How to Flyfish

An undaunting, accessible primer which is exactly what a newcomer to flyfishing is hoping for.

This has a lot more depth than one might expect, achieved by allowing little or no ‘havering’, no quibbling explanations, no excursions into the background or history of tackle or techniques, no attempt to cover every outlandish possibility and little or no attempt to win the reader over with twee anecdotes. Symonds is direct: do this – get that – try the other – and he puts together a pretty convincing flyfishing foundation.

John Symonds has grasped the nettle and produced a very clear and attractive book, which packs a great deal of very useful and pertinent advice into a fairly compact space. Altogether a thoroughly good book, and if I had had access to such when I was a struggling beginner, I should have been very grateful for it. If you know a new fly fisher who would benefit from steady, sound advice, this book would be a most timely gift.

If you are new to the sport and need to know the basics, this is a very clear, well laid-out account that has the great virtue of keeping things simple.

John Symonds is a keen fly-fisherman and fishes for salmon, trout and grayling in the Wye and Usk catchments as well as the Welsh borderlands. He decided to become a certified casting instructor and guide as a retirement occupation and has successfully qualified to Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors (APGAI) single- and double-handed levels, and is an International Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) Two-Handed Casting Instructor (THCI). John’s other interests include photography and graphic design. He lives in Hereford.