In his latest work, flytying "blackbelt" Ken Sawada has written a book that describes the intricacies of dressing classic patterns, as well as several of his own beautiful creations. Many aspects of Classic Salmon Fly Dressing are wonderful, but in some ways, it could stand improvement. Having not personally seen his first book titled Art of the Classic Salmon Fly (1990), I can make no comparison between the two except in terms of cost. This new book, which is priced at $165.00 (U.S.) is not cheap by any means, but is a relative bargain compared to his first book which retailed for $400.00 (U.S.)

The photography in Classic Salmon Fly Dressing is a mixed bag. The full color close-up shot of various fly tying procedures and the close-ups of his own patterns are absolutely stunning. If you liked the pictures of his flies in Judith Dunham's The Atlantic Salmon Fly, then you'll love this! Unfortunately, the double page photographs, displaying dozens of classic flies and his contemporary patterns, are small and slightly blurry in places. I think it would have been much better to add a few additional pages so that the flies could be spaced out and enlarged a bit rather than looking like the fly layouts found in a low-grade flyfishing catalog.

The step-by-step fly dressing instructions found in Classic Salmon Fly Dressing are not for the beginner. Phrases such as "Step 1: Tie on tag, tail and rear half of body" are common. For the experienced tier, this poses no problem, but I would advise any neophytes in the crowd who attempt to tie from this book to first consult Poul Jorgensen's famed text Salmon Flies: Their Character, Style and Dressing, or better yet, spend some time with an experienced fly dresser. I found the diagrams, photos and accompanying instructions for tying Mr. Sawada's original patterns, such as his "Unmarried Angel" to be very insightful. His techniques for creating beautiful color gradation in married wings, as in "Daybreak" and the manner in which he mounts his very high wings were new to me. Studying Classic Salmon Fly Dressiniz has allowed me to incorporate a number of neat tying tricks into my ever-growing repitoire and has inspired me to create several beautiful patterns of my own.

One thing I really liked about this work was that Ken Sawada included both photographs and dressings for 62 of his own patterns. Contrast this with his first book which included only 42 of his original patterns and, as far as I know, no dressings or tying instructions whatsoever. Also listed are nearly 500 classic patterns from Blacker, Kelson, Rogan, Pryce-Tannatt, Francis Francis, Ephemera, etc. In this respect, I feel Classic Salmon Fly Dressing is worth every dime. It is a true compendium of dressings from many of the great masters of Salmon Fly tying, a one-stop shopping center for patterns, if you will. However, it should be noted that different versions of classic patterns are not cross-referenced between tiers in this book as they are in Mikael Frodin's Classic Salmon Flies. Mr. Sawada even lists the dressings from Blacker's Art of Flymaking in a "translated" manner, making it easier for modern tiers to interpret how those flies should be properly dressed.

Oh, speaking of translations brings me to another point, perhaps one of my biggest complaints about the book. Classic Salmon Fly Dressing contains text in both Japanese and English. I can't read Japanese, but I will say that the English portion of the book is, in places, truly a linguistic disaster. There have been several occasions when I've had to suppress the urge to break out my red pen and start correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. You may think that perhaps I'm being a little too hard on Mr. Sawada (I studied enough German in college to understand how difficult it can be to communicate in another language). It's just that if I'm going to cough up $165.00 for a book, I feel that it should be easy to read and free of errors. In this modern age of computers with spell checkers (and translation programs, ed.) and an ever increasing number of completely bilingual individuals, such blatant mistakes are hard to forgive. Perhaps he had to meet some sort of publishing deadline?

There are two primary schools of thought as concerns Salmon Flies. The first group of tiers feel that there are already more than enough patterns in existence and that no more need (or should) be created. In other words, focus on the classics. The second group enjoys developing new patterns as a form of artistic expression, as an outlet for their creative juices, or simply as a pleasant and relaxing way to spend a cold and stormy winter evening. Therein lies the beauty of Ken Sawada's Classic Salmon Fly Dressing; there's something in it for everyone! Despite its minor flaws, it is, as a whole, an excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about dressing Featherwing Salmon Flies. Two thumbs up!