At the end of The Western Angler, when summing up the importance of angling and its long literary tradition, Roderick HaigBrown writes, "The making of flies for Atlantic salmon has become a high art in its own right; its traditions of workmanship and beauty demand something of the skill and devotion that were given to the making of illuminated By Bok manuscripts, and actually have almost as little practical application to the catching of salmon as beautiful illumination had to the legibility of the manuscript." (Page 167, Volume 2.) While it is possible to disagree with the back half of this wise statement, it is true enough in general and a fair assessment of the state of the art of tying-though it was written nearly 60 years ago.

Joe Bates wrote and published Atlantic Salmon Flies and Fishing in 1970 but was unhappy with the result, he told friends, and long planned to revise and expand it. Instead, in 1987, he published The Art of the Atlantic Salmon Fly, in which he dealt with the aesthetics of the flies themselves and not much with fishing for salmon. It is a wonderful book and puts on display much of his extensive collection. He had long planned a revision to the first book and made copious notes on how he would do it, along with many pages of manuscript about his experiences fishing for salmon around the world, often in the company of famous fishers. And the oddity here, and the paradox, is that Bates preferred the short rod for salmon fishing and tied exclusively (so far as we know) hair-winged patterns. He once told me that he considered them "plenty good enough" for catching fish. But his love for the full dressed patterns was unmistakable, and this new book assembled after his death puts on display more of the valuable collection, and we tyers are the better off for being able to see them lovingly and tastefully photographed by Michael Radencich-who just happens to edit this rag of ours.

The Colonel (as he liked to be called) is ably assisted by his daughter, mold Pamela Bates Richards and Editor/Tyer Bob Warren; John Swan's fine watercolors and drawings enhance the book throughout. The best tyers in the world have contributed unsurpassed flies, and some of the groupings are most enlightening to those of us who tie, or try to tie, flies like these. We all need to have models of excellence before us as we tie, for how else do we know whether we have succeeded or failed? Most often, our efforts fall somewhere in between: good, but not good enough. Of course we can always fish our "mistakes." And how easy it is to fool those who do not know much about our art and our folly, those who are new relatively unsophisticated in what they believe to be good flies. It is best if we ourselves are not included in this large category. Otherwise, we are doomed to mediocrity, and it is easy to achieve every other way. Those who definitely are not mediocre include Mike, Paul Schmookler, Mark Waslick, Bob Warren, Bob Veverka, and everybody else who has flies good enough to be included in the book. In a review this short, of necessity, I can only talk about it from the standpoint of tying and in viewing how flies should be tied, if they are not to fall on their faces. There is no substitute for seeing them, up close. In a couple of important instances, Mike lets us see one of his superb Jock Scotts tied in stages, from the prepared hook to the finished fly, and a bit later in the book, shows us a Blue Charm tied the same way by Editor Warren, a method of instruction I first saw done in Eric Taverner's 1948 book and, later, in Bates's The Art of the Salmon Fly, when Ted Godfrey so dressed the Baron. It is an invaluable aid in seeing how the parts of a fly are put together. In addition it carefully illustrates the relationships and proportions of these parts. And yet much of the Bates Collection by todays standards (severe, elevated, perfectionist) is ordinary, including some flies tied by the world famous. Megan Boyd does many things well ... but not always. And Bates could (excuse me) be fooled by what was less than excellent, as the 1970 book testifies and as does his extensive amassing of the Boyd flies. She could at times tie pretty awfully. But even from these flies we can learn a lot. She was, after all, a professional tyer, one who made her living from her vise. She had her good days and her bad, but she had to tie against the clock, so to speak. This makes her very different in approach to the gentle person tyers of today. Sure, we have all tied for money, but for most our so-called profits have gone back into the purchase of expensive materials. I know a first-rate tyer, here in the Pacific Northwest, who will take up to 35 hours to tie a single full-dressed fly (usually a Kelson skin or a Traherne pattern). Let's see: at a mere $20 an hour, that's $700 for the fly, not counting the materials, which might be $100 more, even if it contains no Indian crow. Who will pay that much for a fly? Anything less is a gyp, however. And I know that Steve Gobin says he can tie a Popham in forty minutes; one nearly as good in half the time. He is among the best. My point simply is this: Bates couldn't tell a good fly from a great one-probably because he didn't tie them himself. So he couldn't tell a mediocre one from a good one, either. But this isn't necessarily bad. The flies in his 1970 book encouraged me and probably hundreds of others to tie, for we correctly believed we could tie flies that well. What I'm trying to say is that today's standards are so high only the best will see the light of public scrutiny. Hence, the famed Boyd Collection (Plates 29-32, pages 78-81) contains many disappointments. Plus a few gems. (Perhaps sunlight falling on the flies from windows in stores around the country, where the cases were displayed, faded some of the colors, as well.) I shouldn't linger on these weak points, however. Collections, say, of flies from Preston Jennings and Charles DeFeo well illustrate the evolution of salmon-fly theory and technique and are, thus, invaluable to tyers.

Among the modern tyers, there is not a bad fly in the bunch. Today's tyers are so good, they make one whistle his appreciation. And the tyers who worked in the years just behind them, such as Syd Glasso, are wisely brought forward here and shown off to a degree not previously recognized or acknowledged. I mean, I knew Syd (a friend) was good, but I didn't know he was this good. But Radencich and Warren and Richards did, and we must be grateful to them and their good taste. And of course to Joe Bates, who nourished and encouraged Glasso to tie, at a time when the salmon fly was not so highly esteemed and only a handful of people in America valued it. Bates traded rare materials for finished flies from Syd, I'm told, and it was a good bargain. If I said Bates didn't know a great fly from a merely good one, I should stand corrected in this one instance, at least. He recognized that Glasso would not be satisfied with anything less than the best from himself, and Bates trusted that keen judgment. The book proves him right and we benefit from what it contains.

Glasso tied all the William Blacker flies for The Art of the Atlantic Salmon Fly, and his international reputation rests largely on them. Locally, here in the Seattle area, we have viewed his flies over the years, particularly the original steelhead patterns that are bright variants on the Dee- and Speystyle flies. But there are many more flies, full-dressed ones, in the new book, and they are even better than before. They are lovingly photographed and made available to us, more than life-sized, by Mike's camera. Syd's flies alone are worth the book's cost, $75. But there is much else here. The book's value expands according to the needs and skills of the tyer, though I suppose it is useful and informative even to non-fishers and those who don't think of tying. Still, in how many books do we need to be told how to tie the clinch knot, the turtle, the nail knot? Surely not in this one. (If so, why not the Duncan loop knot, that is surely less common and more helpful?) And some of the digressions in the form of long-past fishing trips to far-off places seem to be included in deference to the Colonel, rather than because of any practical value. So I must conclude that part of the book (thankfully a minor part of it, yet these pages add up) are included as homage to the author and as final tribute. So be it.

Where else than in this book can one find such wise juxtapositions as, say, three Spey patterns (Carron, Lady Caroline, and Grey Heron) tied respectively by Gobin, Glasso, and Warren? The tie of the heron and the bronze mallard winging can be compared, side-by-side, and personal judgments made as to what way works best. One can see so much! Or one can observe, bigger than life, Mark Waslick's lovely The Dunt (page 225), then see the Dee stripwing ties of Gardner (Waslick), Akroyd (Glasso, but earlier there was one tied by Akroyd himself), Jock O'Dee (Glasso), Moonlight (Veverka), and Tricolor (Glasso yet again). These ties can be compared to earlier versions of the same style flies tied by P.D. Mallock (surprisingly great), Pryce-Tannatt, and numerous skilled but unknown tyers from the past. They were no amateurs.

Flies are also grouped by the NineteenthCentury writers who described them originally, in the course of their travels, such as Blacker and Francis, but as prepared by different tyers. It is interesting, then, to compare styles of tying and to see how various tyers handle, say, tags or veilings or toppings, how they set wings of different kinds, how they finish off heads (large or small or somewhere in between), how they marry strip wings, how they prepare and tie in sides, etc. Where else can one find the Bi-visibles tied by LaBranche himself, or Skaters wrapped by Hewitt, or Wulffs bushy dries, superimposed over a blackand-white photo of Wulffs scruffy fingers, wrapping without a vise?

We used to say, here in the Pacific Northwest, that Glasso was good for his day, but today's tyers surpass him. This book proves that we were wrong. We've all seen a lot of Glasso's flies, over the years, and thought we knew them all. Or I did. The best are as good as they come. They and the book that showcases them so well, and the best tyers of today, is an invaluable addition to the serious tyer's library. I used to tie from Mikael Frodin's Classic Salmon Flies, History & Patterns; I did this because so many patterns and important variants were listed, side by side. It was easy and pleasant to spread it open and tie madly. But-lets face it-Frodin is not the greatest tyer in the world, and this is a game of invidious comparisons. It has to be.

With the posthumous Bates book before me, there is no excuse to accept less than perfection in one's vision of what a salmon fly ought to look like, tied right. The only problem left is to do it. I think the net result of the book will be to lift the art of tying one more notch. And, alas, there will be many who fall by the wayside because of the difficulty. But there will be even more (and today there are plenty, for they seem to be proliferating geometrically each year) who will meet the challenge. And that is how it ought to work.

Because the photography in Bate's book is so extraordinary and we all tie flies, I hoped Mike would pass on some of his secrets-as tyers are known to do. This is what he send me via e-mail:

"The photography for Pam's book was done as follows: For the smaller photos I used 4 x 5 color transparency film and for the larger, full page photos I used 8 x 10 color transparency film. In all cases I used, for my light source, a large (4 ft. by 4 ft.) light box suspended above the set to provide a soft, continuous and consistent light. The light box is actually a piece of translucent Plexiglas with 3 strobe lights shining through it. The lights are enclosed in a box with one side being the Plexi. That's it. Oh, I meant to mention I used some small, white cards to reflect light back into the shadows of the flies to `open them up' a bit."

Alec Jackson's size 3/0 hooks have arrived from Japan. Though a bit large for my steelhead fishing, I've found they are nicely proportioned and suitable for tying Dee strip-winged flies and Speys for display. Like his other hooks, they have tiny, nicely angled eyes, which can be tied as is, or straightened out with a little heat, lopped off to the same proportions, filed down, and blind eyed with some twisted gut or gut substitute. Either way, the fly has a small head and is quite attractive.