Praise for The Founding Flies
For the first time, as far as I know, Mike Valla has brought together in one place an account of the major developments in the ways in which artificial flies were thought about, tied, and fished in the United States over the period from the mid-1880s to the late 1960s... In its scope and depth, The Founding Flies stakes a broader claim for Valla as one of the country’s leading historians of the art and craft of the artificial fly.
Description
“The dry fly, the wet fly, and the nymph all enjoyed cherished places in an angler’s bag of tricks; but all except the most opinionated will agree that streamer flies and bucktails; when properly selected and employed, hook more and bigger fish more often and in more places than any other type of fly rod lure.”
—Joseph D. Bates, Jr. Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing (1966)
Streamers, and hair wing versions called bucktails, are versatile patterns that can be fished anywhere whether targeting landlocked salmon on a pristine Rangeley region Maine lake, largemouth bass swimming among the lily pads in a tepid southern farm pond, cutthroat trout inhabiting swift, western rivers or hypercritical browns in the Catskills. In this valuable reference for tiers and anglers alike, author Mike Valla collects here for the reader his favorite classics that are not only important from a historical perspective, but also work well to this day.
100 favorite patterns including
Allie’s Favorite
Bleeding Shiner
Brooks’s Honey Blonde
Bumblepuppy
Chief Needahbeh
Colonel Bates
Edson Tiger-Dark
Fox’s Yellow Optic Bucktail
General MacArthur
Goober
Jane Craig
Missoulian Spook
Nine-Three
Parma Belle
Shushan Postmaster
Spruce
Supervisor
Thunder Creek Silver Shiner
Warden’s Worry
Reviews
Praise for The Founding Flies
At every level of the angler/fly tier's age and experience, this book was needed. It is what we have been waiting for, had we but known...Valla weaves a complex and fascinating tapestry full of the wonders of American fly development, east and west. He shows us these tiers' important flies in a compelling visual dimension and, at the end of the book, gives surprisingly canny and helpful dressings for each of them...It's a book to be returned to and browsed again for its pleasures and the celebration of that most excellent of objects: the trout fly.
