A.K.'s Flybox is a good read. His perspective on fly design is nice and simple, just the way I like it. Wyatt ----- Original Message ----- From: Andy Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 9:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Book and Product Reviews All joking about Secret/Favorite Lake aside,,,
I wanted to open up a thread about "can't miss" and "should miss" fly tying
gadgets and books. I have been pretty disappointed with my last two book
purchases - Spring Creeks and Midge Magic. While both have some nice
pictures, I felt that I could summarize the latter in about a paragraph and
if their is a hidden gem in Mike's book (aka a trick or technique that has
not previously made the rounds - twice,) it has so far escaped my eye. Of
the two, I do not regret buying Mike's book, as I bought it at Avid while he
was there for the book signing and that conversation and signing is worth
something in and of itself as a collection piece, but Midge Magic is another
story.
What RECENT books are rated as "must have's" by the serious tiers our there
and which are a total waste of time? As, no offense to Preston, I can't say
that I find the book reviews in the industry rags any more useful than the
lodge reviews (it is important to realize who butters the bread after all,
so I do not expect a negative book review anymore than I expect to read
about what crappy service, meals and guides were at "break the bank lodge"
on the "you cant get there from here" river.) This would be a fantastic
forum to exchange real opinions of books and tackle and I would love to see
more of those sort of discussions (especially since it looks like most of us
have ceased to post fishing reports.)
On a similar vein - I also purchased the "Magic Tool" and if you routinely
play with dubbing loops or spinning dubbing brushes with your Nor Vise the
tools certainly beat the oversize paper clips that I have been using to
serve a similar purpose. I am happy with the $30 purchase. (And for those of
you that do not use dubbing loops - you should and this will help you get
started, with less of a learning curve.) I also purchased the DVD and it is
not worth the $30, but maybe would have been worth $15 just to see some new
CDC tricks - I would be happy to put it in circulation for anyone in the
North King/South Sno. area.
I will also reiterate my comment from Christmas that the new jaws for the
Nor Vise, with the cam lever instead of the screw arrangement, are a must
have upgrade.
And finally - speaking of new CDC tricks - can anyone recommend a great
source for CDC (cheap - high quality, lots of colors)? The Magic Tool DVD
did make me want to play more with CDC (with CDC callibaetis being the fly
of the evening tonight -which should pretty much exhaust my dun and black
CDC stock using four feathers at a time and not being able to use the
"puffs/oilers" with this method...)
Tight lines,
Andy
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