FLY-TYING METHODS. By Darrel Martin.

1987 1st UK edition. Large 4to (280 x 222mm). Ppxii,276. Colour plates, b/w photographs, illustrations. Black cloth-backed boards.

An innovative and pioneering fly-tying book, currently out-of-print and difficult to find. Looks in detail at the natural fly, at fly-tying tools and materials, and in particular at dubbing and hackling methods, woven and wrapped bodies, hair-spinning, spun marabou and herl bodies. Chapters include: tying tackle and trim; The vice; The fly hook; Feathers and fluff; Hairs and furs; The insect and the plant; The naturals; The way of a fly - a preface to a theory of tying; Art of the fly; Fly-tying proportions; Hook and thread; Dubbing methods; The hackling methods; The head; The float body; The furled body; The Langley wing-loop method; The needle-body method; The Olsson parachute method; Wax bath methods for stripped peacock herl; The weaves and wraps; The spun Marabou method; The spun Zonker method; The spun herl method; The stem-loop parachute method; The single-thread hair spinning method; The extended body; The imitations (step by step instructions for a variety of patterns *), 34 pages. The Complete Tyer: The streamside tyer; Sans-vice tying; The spinning knot*. "The following patterns, both traditional and novel, were selected because they gather into a single text a remarkable variety of methods and skills. By blending methods and substituting materials even a greater variety of patterns may be created. Most of the included patterns require only a modicum of skill. And the instructional detail is extensive enough so that even the complex patterns are clear. No tyer should become lost in a maze of methods and materials".