The Art of Fly Tying

Allen Soroka is assistant law librarian at the University of British
Columbia Law Library.

Fly tying is at once a science and an ancient art. A Roman writer,
Claudius Aelian, spoke of fly tying in the third century as follows:
“The fishermen wind red wool around their hooks and fasten to the wool
two feathers that grow under a cock’s wattles and which are the colour
of dark wax.” The aim, of course, is to fool the fish with imitations
of insects, their natural prey. Claude Chartrand’s book, a modern
manual for tying wool and feathered insect imitations, makes a fine
contribution to this genre.

Chapter 1, which deals with the entomology of aquatic insects, is well
illustrated with lots of good photographs and drawings of dragonflies,
stoneflies, and other aquatic insects. Seven more chapters deal with
materials and tools, fly-tying techniques, the creation of the basic
flies, and other important aspects of the art. The color photography,
the drawings, the instructions, and the informative background to all
this are first-rate. Chartrand, an artist and a gifted writer, also
furnishes interesting history about the origin of some of the flies.
This would be a useful, and welcome, addition to any fly fisher’s
library. Highly recommended.