Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs

by Allen Mcgee

Trout often prefer underwater aquatic insects because they're more vulnerable than surface stages and are more abundant as well. Fly-fishers know the importance of imitating the specific life stage that trout are feeding on, however most current flies only imitate size, shape, and color of the natural insect. Soft-hackled nymphs also imitate movement and behavior. Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs explains how to imitate sub-surface aquatic insects using both traditional and modern soft-hackled nymphs and flymphs along with the most effective presentation techniques. By exploring effective thread and translucent fur body material combinations, as well as game-bird hackle collars, these flies take on life-like properties. These patterns can be fished throughout the water column from the stream bottom--to imitate immature nymphal forms--to the surface mimicking transitional emergers. Drawing on both traditional and evolved patterns and methods, these wingless wet flies will take you beyond for mulaic fishing techniques to unlimited presentation possibilities and will help you catch more trout.

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2007

Reviews

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, there were simply too many glaring issues to warrant a better review. First, the presence of simple typographical errors is simply inexcusable in a book with an editor. They grate my patience like nails on a chalkboard. One is bad but easily overlooked but the numerous issues within the text of this book combined with the next issue made it too much.

The second issue with this book is the writing style. It's rambling. Plain and simple. The author attempts to explain a topic with an example and gets steered off course and presents things out of order or that simply don't expound on the central theme. I find myself becoming impatient with paragraphs and wanting him to get back on track.

The layout of this book is its weakest and most glaring issue. There are a ton of colorful photos throughout the text -- and they in no way relate to the text you happen to be reading. They're just there for eye candy. Oh, they might be referred to several pages prior or after, but you will not find a visual example of what you're reading at the time. This just made the entire book seem amateurish and poorly laid out.

Overall, this book was a disappointment and I would highly recommend Dave Hughes's masterful Wet Flies instead. It covers all of the material covered in this book, and does so with a masterful storytelling arc, but also contains information about how to fish the patterns in easily understood terms. There aren't the gloss photos in Hughes's books, but his writing style is so good you don't need them.