This book has to have one of the most deceptive titles I've come across. It isn't a bad book by any means, but it definitely doesn't do what it says on the tin.

From the title, you'd think this book would be full of all sorts of useful hints and tips to help a beginning or intermediate tier improve their skills. To be blunt, it isn't. The first chapter is entitled "Talleur's Tying Tips" and that does have some good tips - but it's just short of a page and a half in length. The second chapter is about hackle selection, and I found it very interesting. In fact it was seeing this part of the book as an excerpt online which encouraged me to buy it. Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn't carry on in the same manner.

The first few chapters deal with fairly traditional Catskill style dry flies. One of the things mentioned in the preface is that the author has found his students generally have more trouble winging dry flies than anything else. Essentially only one winging technique is discussed, which is taking a bunch of hair or feather fibre and dividing it. To me this probably the easiest winging technique, and feather slip wings are the ones I, and I suspect most others, have trouble with. I'm surprised it isn't mentioned. Maybe it's a cultural sort of thing. If you do have trouble with bunched-and-divided style wings then this book has you covered.

One very interesting snippet from these first few chapters is a discussion of dyeing quills using Kool-Aid! You might want to stop drinking it, but you'll have a cheap and easy way of dying quills. Quill bodies are used for several of the example flies.

The next four chapters deal with parachute hackled dries. I didn't come across anything which was particularly new to me here. The big thing in these chapters seems to be a method of fixing the end of the hackle using CA glue rather than tying it off. There are also a few different styles of bodies which might help you break out of the tapering dubbed Klink mould if you haven't experimented much yourself.

Much of the remainder of the book talks about streamers, and there are some interesting flies here. One chapter discusses a style of fly which I've since found is like the Alaskabou style of steelhead/salmon fly, where marabou feathers are wound on like a hackle to form the body of the fly. The difference here is the flies are a bit smaller and use mallard body feathers. The author gets a lot of mileage out of this, rather unnecessarily describing both bead and cone head variants. To be fair there is a slight change in technique in the cone head example.

There are a couple of chapters talking about Uni-Stretch. In one of them a quite interesting stonefly pattern is tied, and that's actually the only appearance of a nymph in the whole book. The other chapter describes Spey flies tied using Uni-Stretch. I have tied one of these flies as an excuse to use some Uni-Stretch I hadn't done much with. Although the techniques described are interesting they seem like a bit of a novelty and I don't think it's something I'd use very often. It doesn't seem to have any particular advantages over floss, for example.

Dotted amongst the last few chapters are an emerger pattern using a foam "wingcase" in a very similar fashion to a suspender buzzer, and a couple of skater style dry flies using very large hackles.

If you've seen Dick Talleur's articles in various magazines then you'll be familiar with the style the book is written in. He has a very friendly and conversational style, and explains techniques and materials well. There is a fair bit of anecdotage and he's not afraid to promote various products. He seems to have a particularly good relationship with Whiting Farms. It was a little bit jarring, and it sometimes doesn't lead to a book aging gracefully, but I don't suppose there's any harm in it.

The book is well presented. It's nicely printed in full colour on glossy paper. The photography for the step-by-steps uses large, clear photos. I don't really like the way the step-by-steps are laid out. There are two columns per page, and they run up-down, left to right. There are often different numbers of steps in each column. All in all it makes for a layout which is perhaps harder to follow than it could be.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It certainly isn't the book I thought I was getting. It's more like a fairly loose collection of articles, with a very tenuous theme of solving tricky fly-tying problems. If you've read a bit of fly tying literature you probably won't come across anything earth shattering. It does have some useful information, which I've used, and a few interesting flies, which I've tied. It definitely isn't a must have book, but it isn't a bad one. If you come across it in a shop have a look through, you might find something interesting.

Reviewed by Jo Meder
June 08

Book details, as reviewed:
Inside Fly Tying
Published in 2004 by Stackpole Books
ISBN 0-8117-3138-3
RRP $19.95 USD

Jo Meder (jo@sexyloops.com) lives in New Zealand's South Island on the side of a mountain. Since rediscovering fly fishing a few years ago he's become a hopeless addict and can often be found roaming the banks of both rivers and lakes, supporting his habit through work as a software developer. One day he will catch a fish from his kayak. He likes to cast just because and seeks to pass on the enjoyment of casting in his capacity as an FFF Certified Casting Instructor.