“Fly-Fishing Heresies”, a book review
I recently found another book written by one of my favorite fly- fishing authors, Leonard M. Wright, Jr. Its title is “Fly-Fishing Heresies“.
Wright is the heretic in this work, tackling or challenging some of the many fly-fishing dogmas. Referencing a previous work, he begins by refuting the dogma that a dry fly must be fished upstream, with an undisturbed drift. He argues that a downstream drift with an upstream twitch or two is more lifelike. His cogent argument allegedly drew a public rebuke from none other than Sparse Grey Hackle.
A few other dogmas addressed include how to fish a wet fly, role of the colorful salmon fly, and rod length. My personal favorite was the piece about Izaak Walton, titled “Izaak Who ?”. Although Walton’s book, “The Complete Angler“, is the second most read book in the world, he was neither a fly fisher nor an original writer!
Wright is erudite, very witty, and light-hearted in his writings. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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written by Al Simpson, November, 2018.
