A Bibliography for Traditionalists

Traditionalists, it may be assumed, are happy to fish within a culture fashioned by the fly fishers of bygone years and it is for this reason that books on fly fishing form an integral part of the pleasure we get from the pursuit of trout. What could be better on a winter’s evening than to relax with a good fishing book and a glass of single malt? I hope that the following bibliography will provide a useful aid for those who are beginning to expand their reading around the subject; perhaps even widely read fly fishers too may find something of interest.

Of course, any bibliography tends to be subjective since it reflects the preferred reading of the compiler and there are so many good books that I have still to acquire and read, particularly books written in the USA. Thus, the absence of a book from my list does not imply any negative response to it. I have, however, omitted a number of excellent little books, generally of a very parochial nature, simply because they are so rare and unobtainable. Many of the books that I do recommend are long out of print yet the internet will lead us to booksellers who have the odd copy. They may be expensive of course but there are other ways we can access classic texts – some texts are available via websites, some are offered commercially on DVDs, while substantial passages from key books are printed within other reference books (I suggest a few in the bibliography). A real bonus is the Flyfisher’s Classic Library series which offers quality reprints of many great fishing books; any books in the bibliography available in this series are marked ‘FFCL’.

For the Flyfisher’s Classic Library, and many other books, contact Paul Morgan at Coch-y-Bonddu Books (Tel. 01645 702837; www.anglebooks.com).

Enjoy your reading!

Please offer responses to this bibliography. Is it useful or not? Does it contain too many books? Are there too many omissions and particularly with respect to books emanating from the USA? In the future, I will certainly consider expanding the bibliography if there is any demand. However, please remember that this is a bibliography for traditionalists which in turn means that many recent books are excluded because they promote styles of fishing, or attitudes towards fishing, that run contrary to the traditional.