After going mad over the past year or so tying every fly I could find in books and magazines I’ve decided to take a cue from my day job as a designer and try and stick to simple fly designs. Within the design world simplicity can be the one thing that turns a complicated idea into a usable product. Flies don’t need to be complicated, they don’t need to replicate every part of the insects anatomy. In fact there is a school of thought that replica flies just have more for the fish to reject the fly on whereas suggestive flies tempt the trout into trying the fly. So this year I’m going simple and traditional and suggestive and ‘Simple Flies: 52 Easy-To-Tie Patterns That Catch Fish’ is the perfect book for this journey.
It goes back to basics and talks about the old fashioned soft hackle wets as well as bringing in influences from Japanese Tenkara fishing. All of the flies in this book look fantastic and simple but some still take a little practice to tie. There is a great pleasure in their simplicity and the movement of the soft hackle features in the water looks fantastic (just get a pint glass and dip your flies in to see how they behave in the water). I’m hoping they’re going to catch a lot of trout this year.
The book is very well written with lots of history and great descriptions of each fly. The tying instructions are good and I’ve had no problems tying any of the flies so far. If you like simple traditional flies then this book is perfect. Here are a few of my latest efforts…