reviews

Bonefish Fly Patterns

Revieewed by Scott Richmond

Bonefish Fly Patterns, by Dick Brown. Published by The Lyons Press. 254 pages in a 7.25 by 9.5 inch hardbound format. Color photos for 150 fly patterns; remaining photos black-and-white. $45. Available in many fly shops and online (google title and author).

Images

Click thumbnail for enlarged image

ometimes it's good to take a break from reviewing new books and to look at some classics that are still fresh and useful. Hence a quick look at Dick Brown's Bonefish Fly Patterns, which was first published in 1996.

For fly fishers who pursue the silver ghost of the tropical flats, Bonefish Fly Patterns should be an essential part of their library, a book to keep near the tying vise. It's a testament to the book's quality that there has not been a serious competitor in the ensuing decade, although I could make a few suggestions for a second edition.

The first chapter covers bonefish food and habitat, as well as the qualities a good bonefish fly should possess. Following these preliminaries, Brown launches into the meat of the book: 150 of the best patterns--or at least the best patterns from a decade ago. For each fly, he shows a photo and recipe, then covers the type of prey that it imitates, the locations where it has been proven to work, tying notes, fishing notes, and a few words about the fly's originator. This is all good information and Brown should be commended for including more than just the photo and a recipe.

A particularly nice feature of this book is that many of the flies that Brown photographed were tied by the pattern's originator. Nothing like getting back to primary source material!

Following the fly patterns, there's a chapter on how to select the right flies for a trip. Here you'll find lists of which patterns imitate which food forms, which patterns are best for the Bahamas, for Christmas Island, for the Yucatan, etc. In this area you may find some errors. For example, I found several discrepancies between the list of Yucatan flies and the Location notes for the patterns.

Brown has a chapter with instructions for tying nine of the patterns, which represents many of the techniques for tying other patterns and covers all the major food types.

The book concludes with pattern trends and glossary of tying materials and their sources.

Because Bonefish Fly Patterns is a ten-year old book, the pattern section is in color but the rest is black-and-white; that's just how you did things in 1996. This makes it tougher to decipher a few key points, such as the tying instructions.

But this is a minor shortcoming compared to the book's strengths, and any fly tier thinking of a trip to the tropics should get a copy and spent a few evenings at the tying bench.

I'd love to see a second edition that's all color and reflects the latest thinking on patterns and materials. If a second edition arrives at the bookseller's, I'll be quick to buy it.

Bottom Line: The best fly pattern book for anyone pursuing bonefish.  Reviewer Rating: 3

Scott Richmond is Westfly's creator and Executive Director. He is the author of eight books on Oregon fly fishing, including Fishing Oregon's Deschutes River (second edition).

Uploaded 10/27/2006.

User Reviews

5=tops  3=average  1=low

No user reviews have been submitted yet.

You must be registered and logged-in to submit review comments. How to do this.

Bonefish Fly Patterns, by Dick Brown