Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

By Paul Torday, Phoenix Press 2007

When Dr Alfred Jones, a fisheries scientist, is asked by a wealthy Yemeni sheikh to introduce salmon into the highlands of the Yemen, he scoffs at the absurdity of the idea. We do too. But somehow, once planted this seed of an idea starts to take hold.

What makes this gem of a book work is that the reader starts to will the success of the project, irrespective of how ridiculous the venture.

Torday , a keen River Tyne salmon angler himself, weaves his story around his undoubted in depth knowledge of wild salmon. Whether he is describing the physical geography of Yemeni wadis, poking fun at the machinations of the Civil Service, exposing the farce of political spin or commiserating with the death throes of a failing marriage, Torday keeps a light touch throughout and keeps the reader engaged.

A book for romantics (like me)!

One River More by W.D. Wetherell

“A Celebration of Rivers and Fly Fishing”

W.D. Wetherell.

The Lyons Press 1998, 259pp, ISBN 1-55821-698-7

 The classification for this book reads “Fly fishing – Anecdotes”, but this does little justice to this fine book. The third of a trilogy on fly fishing, this book is “impelled by a reformer’s zeal…the feeling that the tremendous surge in popularity that fly fishing has undergone in the last ten years has seen much lost in terms of quietude and contentment, modesty and simplicity, solidarity and fellowship”.

This is the book’s strength – a point of view, strongly held. Behind that disarming folksy style that defines a whole genre of fly fishing travelogue, Mr Wetherell asks an uncomfortable question: “How does a sport for loners and traditionalists and the few suddenly become yet another fad in the massive, exaggerated way of American fads?” With the commercialisation as evidenced by fly fishing schools, personality cults, technology and advertising, the fly fishing media, the de rigueur $1000 fly rod, the demise of stream etiquette, Wetherell urges “what we need constantly - is to remember why fly fishing is worth doing in the first place”. And cutting to the chase, we get to it: “whosoever would be a fly fisher must be a non-conformist, a paraphrase of Emerson”.

Is this a retreat into nostalgia for a time and place that never actually existed other than in Mr Wetherell’s mind? Is it a symptom of some loony backwoodsman survivalist tradition? Is it just the natural outcome of the doubts of a man in the rearguard of his life at the end of a turbulent century? I think not. There is too much in this book that encourages optimism despite the problems that he describes. “I’m going to find what I have always found – the miraculous current that connects simple pleasure to great joy – and try ten times harder to put delight back into the river from whence it all springs”. Rather than dwell on the macro-economic and the global, Wetherell advises local involvement on local issues.

Elsewhere Wetherell provides good travelogue (Yellowstone), chatty fishing logs in the time-honoured tradition of the genre, and miscellania, as in his musings of what occupies a fisherman’s mind in the closed season, but his best is reserved for his essays on his home waters.

The Upper Connecticut, the streams of Vermont and New Hampshire, the small towns where “like the river, the money has always flowed south here and probably always will”, the river logging industry; these seem to be the areas closest to his heart, and it shows. In his writing we get a glimpse of the man. A sense of much time spent alone; fishing as a solitary pursuit (of what and whom?); of talking to oneself and rehearsing conversations; of cleansing and renewal. The solitude of the fisherman and the solitude of the writer merging. Wetherell closes “this is my third book on fly fishing – I don’t think there will be a fourth”. A pity, but I can understand the sentiment.

Fishing and Thinking by A.A Luce

Born in 1882, Dr Luce became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, where he retired in 1949. He was Berkeley Professor of Metaphysics, being an expert on the philosophy of Bergson and of George Berkeley and in particular on the influence of the monk Malebranche. He was member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died in 1977.

Here is a book that made me re-consider the why of fly-fishing. When I first read it I had an overwhelming feeling that the book had been written for me.

Firstly and oddly, Dr Luce's sequence of topics mapped out very closely my own history in fly-fishing: the mountain tarn (evoking my own beginnings on a mountain tarn in Galloway); the Gillie (the influence of  a great gillie in my early quest for knowledge); the Western Lakes (the hours I have spent on Corrib); Dapping and Trolling ( my initial arrogance to these methods) ; Spate rivers and finally the Ethics of fly-fishing (a subject over which I have pondered much in recent years).

Secondly, after reading each chapter, I came away with the impression that all of the questions that I had asked myself countless times, Dr Luce had already asked. Why does the north wind put the fish down? Should one like trolling? Is dapping a "lower form" of fishing? Why and when  does a trout come short? And so on! Finding answers to these gave me the encouragement that I was on the "right road" at a time when fly-fishing was shrouded in mystery and secretiveness.

Lastly and most importantly, as the preface to the book emphasises, the book is about Fishing and Thinking, and the Thinking ranges from angling problems to the wider concerns of Living. "Fish and find out"! is Dr Luce's mantra, not only with regards to angling but as an attitude to life, reflecting his interest in empiricism.

It is the final chapter of the book - the Ethics of Fly-fishing - that brings out Dr Luce's best qualities: an honesty and commitment to ask difficult questions. "We need not be sentimental about animal suffering, but we dare not be callous or cruel....Angling need not be cruel". This is not the place to enter this debate, but Dr Luce will be remembered for his courage not to duck the issues.

River Home by Jerry Dennis

An Angler's Explorations, 1998.

Thomas Dunne Books  ISBN 0-312-18594-4

Thoughtful, contemplative and always observant, Jerry Dennis does a wonderful job depicting what's important to true flyfishermen, what binds them together.

His essays range from asking "Why Fish?" (can we ever really answer this?) to discussing what makes good fishing buddies to tying your own flies. Fishing travelogue takes you to the Chilean Andes for giant trout and to Iceland for Atlantic Salmon.

But it is in those essays where he combines a wisdom acquired from nature with a sense of the inevitableness of ageing where Dennis excels. The "River Home" and the "Music Out There" explore what it means to be human, finite and transient. "I passed the decade of my twenties in motion, living no place for long...Now beginning my forties I find it strange and heartening to feel at home on this earth at last".

Nostalgia sells, particularly to the kind of person who finds solace on a quiet river and is starting to reflect on his life. Although Dennis plays this card it does not detract from his theme of renewal through returning to a home. In any case what's wrong with a little bit of nostalgia?

 A warm and optimistic read.

Upland Stream by W D Wetherell

 Reading Wetherell's last book in his fly-fishing trilogy first, "One River More", is to have the side of history in your favour. One can see the path Wetherell trod and also appreciate why he has decided to call it quits with this particular genre. Although I enjoyed "One River More" immensely, compared to "Upland Stream", it was self-indulgent,  like soft sticky toffee.

Upland Stream has a more direct and immediate style with fewer excursions into existential thoughts and doubts. It is a tighter read and better for it.

Three real gems light up this book: Wetherell's wonderful thoughts on New England small stream brook trout fishing in "Copper Run", where "hemlock-dwelling trout mock you with their inaccessibility". His trip to the mecca of fly-fishing, Yellowstone, in "Big (Smoky) Sky" at a time when the rivers are closed down to forest fires; and Two Places Well, where Wetherell re-discovers the joys of wet fly fishing in Scotland and visits the place of my own ancestors, Galloway. And it's obvious to this reader which waters Wetherell likes to fish. The quiet unassuming shaded stream where small wild trout glide beneath undercut banks and the heavy scent of wild garlic fills the air.

 We "see" through our fly. It's the thrill of being hunted that gives fishing its charm. And, like the trout he catches, I am one reader who will return to take a look at the the lure which is his first book - "Vermont River".

The Sea Trout Diaries by R W Mountjoy

By R W Mountjoy, The Crapstone Press; c. 2007

There are few good books around on the subject of Sea Trout angling in the UK. This one, however,  is a cracker!

Hitherto, perhaps the two best books on sea trout angling have been "Successful Sea Trout Angling" (SSTA) by Graeme Harris and Moc Morgan, and, of course, "Sea Trout Fishing" (STF) by Hugh Falkus, both classics. However whereas SSTA and STF are hefty "all you need to know" books about the subject, The Sea Trout Diaries is more of a collection of notes and photographs of Mountjoy's voyage of discovery in which he shares with us his hard gotten secrets of sea trout angling on the rivers of Devon.

Three things that make this book good:

• The explanation of tactics and how this is linked to his theory of sea trout behaviour - As an experienced brown trout angler, I had always thought that I would have little trouble in picking up sea trout angling. However, apart from the the useful skills of casting, the knowledge acquired of brown trout angling actually reduces your chances of success and have to be put aside. Mountjoy does a very good job of explaining this.
• Mountjoy's ability to "keep it simple" - Mountjoy's simplicity is refreshing. There are no flights of fancy or grand theories such as you find in today's angling press. He is happiest with simple words and simple gear. "I tend to buy second hand or "sale" rods. I have no concern for make or label".  - "There are clearly many for whom owning exclusive tackle is important and if it makes them happy I should be happy, but in fact, I am a little sad. My tackle is for fishing - not for status.."
• The honesty of his accounts, as he stumbles through  the darkness that is sea trout angling. It's the modesty of the account that is the most engaging feature of the book. On having read the book you feel like you have been let into a few secrets by a favourite uncle.

"Brown trout give themselves up to those with skill and salmon to those with money but the sea trout is a very different fish. To catch sea trout you need soul".

On Fishing by Brian Clarke

Brian Clarke is a big name in UK angling, and deservedly so. His journalistic output (see here) is an important voice of reason in an increasingly commercialised fly fishing scene. His expertise as an angler is unquestionable. He co-wrote a book which helped take trout fishing in the UK to another level ("The Trout and the Fly", written with John Goddard in 1980). This book has been described as "an absolute milestone". I agree, despite the fact that Vince Marinaro's book, "A Modern Dry Fly Code", predated it by 30 years and covered much the same ground.

"On fishing" is a delightful collection of 71 wide-ranging essays. Perhaps my favourites are where Clarke describes the characters of other anglers upon whose shoulders we stand: Fred Buller, John Goddard, Alex Behrendt, and others. For fly fishing is as much about our social history and how we choose to  define meaning for ourselves as it is simply a past-time. "Images of fish and fisherman in English Medieval Church Wall Paintings" - how wonderful and how so very English!

Essays on fishing in the Falklands, Norway ("The Boatman"), and the Hudson Bay transport the reader to exotic fishing trips in much the same way as other angling travelogues - a well-worn route, but Clarke is able to personalise these in a way which tells us much about himself.

And through the book we find pieces of Brian Clarke himself, finding himself:

My entire fly fishing career could be plotted through this transition, through my choice of flies as an out and out beginner to those tied in the middle years, to the sparse collection in which I place all hope now...I began to look for simplicity.

And so we come to it. A wide range of essays and observations from a man who writes very simply and well and from a lifetime's experience of angling. But within it, a clear view of the man himself, his values, and I think a melancholy of what fly fishing is becoming.

I really warm to this book.

Fisher in the Hills - A Season in Galloway, by Robin Ade

It is sometimes the case that we know we will enjoy a book even before we open the cover. And so it was for me with "Fisher in the Hills" by Robin Ade.

Galloway was the place where I caught my first trout on a fly, many years ago. I was on a rowing boat on Clugston Loch, drawn into some reeds and fishing a dry sedge. You don't forget your first trout, and the place where you catch it becomes imbued with a sense of belonging and self. Galloway is an isolated region, known for its spate rivers,  Robert Burns, Robert the Bruce and its Belted Galloway cattle, and home territory to some of my ancestors of the Douglas Clan.

Mr Ade has managed to balance two themes without ever allowing one to detract from the other. His deep love for the countryside, extremely well observed in his drawings and attention to detail, comes through strongly. Observations on the significance of trout markings, spate feeding, fishing in the dark, trout species and the behaviour of large trout all show a deep connection to nature. 

The other theme of this book is the increasing pressure being placed on our countryside. The "coniferisation" of the hills; local people barred by forest gates; the increasing economic dependence on external interests - these are the concerns which place his observations of nature into context. The process of rural depopulation goes on unabated, as it has done for centuries in Scotland and local people find themselves increasingly alienated as the real decision makers are businessmen many hundreds of miles away. It was ever thus!

This is a book which is contemplative - a panacea to many books we now see where angling is portrayed in acquisitive terms -  "100 rivers to fish before you die" or "extreme fishing" etc.  And in the detailed observation of each season's unfolding Mr Ade brings us to reflect more deeply on old ingrained habits ...

We often fish the same spots by habit and ignore and forget to search more unlikely places.

There is much to commend this book.

5th November 2010

The book is copyrighted 1985 and first published by Andre Deutsch in London. ISBN 0 233 97570 5

Here is a link to Robin Ade's web-site ( link )and some excellent examples of Mr Ade's art work.

Wet-Fly Tying and Fishing by Roger Fogg

Roger Fogg Wet Fly Tying and Fishing

A useful and a welcome addition is this, as, in recent years, there has been a dearth of books on the art of the wet fly, although I detect a bandwagon starting to roll: J N Watson will soon be publishing his "Forgotten flies of Roger Woolley" whilst Terry Lawton's book "Upstream Wet Fly" is said to be due out soon.

Mr Fogg starts with a brief overview of the literature, covering WC Stewart, Pritt, Edmonds and Lee and then the practitioners in the US such as Leisenring and Hidy. But there are some notable absences in Mr Fogg's review such as Nemes, who wrote the seminal US work, Dave Hughes, Polly Rosborough and nearer to home, Robert C Sharp and the development of the Clyde and Tummel scene, and the North Welsh tradition as described by Emrys Evans in "Plu Stiniog". 

The book then goes on to describe Wet Fly Fishing tackle, an area particularly well covered in my view, and methodologies for the river and the still water angler. There is then a very good section on fly-tying covering soft hackled flies, little winged wet-flies, Palmers and loch flies. The fly-tying sequences are clear and well photographed, although I found some of the flies slightly over-dressed; but that is a matter only of personal preference. 

Mr Fogg is an unashamed traditionalist, which to my mind is a good thing as it provides a much needed counterbalance to what is becoming a very high-tech "sport" in which every decision (rod?; reel?; fly-line?; tippet?; hook?; fly?) becomes far more complicated than is necessary. Bags of choice is not always a good thing, especially if it detracts from what is essentially a very simple past-time.

I have spent the last 5 years solely wet-fly fishing and slowly learning  from mistakes. I have learnt the wisdom of using a long light middle action rod, lazy open loop casts, small light reels, double taper lines, both upstream and downstream methodologies, and so on. It is really encouraging for someone like me to see these lessons vindicated by someone as expert as Mr Fogg. It is also good to see someone avoid the trap of fruitlessly arguing the merits of upstream versus downstream and to get the the essence of the matter, which is to employ what is right for the particular trout in your sights.

Here is a link to Roger Fogg's web-site.

This book was published in 2009 by the Crowood Press Ltd.

ISBN 978 1 84797 127 2