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, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.
March 9th, 1998

A Modern Dry-Fly Code
 Written by Vincent C. Marinaro
 Published by Crown Publishers, Inc.

If you weren't a fly fisher in the 1950's when this book was published, or in the 1970's for the second edition, you may have missed it.

While this book may not be available through your local bookseller (Barnes and Noble don't even list it as in print) it will be worth your effort to find it. Regardless of all the new and wonderful books on the market today, I personally believe A Modern Dry-Fly Code to be the very best fly fishing book written.

Along with wonderful angling stories on eastern limestone waters, the explainations of hatches and flights, the detailed tying instructions, and the evaluation of the importance of different insects opened my eyes to a new world some twenty-five years ago. It still delights me today. The dog-earred copy in the photo is ours. I would hope your copy gets as much use.

Thorax-tied flies were mind-boggling. How could changing where the hackle was placed, much less wrapped, make a difference? The absolute proof is in the catching. (The fact that I later saw photographic proof is immaterial after all, pictures can lie.) But actually fishing these flies makes all the difference!

Add to that the terrestrials. Most fly anglers know Vince Marinaro invented the Jassid. But here are of diaries of the events leading up to that invention. Vince's long friendship with Charlie Fox, and their adventures are a delight to read ... even for a non-tier.

The book is sprinkled with neat black and white drawings, color photographs of some of Marinaro's fly creations, and several pages of photographic wonderment the rise forms of trout. A Modern Dry-Fly Code should be required reading for every fly fisher. It could change your life forever.

If you buy a copy of the 2nd Edition you will have the added writings, in the form of Vince's notes preceeding some chapters, and "A Backward Look." Vince writes without apology and a rare passion lacking in most of today's "experts." No wonder the book has become a classic in European fishing circles.

A Modern Dry-Fly Code IS available through Angler's Art, (it doesn't hurt that Angler's Art is not far from Vince's homewater, the Letort,) and is listed in their Cabin Fever Sale flier at $29.95. Give Barry a call at: 800-848-1020. [Update: It has now been reprinted, and is availabe from Lyons Press!] ~ DB

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