Publishers Comments:
This is
the definitive book on fly tying, with thousands of fly patterns included for
the enthusiast. Expert angler, fly tier, and author Terry Hellekson addresses
everything from the history of fly-fishing around the world to the history of
fly tying and fly-tying materials. Hellekson shares interviews with fly-tying
greats of years past, along with the fascinating history and background of some
of the popular individual flies, making this a great read. His colorful
recollections of people and events will intrigue and delight even the most
serious fly tier. He also shares years of wisdom and knowledge on fly-tying
colors; fly patterns; fly-tying tools, hooks, and materials; and fly-fishing and
fly-tying methods. Hellekson depicts hundreds of intricate patterns for dry
flies, wet flies, and nymphs. Mayfly, stonefly, and caddisfly species are widely
represented with simulations of the phases of their respective life cycles.
Detailed patterns for terrestrials, damselflies and dragonflies, leeches and
worms, midges, crustaceans, streamers, shad flies, steelhead flies, Atlantic
salmon flies, Spey flies, Pacific salmon flies, and salmon and steelhead dry
flies round out the book. There are forewords by Eric Peper and Bob Marriott.
Even a fly-fishing novice will be enthralled with illustrations that clarify the
patterns in a reader-friendly style. Line illustrations throughout, plus more
than 2,950 detailed fly patterns are within the pages of this encyclopedia
beyond compare.
This book was named a Benjamin Franklin Award finalist for 2006 by the Independent Book Publishers Association.
If you grow up the son of a fishing guide, two things could happen. You could hate fishing for the rest of your days and choose a life of indoor leisure supported by a career as, say, an investment banker. Or, you could inherit the passion, carry on the family business and write the biggest book ever dedicated to the history and art of fly tying. Both types of progeny may end up retiring on the banks of some river in Montana, but it’s the one with the most flies who claims the real inheritance.
Terry Hellekson lives close enough to the Kootenai River to wet a line whenever the urge strikes him. At 66 and after a lifetime dedicated to the fishing industry including several years as a professional fly tier, Terry still likes to spend the mornings of his retirement tying flies as he drinks his coffee. With a new version of his book "Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier’s Art" just released, he spends the rest of his day talking to the media and working on his next book, which will be a biography of his father, Herman Hellekson, one of two people to whom the 720-page encyclopedia is dedicated. The other is his wife, Patricia, whom, Terry writes in the dedication, he has “to pry off the river every time” they fish together.” Terry spent his youth in California. His father was a fishing guide on the Klamath and Trinity rivers at a time when there were few fishing guides in the West. “My father got lucky in that most of his clients were celebrities of some kind," Terry said from his home in Libby. "Everything from Bing Crosby, Harold Smith (founder of Harold’s Club in Reno), a great number of Hollywood executives, the governor of Nevada, and the list goes on. When he wasn’t guiding them in the winter on the rivers in California, he was accommodating them here in western Montana during the summer and fall.” Herman introduced Terry to the Kootenai for the first time when he was 10 years old, and it became an annual summer event for the family to float from Eureka to Libby. Terry also took up the art of fly tying at an early age, and in the preface to his book, he recalls meeting Ted Trueblood, "a giant in the field of fly fishing." Trueblood wrote articles for fishing magazines, and Terry had tied some flies that Trueblood had included in his writing. "I don’t know how good those flies really were, but Ted told me the following morning that I could tie just as well as he could," Terry wrote. That experience could be considered early research for what eventually became "Fish Flies." Terry said the encyclopedia is still a work in progress. "Basically, the research on flies and fly-fishing history started with my father in the early 1940s," he said. "I picked up where he left off after he passed away in 1973. I first wrote "Popular Fly Patterns" (1976), then (the first edition) of "Fish Flies" (1995) and it has been an on-going project ever since.” The new edition includes more history, fly patterns and how-to instructions. Terry designed the book himself and tried to keep production costs low enough for the hardcover tome to retail at a reasonable price. And indeed it is surprising to open such a large, beautiful volume and see the $50 price on the dust jacket. The book is divided into 24 chapters that cover history, tools, materials, wet flies, dry flies and then pattern recipes for almost 3,000 flies, 695 of them are shown in color. Terry himself developed 350 of the patterns featured in chapters 10, 11 and 12—the ones on mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. In addition to writing and designing the book, Terry also provided line illustrations for many of the flies and has tied each and every fly he included. But he doesn’t admit to being particularly proud of any single one. "I take pride in any fly that I tie well," he said, "and if it doesn't come up to my standard I simply cut it off the hook and start over. I also take pride in those flies that I have developed and are real fish takers. This is especially true when others find my flies to be successful." Like any kid, Terry said he considered several other career options before settling on what he enjoyed most—fly-fishing. He didn’t really want to become a guide, so he tried his hand at professional fly tying and then expanded into other areas of the fly-fishing industry. "Tying for dollars is a real job of work and I have the utmost respect for those who still engage in this work,” Terry said. "I had five children to raise and it is not possible to make it with the meager income that fly tying alone provides." Terry eventually founded Fly Fishing Specialties, a wholesale and retail business in California. In all that time, even after traveling around the world to places like Kashmir and Karalla, India, Terry only remembers using other people’s flies a couple of times. "I just believe in my own more; hence, I fish them with far more confidence,” he said. "And please do not assume that just because one is in the fly-fishing industry that they get to go fishing all of the time," Terry added. "My real productive fishing time started in 1994 when I retired." One of Terry’s sons now runs the business in California. Terry's productive fishing time is spent in places much calmer, quieter and more peaceful. “California has far too many people, and I swear that I have looked up and down some of the rivers on opening day and it was as if some fly-fishing figures had stepped off the cover of the same mail order catalogue—almost all dressed in the same new outfits,” he said. "Presently, my wife Patricia and I can go out on the Kootenai and fish for hours seeing only a few people and lots of wildlife. There is enough water for everyone. Thank God for wild fish in Montana as opposed to tagging along behind a hatchery truck as some fly fishers do in several parts of California."
–Peggy O’Neill, Outdoors Editor
California Fly Fisher/Catskill Fly Tyers Guild Gazette, December 2005
"If you’re going through hell," Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, "keep going." Terry Hellekson, whose Fish Flies was originally published in 1995 (Frank Amato Publications), had what must have seemed like more than enough problems in his life when he learned that all his fly-fishing books, manuscripts, pictures, fly-tying tools and materials, and memorabilia from a lifetime of angling and work in the fly-fishing industry had been stolen from temporary storage in California shortly after he had moved to Libby, Montana. Not only did Hellekson keep going, he experienced what he calls “an awakening”: The loss “forced me to look at my writing from a whole new perspective,” he says. With access to the extensive fly-fishing library of fellow Libby resident Glenn Overton, of Overton’s Wonder Wax fame—fame, at least, among dedicated fly tyers who cherish their tubes of this fly-tying wax—Hellekson has extensively revised and expanded Fish Flies.
Now issued in a single volume at less than half the cost of the original two-volume set, this work finally fulfills the original publication’s sometimes-thwarted promise. Restructured and reedited under the aegis of the interesting publisher Gibbs Smith (www.gibbs-smith.com), Fish Flies is indeed encyclopedic in its compass; its tone and depth are authoritative. Plus, while this is a reference work, it also has considerably more to offer.
Hellekson knows fly tying, fly-tying materials, and fly-tying history. (See "California Confluences," California Fly Fisher vol. 13, no. 3, January/February 2005.) As the son of a guide on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, as a former commercial tyer, as the importer of feathers and fur from around the world and the wholesaler of synthetic tying materials, as a fly-shop owner, and as a historian of the sport, following in his father’s footsteps and going on to pursue traditions and origins to the East Coast and Europe, Hellekson is uniquely qualified to produce a book that ranges from instructions for beginners to judicious evaluations of the complicated origins of traditions and fly patterns in the Anglo-American angling heritage.
It is this overlap between personal history and the history of fly fishing that transforms Fish Flies from a useful reference to be taken off the shelf and consulted into a volume that rewards being read, carefully and reflectively—although at something like seven pounds, it’s not something you’re going to stuff in your back pocket and read on the bus.
There is plenty of information here that is, of course, simply useful—everything from proper dry-fly proportions to how fish see color and what that means for fly tyers, not to mention the 2,950 fly recipes and 695 flies illustrated in color plates. Some of this is new. There are 150 new streamer patterns added to those of the previous volume, for example. All of this is valuable for the tyer needing expert help. I’ve dyed bucktails using the advice in the chapter on dying fly-fishing materials, and they came out better than anything I could find in a shop.
It is the ways in which the volume and Hellekson’s own life and interests are rooted in the wider history of the sport, however, that make this a volume to be read, not just consulted on a need-to-know basis. In my review of the original version, I called Fish Flies "a fly-fishing life," but also called it a "genre bender" because it included disparate genres between the same covers: the fly-pattern compendium, the personal narrative, and the historical account, among them. In the revision, the latent (and patent) tensions between these genres have been reconciled. A sometimes querulous tone has disappeared (along with a composite nemesis, Abe Snake), replaced with a thoughtful authorial voice that, in significantly expanded historical accounts and assessments, illuminates the history of fly fishing in the American West, on the East Coast, in between, and in Europe.
The overlap between the personal and the historical is evident, for example, in the introduction to chapter on Spey flies, an enthusiasm that Hellekson inherited from his father and one that, to the astonishment of the locals, he took to Scotland in search of history and enlightenment, finding that he brought as much with him as they could give in return. His enthusiasm is infectious. I plan to tie and fish some Spey flies for trout next season, using some of the recipes supplied here.
There are also expanded and reevaluated explorations of other aspects of the history of the sport—the role of Reuben Cross in the development of the classic American or "Catskill-style" dry fly, for example, and a history of the upright and divided hair-wing dry that frames and contextualizes a development usually attributed to Lee Wulff. There’s an expanded section on the contributions of André Puyans, too.
The historical information includes discussions of origins and related issues in the fly recipes themselves, and these help make the recipes fascinating reading. Where before this information seemed less than fully integrated, it now functions as an extension of the discussions that introduce the lists of fly patterns. Hellekson makes scrupulous efforts to attribute patterns to their actual originators, one of the most fraught issues in fly-tying history and one of his passions. If he doesn’t get this right, I don’t know who does.
There are inevitably a few flies in the Ghink that are not put there intentionally for waterproofing. Thanks to the DNA revolution in entomological classification, the Linnaean names of some species are unsettled. The genus of the Western Green Drake, now classified as Drunella grandis and Drunella doddsi by some, is still called Ephemerella here, for example. That's not likely to be confusing, though, since most people who use the book will be looking for patterns under the insect's common name. Hellekson's new publisher has done justice to the work, but in the first printing, the odd typo has occurred, to be corrected in subsequent printings. And the scope of the book is deliberately limited to flies for trout and salmon, although there's a bonus chapter on shad flies. Rumor has it that Hellekson may be at work on books on saltwater patterns and bass flies, but because trout and salmon account for the vast preponderance of angling attention these days, that's where he has concentrated his efforts. More generally, however, the focus here, quite intentionally, is not on where fly fishing is at this particular instant—on the latest developments, many of which may themselves be ephemerella, but on what has made fly fishing the complex, yet simple, endlessly articulated and deeply rooted enterprise that it is. It's on the nature and origins of what endures in the sport. That makes it a work that will itself endure.
–Bud Bynack
Sometimes one finds a book that is both fish and fowl: Aiming primarily at one or two goals, it accomplishes others along the way.
Terry Hellekson's Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art falls into that category. "Encyclopedic" describes the breadth of the author's knowledge, accumulated as a commercial tier, scholar and founder of Fly Fishing Specialties. That's obvious from chapters beginning with "The Beginning," carrying on through "Vision and Color," and proceeding to flies tied to represent all kinds of prey, including patterns designed specifically for shad, steelhead and the salmons of both coasts. To my mind, however, the tone here is far friendlier than in our old Britannica, and the organization if best described by "inclusive," a kind of writing-in-the-round intended to reveal a subject in multiple dimensions.
For an example of how that works, take Chapter nine, "Nymphs." Hellekson begins with a half page of history―these are big pages―in which the author describes the importance of subsurface food in a trout's diet, mentions American nymph patterns' relations to British wet flies, then how Hellekson was influenced early on by Jim Quick's Fishing the Nymph (1960) and Polly Rosborough's self-published Fuzzy Nymphs (1965).
And on like that, recipes interspersed with sketches, comment, attributions and anecdotes. Especially attributions: with something like 25,000 fly patterns recognized today, "although no one, to my knowledge has determined just what constitutes a recognized pattern, and with some older classics falling from favor, Hellekson hopes to help keep things straight. He would also like to make certain that innovators whose names are fading retain their places in our collective consciousness.
I suppose one can argue, and a few may that if "encyclopedia" suggests "comprehensive," a fly-tying edition might contain 10 tomes this size, authored by a host of sages. I'd like to see such a reference but know I'd never get through it; and, meanwhile, would happily settle for one-tenth of Hellekson's grasp.
–Seth Norman
A few months back I was doing an article for "Just Old Flies" here on FAOL and I was stuck. I couldn’t find much information on the Colorado King in the books I had. I posted a question about it on-line, and to my rescue came Terry Hellekson, with a complete history of the fly from his 1977 book “Popular Fly Patterns”. I ordered a copy right away, and was just delighted with the book. The more I delved into its contents, the more interesting material I uncovered. Terry’s latest book, "Fish Flies", is "Popular Fly Patterns" on steroids, to the one-hundredth power. Billed as "The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier’s Art", this is one volume that more than lives up to its billing.
The book begins with a general overall history of fly-fishing that is one of the best I’ve read. It starts with the Macedonians and ends with a serious look at the fly tiers of the Catskill region. The next chapter is an in-depth look at how fish perceive color, and a wonderful treatise on dying. Mr. Hellekson has a very useful chart of RIT dye recipes here that spells out how to achieve the various duns, claret, Silver Doctor blue, imitation lemon wood duck, olives, etc., using off the shelf RIT dyes. There is a chapter on tools, and an excellent section on hooks, listing in detail the most popular Mustad, Tiemco, and Daiichi hooks. Next is a chapter on materials, and finally a section on tying, which at first blush seems fairly basic, but on further study is just right on the money, extremely sound in its fundamentals.
From this point on, the book is fly patterns as far as the eye can see. Not just recipes though, and this is what I love about Mr. Hellekson’s books. Sprinkled in with many patterns are his own observations, anecdotes, clarifications, his own pen and ink drawings, histories, old photos, and tying tips. This is the meat and potatoes part of the book, a rock solid, in-depth look at patterns by an experienced tier. Just the section on the Trude Fly for instance is two full pages of general history, material selection, and tying tips.
I’ve gotten ahead of myself here. It must be noted that this book is massive in size and scope. It’s basically a pattern book, yes, but a pattern book unlike any you’ve ever seen. I’d like to take a recipe from the book so you can see what it is that’s so special here. Here is a recipe for an American traditional wet fly, the Babcock:
Hooks: MUSR70, TMC3769, or DIA1550, sizes 8-14
Thread: Black.
Tail: Scarlet red hackle barbs.
Ribbing: Flat gold tinsel.
Body: Red floss.
Hackle: Black tied on as a collar and tied back and down.
Wing: Yellow calf tail tied over the body.
Topping: Three peacock sword feather barbs.
The first version of the Babcock had no tail or topping. The wings were white duck quill sections with a narrow strip of black quill section along the top. This fly was named after brother W.J. and Charles H. Babcock of Rochester, New York…
The history goes on from there. Note that Mr. Hellekson specifies a Mustad, Tiemco, or Daiichi hook for each recipe. Note the reference to the color plate as well. There are 32 color plates in the book, each containing somewhere between 16 and 24 flies, depending on fly sizing. Mr. Hellekson has tied all the flies shown, and done a beautiful job. The pattern chapters begin with traditional patterns sorted by dry flies, wet flies, and nymphs. Each of these chapters starts with specific tying instructions, and proportion charts, that are dead on in my opinion. You can read through these chapters as you would a Farmer’s Almanac. There is a seemingly never-ending stream of commentary, little tidbits of information on every page, pieces that make you say, “I didn’t know that”. The fun never stops in these sections, but soon, this book becomes very serious.
We now come to the heart of the book, the sections that makes this not just a pattern book, but also a very well researched fly tying textbook, one that if I were king would be taught in schools. With chapters entitled "Mayflies: Order Ephemeroptera," "Stoneflies: Order Plecoptera," "Caddisflies: Order Trichoptera," "Terrestrials," "Damselflies and Dragonflies: Order Odonata," "Leeches and Worms: Order Annelida," "Midges: Order Diptera," and "Crustaceans," Mr. Hellekson embarks on a very scientific and detailed view of the entomology of fly tying. With each chapter he breaks the patterns down by family, with lots of Latin, and then proceeds to show a pattern for each stage of the fly, and these are his own patterns for the most part. At the end of a given chapter he lists even more patterns, ones typically sold in shops and used today by fly fishermen. The research for these very important chapters was done at Cornell and U.C. Davis, and is just staggering. This level of research, both entomologically and historically, puts this book in a class of its own as pattern books go.
The last section of the book deals with Streamers, Steelhead Flies, Atlantic Salmon Flies, Spey Flies, Pacific Salmon Flies, and dry flies for Salmon and Steelhead. I suspect this area of the book is near and dear to Mr. Hellekson’s heart, as he was originally based in the Pacific Northwest. The steelhead section is very Western, and the glow bugs and egg patterns commonly used in the East have been left out. That said, all the Atlantic salmon flies currently used in the U.S. and Canada are represented, and you probably won’t find a better Western steelhead treatise anywhere.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one group of flies that are almost entirely absent from this book. As far as I can tell, there are few dry fly recipes with CDC listed as an ingredient. Mr. Hellekson makes it pretty clear in the materials section that he doesn’t particularly like CDC as a fly tying material. I think this is born of Mr. Hellekson’s view that a fly will catch more fish on the water than it will while being dabbed with Frog's Fanny. I can’t say I disagree, but in as comprehensive a book as this is, to leave out dry flies tied with what many consider to be the “miracle” material of our time, is quite an omission. I've spoken with Terry about this, and a major problem he has with CDC is that much of what is sold, as CDC is not even the real thing. Rather than feathers found around the preen gland, down feathers are being palmed off as CDC by some wholesalers. In addition, once feathers are dyed, the preen oil is gone, even if they were true CDC feathers to begin with. This makes CDC, in his view, a less than desirable material for dries. He does like it, and uses it in several patterns, for subsurface flies.
So there you have it. "Fish Flies" is a serious, substantial, weighty, well-researched textbook, produced by a textbook company. It might not be as glitzy as say "Forgotten Flies," but it is every bit as formidable in its own way. Mr. Hellekson has contributed a lifetime of research to this, and it shows. Perhaps the best feature of the book is its bargain-basement price. From beginning fly tiers to the commercial pros, no fly tier can afford not to own this book. Mine now sits right beside my copy of "The Fly Tiers Benchside Reference."
–Eric Austin
This book is now out of print.
