Reviewed by Jim Slattery
After writing three classic books on the
subject, soft hackle fly legend Sylvester
Nemes takes us thru fly-fishing literature
history to explore the importance and origins
of the soft hackle fly. To say that this is
a complete and thorough survey would be untrue,
it would take a Herculean effort to do so and
many, many years. What the author has done,
though, is given us a window into some of the
most important, influential and pivotal books
or writings on the subject. Nemes search for
the term "soft hackle" is what fuels the majority
of this book. Each book or body of work is given
its own chapter.
In the first few chapters, Sylvester Nemes
explores various patterns and the reader can
see how flies evolve. Nemes finds interesting
points on fly tying techniques and terminology.
I found a correlation between palmered, buzz,
spider and flymph thru reading this book. In
addition, the way that flies are fished is
explored. The reader can get a good grasp on
how fly fishing evolved. In these early chapters,
Nemes introduces many beautiful tied flies to the
reader with fantastic photos and patterns. The
author also does us the service of showing us
what modern materials can be substituted for
now illegal or scarce materials used many years
ago.
As the book progresses, you can see a more
systematic approach taking place in fly tying
and fishing. Pulman's observations are quite
interesting. His theory on flies, their
impressionism and action, are really the
cornerstones of why the soft hackle fly is
so effective. Nemes delivers to us great experts
from this author. The author explores the two
emerging philosophies on flies: realistic vs.
impressionistic which later evolves into the
Dry Fly vs. Wet Fly debates between Halford &
Skues. The works of Stewart, Pritt and Lee are
not ignored. There are many more flies and
patterns to be gleamed here.
Sylvester Nemes appreciation for Skues is obvious
and deservedly so. The author feels that Skues did
more for the Soft Hackle Fly than anyone did from
his systemizing underwater fly fishing with Minor
Tactics to his taunting of Halford "The Prophet"
and Dry Fly Purists with clever book titles and phrases.
Skues realizes that submerged flies are complimentary
to Dry Flies, arming the Fly Fisher with a more
complete arsenal to fish with.
Most readers will be thankful for Sylvester Nemes
including the color plates from Leonard West's
The Natural Trout Fly and its Imitation
of different feathers and hackles. Anyone interested
in tying older flies will find this useful for
substituting unavailable or scarce plumage.
The next few chapters are remarkable in all aspects
of fly tying and fishing. John Waller Hills, and
Eric Taverner, in particular, are authors with
incredible knowledge, from which Nemes picks
outstanding excerpts and patterns.
Nemes' appreciation for Leisenring is evident, and
one wonders if it would even be greater if he had
read the reissue of his classic book, The Art
of Tying the Wet Fly. Maybe he would have
realized that Leisenring and Skues were correspondents.
Nemes seems annoyed that Leisenring doesn't use the
term "Soft Hackle" to describe his flies. This, maybe,
is because Leisenring used varying stiffness' of
hackle for different applications and the term
would have been a misnomer. Leisenring had
developed a complete and systematic approach
to fly tying and fishing. It is as if he had
knowledge to all of these books and collates
them into one book. Nemes assertion that Leisenring
probably stumbled upon the Soft Hackle just as he
did is probably false, especially after reading
the excerpts in a later chapter from John McDonald's
book on Theodore Gordon about Pennsylvania Wet Fly
Fishermen.
The next few chapters are filled with great excerpts
and patterns. William H. Lawrie's book is outstanding
and overlooked. His nymphs look very effective as
does his hatching duns. Leisenring used a different
approach than Lawrie to the varying colors of wings
and leg's of hatching flies. Lawrie's method was to
use two different color hackles, one for the wing,
and one for the legs and wind them one at a time
with the wing color cut off at the bottom, then
the leg hackle cut off at the top. Leisenring's
method was to simply find a feather that had both
colors in it. With John McDonald's book, we find
the Father of American Dry Fly was also not opposed
to using submerged flies. The complete angler indeed.
The book finishes with more of the same, books
that the average person may have heard of, but
not read, giving the reader great excerpts,
great patterns, and great photos on a wonderful
subject, The Soft Hackle Fly.
This book is highly recommended to anyone with
an interest in angling history, fly fishing, and
fly tying. Your wish list of books that you "Have
to Have" will grow considerably. The information
and knowledge gained is vast. The patterns and
Nemes exquisite interpretations of them are more
than worth the price of this book. Now we have
a fourth classic from this author. Thank you,
Sylvester Nemes, a job well done.
Two Centuries of Soft Hackle Flies
Sylvester Nemes
Hardcover: 173 pages
Published by Stackpole Books
ISBN: 0-8117-0048 8
~ JS
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