PASSION FOR PIKE: THE CHALLENGE AND MYSTERY OF FLY-FISHING FOR PIKE. By Ad Swier.

2006 1st edition. Large 8vo (173 x 245mm). Pp240. Colour paintings by the author, colour photographs, foreword by Larry Dahlberg. Laminated boards, issued without dust-wrapper.

Dutch fisherman, artist and writer, Ad Swier has been fishing for pike for fifty years. Passion for Pike represents Ad's reflections on that angling journey. He explains how he discovered the effectiveness of fly-fishing for pike, and describes some of the situations in which pike, including the very largest, may be caught on streamers, divers, poppers and other flies. Ad has assembled contributions from eminent pike fly-fishermen around the globe, from the USA and Canada to England, Sweden, Holland and Ireland, devoting separate chapters to aspects of fly-fishing for pike in those very different countries. Many different patterns of pike fly are described and illustrated, from simple streamers to realistic imitations of the pike's prey. At the same time, Ad's focus throughout is on that beautifully adapted predator, the pike, and on those landscapes and waterscapes, including those of his beloved Ireland, in which pike live and thrive. There's humour here, and nostalgia, story and controversy, as well as good instruction and the description of techniques.