Matching Mayflies: Everything You Need to Know to Match Any Mayfly You'll Ever Encounter [Paperback]

Dave Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

Mayflies are the most important order of aquatic insects to those who fly fish for trout. In order to fish their hatches successfully, it is essential to understand their four important stages-nymphs, emergers, duns, and spinners-and to carry and know when to use the best fly patterns for each phase of this life cycle.

Observation is the key to understanding this important insect order. Nothing will ever teach you as much as you can learn from your own observations, those things you notice while out on a stream or lake, with your waders wet in water, confronted by selective trout feedings on mayflies.

Dave has been studying mayfly hatches, photographing them, tying flies to match them, and honing presentation techniques to fish those flies for more that 30 years. Now you can benefit from Dave’s vast on-stream knowledge

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Hughes is a native Oregonian now living with his wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon. He has written many books on fly fishing and is currently the editor of FLYFISHING & TYING JOURNAL magazine published by Frank Amato Publications, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 84 pages
• Publisher: Frank Amato Pubns (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157188260X
• ISBN-13: 978-1571882608
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Hughes is author of more than 20 books about fly fishing. They include the classic Western Hatches with Rick Hafele, American Fly Tying Manual, Handbook of Hatches, Reading Trout Water, Dry Fly Fishing, Nymph Fishing, and the massive referenceTrout Flies. His latest book, published in 2009, is Nymphs for Streams and Stillwaters. His next book is Pocketguide to Western Hatches, due out in fall of 2011.

Dave was founding president of Oregon Trout in 1983, and was awarded life membership in the Federation of Flyfishers in 1985. He was awarded the Pete Hidy honorary life membership in the Flyfishers Club of Oregon in 1992 for his literary accomplishments. Dave received the prestigious Letcher Lambuth Angler Craftsman Award in 2008 from the Washington Fly Fishing Club. He is also a life member of his home club, the Rainland Flycasters in Astoria, Oregon.

Born in Astoria, Oregon on the 4th of July, 1945, Dave worked his way through college at jobs specializing in the Three Ds--Dirty, Difficult, and Dangerous: mink ranches, tuna canneries, and shrimp boats. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1967, from Army Infantry Officer Candidate School in 1968. Dave served one-and-a-half years in Viet Nam, 6 months as a communications site commander in the Mekong Delta, and one year as liaison officer to the Commanding General of communications in the Southeast Asia theater.

Dave is an accomplished amateur aquatic entomologist. His hobbies include collecting, identifying, and photographing the aquatic insects that are fed upon by trout, as well as tying and fishing the flies that match those insects and fool those trout. His articles on fly fishing have appeared in Field & Stream, Gray's Sporting Journal, Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Fly Fisherman magazine, American Angler, and Fly Tyer. Dave served as editor of Flyfishing & Tying Journal for eight years, and is currently Elements of Success columnist for Fly Rod & Reel, essayist for Northwest, Southwest, and Eastern Flyfishing, and Minor Notes columnist for Flyfishing & Tying Journal.

Dave lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Japanese fly fishing writer Masako Tani, and their daughter Kosumo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the general info you need, November 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Matching Mayflies: Everything You Need to Know to Match Any Mayfly You'll Ever Encounter (Paperback)

Not sure why this recent book showed up so low on the list of his books. Its an excellent summary of mayflies, and contains a good distillation of the main must-have flies, with tying instructions. The book describes a system for being ready for anything without carrying everything. It is the usual thing: narrowing the flies you carry with careful lifecycle, size, and colour choices. I have been seriously fly fishing for 25 years, and still found lots to consider about his approach.

I really only have one quibble about the book (and his others for that mater), and that is that Hughes is not a particularly gifted tier. This is not a good book upon which to base your style. If there is a series of flies in different colours, they sometimes all look different in form also. He never seems to get the same result twice. When tiers have a strong stylistic vision, it speaks to how they see the effectiveness, aesthetics, and structure of a fly, so you just learn more from viewing weel made flies. This limitation would most affect a how to tie flies book, which this isn't. But there are enough patterns that it will doubtless serve that role for some. On the plus side, it is obvious that Hughes must catch trout on these patterns, so one needn't feel intimidated by one's own efforts should they be rough also.

Hughes is a hugely prolific writer, and I have several of his books, and don't find them particularly repetitive. But common sense should dictate caution if you have a number of his titles that may cover the same material. An extensive article/extract of this book was carried in one of the fly mags, so you may feel deja vu there also, though I found the book more useful.