Book review: Ten Flies Simple Ties

I have been interested in woodworking since I was a kid. (Bear with me - this
will have some fly fishing relevance soon enough). My Dad made all sorts of
things for the house - side tables, shelves, cabinets - and I enjoyed my days
as his helper in the garage. Even as an adult, I will tape and watch woodworking
shows on the weekends and sit in the family room and dream of having my own
shop where I can make stuff like my Dad did. I'm at the point where I'm starting
to consider gathering some tools, so I've ordered some catalogs and some books
and have started digging in deeper.

Holy smokes.

A well stocked woodworker's catalog will put any fly tying catalog to shame,
and there are entire books devoted to attaching two pieces of wood, which is
analagous to having an entire book related to the pinch-and-loop or a whip finish.
It goes on from there. I bought a book on how to use a table saw, and there
is an entire chapter devoted to the dangers of kickback and how to avoid injuring
yourself. For someone who is starting totally from scratch with just a pair
of hands and a credit card, it is extremely intimidating. After all, I don't
know anyone who's lost a finger or been hit in the gut with a flying piece of
wood while tying flies. The most pain I've inflicted on myself is gouging a
finger on a hook point or dumping a bottle of head cement in my lap. Yeah -
while wearing shorts. Ouch. (Worst part was the dumb idea to clean it up with
cement thinner).

This is where Andrea and Glenn Van Benschoten fit in. They are doing for fly
fishing and fly tying what I am hoping someone will do for woodworking - help
the newbie overcome those initial feelings of FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Their first book is entitled "Ten Flies Simple Ties (for bass, panfish,
and trout)", and as you can tell from the title and from my lengthy buildup,
the emphasis is on making things easy for the first timer.

Of the ten flies demonstrated in the book, only one has more than two materials
in use - the classic and legendary Wooly Worm. A few, in fact, are tied with
just a hook, thread, and one additional material. The point is to create flies
that will catch fish without requiring a master's class in fly tying, while
teaching some of the most basic fly tying skills that will lay a foundation
for further learning with different materials and more complicated flies. You
will not find a "Copper bead headed, hare's ear, silver ribbed flashback
rubber legged micro stonefly nymph" in the hook. You'll find things like
a foam caddis, a dubbed ant, and a simple sparkle nymph.

Neither the book nor the flies are intended to produce oooh's and ahhh's from
the fly tying lords and masters. We've alread mentioned that the flies are simple
and straightforward, but the book is as well. It is self published, printed
on heavy semi-gloss stock, and folded and stapled in the middle much like a
magazine. There is an occasional depth-of-field or focus issue with the photographs,
but certainly nothing that detracts from their educational value. After a brief
introduction and a couple pages of general instruction, the book settles into
a groove of two pages per fly. Each fly has a larger photo of the finished fly,
the pattern listing, some supporting text, and then a set of step-by-step instructions
with both photos and text. Even if you've never tied a fly in your life, I'm
pretty sure you can follow along and end up with flies very similar to those
shown, which is the entire point of the book.

I'm sure newbies to fly fishing, and especially fly tying, feel the same sense
of fear and "what am I getting into?!?" that I am feeling about woodworking.
Everything seems easy once you know how to do it, but that first step is always
the most difficult. Andrea and Glenn are doing their best to make that first
step as fun and free of anxiety as possible. Good on them!