Clouser's Flies
By Bob Clouser
Stackpole Books 2006
Description: This is an 8.5" x 11", all color, hardbound book. It has a foreword by Lefty Kreh, photographs by Jay Nichols , and illustrations by Dave Hall. There are 172 pages illustrating 17 different patterns, and an index. The publisher is Stackpole Books. The ISBN for this book is ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-0148-8 (Note: ISBN numbers have gone to a 13 digit format.) The suggested retail price is $39.95
Comments:
Well Bob Clouser needs no introduction, nor does his deadly Clouser Deep Minnow which wiggles on tippets around the world in both fresh and salt water. So a book devoted to his flies is long over due; and its an attractive looking volume to boot. When you pick it up you'll notice that right off. The front and back covers are nicely produced with a squeaky-clean, no-nonsense design. (Yes, the old Bauhaus still rules.) And the interior pages are more of the same- in all a thoughtful layout. Rounding out the rich presentation, the book is chockablock with excellent color photographs; by my quick estimate, some 400 images.
Lefty's foreword kicks things off. In it he states that "..I believe this book is one of the most useful that has been published in some time." Fair enough; Clouser's Flies - Bob's first book- is indeed a welcome and needed addition to the fly angler's book shelve. Glad to have it.
The book itself is divided into four parts, the first of which is Part 1: Tying the Clouser Flies. This section consists of two introductory chapters. The first one covers fly tying material. Here you'll find Clouser's advice on hooks, eyes, cements and epoxy, deer hair, calf tail, synthetic hairs, and flash material. From there we head to a chapter entitled Fly Tying Techniques: Using Your Thread as a Tool. In it Bob shows us various ways in which we can use our thread to better attach materials to the hook. I enjoyed both chapters, and I think you will too.
With Part 1 under our belt, Bob serves up the main course, which consists of 17 proven fly patterns. These flies are grouped into 3 categories Part 2: Baitfish: The Clouser Deep Minnow and Variations; Part 3: Subsurface Freshwater Foods; and Part 4: Surface Flies. Each of the 17 patterns gets its own chapter with crisp, accompanying photographs that take us step-by-step through the fly's construction. The tying information is straight forward and a snap to follow, thanks in large measure to Nichols' skill with a camera. Believe me, even if you're tyro at the tying bench, you wouldn't get discombobulated. Fear not...crack a brew, put a hook in the vise and get going.
Along with the fly tying advice, Bob also offers valuable suggestions on how to fish these flies. For example in Part 2, he tells us about his "Susquehanna Strip" a method of retrieving flies so they dart like a fleeing baitfish. In Part 3 he explains how to dead-drift flies - such as his crayfish pattern- with tips on "mending" line and the "Leisenring Lift. Solid information throughout.
After reading this effort from cover to cover and kicking the tires, I recommend it highly. Clouser's Flies has all the right marbles; whether you fishing in sweet or salty waters, you'll be proud to own it. I bet you end up showing it to your friends when they come over. But when they ask to borrow it, you'll probably Bogart the thing. Understandable.
In closing let me say something about the 8.5" x 11" format. In recent times Amato Publications and Stackpole Books have produced a number of large format, fly-fishing reference books. Frankly I'm glad to see them...back. That's right back! Thirty years ago - in what some call the gold age of fly-fishing- large 8.5" x 11" reference fly-fishing books were fairly common. They had titles such as Hatches, Nymphs, Living River, and Caddis Flies to name a famous few. Granted these puppies weren't full color, but they were very effective books and for the same reason large format books like Clouser's Flies are effective today: The photographs and illustration are big, easy to see and understand - and with generous use of white space on the page, these books are also reader friendly. With the fly-fishing population largely in bifocals these days, that's a wonderful thing.
