Customer Reviews

Selective Trout: Revised and Expanded

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The revised edition of Selective Trout actually is an expanded and enhanced edition. There is a significant difference from the initial edition. Some of the hatches have been renamed. If you ever had trouble locating that third PMD, it's gone. Color pictures of the mayflies still are included but along with the descriptions. There is additional discussion of Caddisflies, which is greatly expanded, as well as, Stoneflies, with patterns and hatch charts for both. The sections on Midges, Craneflies, Dragonflies, Aquatic Moths and Terrestials includes more information and additional patterns. The presentation is also enhanced by good quality paper and great color illustrations. This is what I had hoped for in a revised and updated edition.

When this book came out it was controversial, as the authors advocated the idea that trout are more selective feeders than we thought, and that matching the hatch, more than presenting the fly, is so vital.

To be successful, according to the authors, anglers must kick up some rocks and then use a small net to see what insects are in the stream. Guessing is no longer good enough.

Also, the authors advocate that in slow water trout will prefer very small and/or no-hackle flies to bigger and/or hackled ones. (Smaller flies have trouble breaking through the surface film and are, therefore, more vulnerable than bigger flies.)

To this day many anglers will argue against those theories, but to me what's so important about this book is that it changed my approach to fishing.(After reading this book I bought many size 22 to 26 midges.)

The book is also a great hatching guide, and has a lot of information about how insects behave and how certain flies should be fished.

While I'll never be as scientific of an angler as the authors, and while I'm not going to carry a portable fly-tying kit to a stream, any book that helps me think outside of my box deserves five stars.

The illustrations, though not professionally drawn, are very helpful.

I just received this book yesterday and am really thrilled with the overall appearance of the book and the fluid writing. The art work and photography are exceptional. The book covers almost all aspect of entomology one can think of that is useful to the fly fishing addicted. In depth discussion can be found on how to identify the various hatches, apparently clear and useful fly patterns and much more. This second edition is a huge expansion over the first, that in its own right is a great book also.

My advice is to buy it now. I know I will get many hours of excellent reading, fly fishing and tying with what is between the two covers of this book!

I wish I could say I had read this book, but I really just dropped by to see how they handled the revision. The original edition could, arguably, have handled my review title. It was at once one of the most influential and controvercial books ever written on the subject. Influencial because it more or less kicked off the analytical scientific approach to fly fishing literature in the mid-seventies, and controvercial for everything from advocating no hackle dry flies, to short rods.

There isn't anything new in fly fishing, or at least that's a safe premise. How they got all this stuff in one book so early is a mystery. But even if it wasn't all new - some say no hackles were the first dry flies for instance, hundreds of years ago - there are books and times that come together in a fresh way.

Now can someone please tell me how they handled the revision, is it re-written, and re-thought, or just fact checked with some new photos? I couldn't tell by leafing through it at the local store.

If you want to get into fly fishing, have kids, friends, or other family that are interested in it, or just need some tips this is the book for you. I liked this book it was pretty helpful at teaching me some new technecs. Although if you like the "Dummy" or "complete Idiot's" series then you may not find this book to your liking, for as those series combined humor and info, this book is very serious.