Books: The Fly Tying Bible, by Peter Gathercole

The Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole (image Amazon UK)

The Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole carries a weighty title, but does it live up to it? Robin Scott finds out.

I wish I had first picked up this book when I was around 12 or 13, around about the time I was given my first “starter kit” of vice, bobbin and bits of hackle to begin my first haphazard forrays into the skilful world of fly-tying: the Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole is probably one of the best gentle introductions to the world of tying for trout and salmon I have seen.

Starting from a concise “what you need to know” introduction to fly tying, the reader is taken through each of the various types of fly with a minimum of fuss, and, most importantly, a maximum of explanation where it is required.

I remember distinctly trying to get a handle on fly tying from magazines which didn’t explain how to do many of the intricate operations with anything other than a name. Infuriating. It wasn’t until I saw hands-on how a really experienced fly-tyer did things that the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together for me: the explanations provided in this book would have helped me tremendously back in those inexperienced days.

This book would surely take a novice a year or more to complete, following which he may well possess 95% of the flies he requires for a lifetime of peaceful enjoyment of fly-fishing – and that is high praise indeed.

The choice of flies is excellent, as is the range of difficulties encountered: there is everything from the simple to the masterful, though opening with tiny dry-flies does seem somewhat mean-spirited on the first-timer!

I’d recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in becoming a fly-tyer or improving novice to intermediate fly-tying. In fact, even an expert tyer will derive some pleasure from reading this book.

Its one of those that you’ll dip into again and again (at least until you have by heart all of your favourite fly recipes!).

Fully recommended, the Fly-Tying Bible is a book most of our shelves would be happy to hold.