE” book for tying patterns. Only a few agreed with each other and a few agreed with my first choice.
Your best bet is to print out the present and future recommendations in this thread and head out to your local book store and pick out that “ONE” book that’s right for you and only you!
I apologize when I assumed you were a newbie tyer.
Last edited by Normand; 12-04-2010 at 11:51 AM.
If you are looking for patterns, Fish Flies, The encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art, by Terry Hellekson has almost 3000 various patterns and recipes with several pages of plates.
Steve
I too use the fly tiers benchside reference, but not for patterns just for techniques. I do use the different books for different styles of flies. being in the Army I have moved throughout the country and will say that there is probably no one book for every where. from my home area in north Idaho the best book in my opinion is the "flies of the Northwest" by the Inland Empire fly fishing club. there are also a series of books called the hatch guide for western streams and its counterparts for eastern streams, Catskills and the midwest streams. I have used the Umpqua book and the FFF encyclopedia and they are great books with lots of patterns but I still think that it depends on where you are and what has been published about where you fish. so far I have seen a lot of books that i have not looked at or seen yet and have enjoyed reading these posts. every time I move to a new area I end up going to the local shops and buying the local patterns that work then dissecting them and recreating them using the benchside reference for how the material was probably used.
If it were one book as far as fishing for trout goes, it would be Universal Fly Tying Guide by Dick Stewart. This is an inexpensive paper back book that is just absolutlely loaded with the most popular effective patterns that work for trout, day in and day out. It has large colored pictures of each pattern along with the dressing and covers every type of trout fly from the Classics to Terrestrials. It has a small section on color, hooks, materials, and proportions on the different types of flies. It has step by step instructions for bucktails, featherwings, buggers, nymphs, wet flies, Comparaduns, sculpins, muddlers, and a Red Quill classic dry. The best part about it is that it's very inexpensive. You can usually find one new for under 10 dollars. It's one of the very first books that I bought, and I still use it all the time since it's so easy to look up a pattern.
Regards,
Mark
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