CLASSIC BOOKS

This is probably the most valuable page on this humble site.  Gathered below are selected works from some of the giants of our sport:  Blacker, Francis Francis, Kelson, Capt. Hale, Pryce-Tannatt, and others.  Many are rare works difficult to obtain by other means.  If you have not had the pleasure of going to the original source for a pattern, reading it within the author’s context, and then dressing the fly using the author’s techniques, I highly recommend it.  There is a treasure trove of historical information available to anyone with internet access.

All of these works are out of copyright and in the public domain (i.e. they are free).  The files are in .pdf format, so you will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view these works.  You may wish to go to a digital repository such as archive.org or Google Books to download these books in another format.  Either way, a big thank you to the contributors at these organizations who make these public domain works available to all.

Below are some of my favorite classic texts, leaning pretty heavily to the salmon fly.  However, there are works on wet flies for trout, the flies of Mary Orvis Marbury, a dictionary of trout and bass flies along with many others.  If you have suggestions for other works you think should be included, please let me know.  In the meantime…enjoy!

(Click on Title for .pdf download)

• A Book On Angling – Francis Francis
• A Dictionary Of Trout And Bass Flies – Malcolm A. Shipley
• Art of Flymaking – William Blacker
• Autumns On The Spey – A. E. Knox
• British Angling Flies – Michael Theakston
• Driffield Angler – Alexander Mackintosh
• Favorite Flies and Their Histories – Mary Orvis Marbury
• Fishing at Home and Abroad – Sir Herbert Maxwell
• Handbook Of Angling – Edward Fitzgibbon (Ephemera)
• How To Dress Salmon Flies – T.E. Pryce-Tannatt
• How To Tie Salmon Flies – Capt. J.H. Hale
• Jones’s Guide to Norway – Frederic Tolfrey
• North Country Flies – T.E. Pritt
• Ogden On Fly Tying – James Ogden
• Salmon & Sea Trout – Sir Herbert Maxwell
• Salmon Fishing – John James Hardy
• Salmon Fishing – William Earl Hodgson
• Secrets Of The Salmon – Edward Hewitt
• Shooting and Salmon Fishing – Augustus Grimble
• The Salmon Fly – George M. Kelson
• Tips – George M. Kelson
• Wet Fly Fishing – E.M. Tod
• Yorkshire Trout Flies – T.E. Pritt