Recipes and Techniques for Successful Fly Fishing, by Yvon Chouinard, Craig Mathews, and Mauro Mazzo.

In cooking there are those subtle staple ingredients that you might not notice outright, like in a curry or a roast, but forget to put them in, and you just know the meal is missing something. When it comes to making flies for trout fishing, ring-necked pheasant tail is one of those ingredients. In the modern game of sharing online fly tying videos, hunting for views, likes and shares, it sometimes feels like new purpose of fly tying is to catch fishermen and not fish. Now, Pheasant Tail Simplicity: Recipes and Techniques for Successful Fly Fishing isn’t suggesting that we should be boring and not experiment – rather it embraces how simplicity can lead to successful fly fishing every single time.

In much the same way that Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and one of this book’s co-authors, approaches making his gear and apparel – Pheasant Tail Simplicity highlights the attraction of the basics. For a material that is cheap, readily available, and has a variety of functions; whether used for the body or tail of soft hackle wet flies, bead head nymphs and dry flies, the use of pheasant tail barbs isn’t always given its due credit. Until now.

This beautiful coffee-table-style book features a handful of essential trout fishing patterns (and one bonefish fly) involving pheasant tail, including detailed steps explaining how to tie them. The instruction is detailed enough for a newbie fly tyer who understands the basics of fly tying to find value, but flows just right to be enjoyed by an experienced tyer with an appreciation for the fundamentals. For those who prefer step-by-steps in video format, most patterns include a phone-scannable QR code that takes you to the YouTube version, allowing you to sit, digitally, with the authors themselves. The tutorials are punctuated by humorous short stories and prose, seasoned with some of the most stunning photographs in classic trout fishing, inspiring you to keep turning the pages, learning more and to adopt this book’s over-arching message of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

If you haven’t already, you should check out The Mission issue 54 below. It’s free!

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