The book makes a valiant attempt to cover all aspects of flyfishing, but of course the ‘complete guide’ part of the title is a something of a misnomer, for there is no way a book can be a complete guide to this topic without being too heavy to lift. That’s not a knock at John Bailey nor, indeed, the publishers, for the reality is that guides are just that, a guide, rather than a complete instruction manual.
The first thing any book should do is entertain. If it doesn’t do that then you won’t maintain an interest in what it has to say and therefore you won’t learn much. This book does entertain, the photographs are superb and the instruction clear. More significantly, it succeeds to a great degree in giving you an insight into the real nature of flyfishing, what flyfishing is all about, the beauty and grace of it, and the relationship between understanding the behaviour and food of fishes and transferring that through the rod and line and ultimately to the imitation of the fly.
John Bailey says in his introduction, “To put it simply, flyfishing is beautiful: that’s why at any game fair you’ll find non-anglers watching fly-casting exhibitions with total joy and amazement. Fly fishing is lovely to watch and it’s lovely to execute….You don’t even need to see a fish to have a wonderful day with a fly rod in your hand – but when you do…..”
