FLIES, TIES, and TECHNIQUES: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TYING 50 IRRESISTIBLE FLIES. By Charles Jardine.

2008 1st edition. 8vo (168 x 230mm). Pp224. Colour photographs of flies, colour photographs throughout. Card covers with flaps.

"Fifty patterns! Just fifty to cover the thousands of designs that have been thrown onto trout and grayling waters worldwide since Aelian ...almost two thousand years ago. Yes, just the fifty. The strange thing is, when one actually has to ...devise a pattern list that ranges across the full spectrum of fly fishing, a sudden truth begins to dawn. ...By choosing judiciously, a whole spectrum of methods, materials, and manipulations can be incorporated in a very limited number of designs." Each pattern is accompanied by a discussion of suitable tactics and its behaviour, as well as a photograph of the fly in question in the water. Step by step photographs are given for each fly tying technique required to tie the patterns.