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