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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.
TYING CATSKILL-STYLE DRY FLIES
Once every few years a very special book comes on the market. In recent years we have had an abundance of fly-fishing books that cover every aspect of the sport of fly-fishing. While many of these books have provide fly-fishers with valuable information about various aspects of the sport many of them have merely been a rehash of what has already been published elsewhere. Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies is a truly outstanding addition to angling literature, and a substantial contribution to the history of one of the truly special places and special people that have left us a considerable legacy.
Mike Valla had the enviable opportunity of spending a considerable part of his youth in close personal contact with many of the legendary fly tiers and anglers associated with the distinctive Catskill-style of fly tying. He learned to tie flies setting between Walter and Winnie Dette, and as a result of his association with them he got to meet and fish with many of the renowned tiers and anglers that frequented the Catskill trout streams. In this book he shares those experiences with us and provides invaluable information about the people and the flies that they tied.
The book is lavishly illustrated with tack sharp images of the flies, descriptions of the special tying techniques used by the Catskill tiers, biographies of the famous tiers and anglers associated with the Catskill School of fly tiers and historical descriptions of the streams that they fished. T
This is a must have book for anyone that is interested in the history of a vital period of American Fly-Fishing history, and for anyone that is interested in tying the Catskill-style of dry fly. This is truly a landmark piece of angling literature, and it belongs on the bookshelf of every fly-fisher.
Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies
Author: Mike Valla
Headwater Books, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-934753-01-9
$49.95