reviews

Western Streamside Guide

Reviewed by Scott Richmond

Western Streamside Guide, by Dave Hughes. Published by Frank Amato Publications. 136 pages in an 8 by 4 inch format. Softbound. Available at many fly shops and online (google title and author).

he reigning gurus of western fly fishing entomology are Rick Hafele and his best buddy Dave Hughes. For many western fly fishers, their book, Western Hatches, ranks in importance somewhere near the Bible (below the Bible for some, above for others).

But Western Hatches is a large, thick reference--not something you'd take to the river. So in 1987 Dave came out with the first edition of Western Streamside Guide, a book that could be dubbed "Son of Western Hatches." It was a thin book suitable for streamside use, and small enough to fit in most vest pockets.

Now comes a new edition, completely revised and in color. As with all of Dave's writing, the text is clear, accurate, and useful. Twenty chapters cover the West's most important trout foods. Each chapter summarizes the biology of a species, then discusses how to recognize it, shows fly patterns and recipes for imitating its most important stages, and offers guidelines for presenting the imitations.

Hughes covers these trout foods: midges, little olives (Baetis, et al), March browns, speckle-wing quills, grannoms, salmonflies, golden stoneflies, green drakes, damselflies, ants, gray drakes, gray caddis (green rock worms), spotted caddis, beetles, tricos, grasshoppers, fall caddis, scuds, and leeches.

Obviously, that list includes more than just aquatic insects. On the other hand, not all insect hatches are included. For example, the weedy water caddis, Glossosoma caddis, pale evening dun, and mahogany dun--all un-ignorable hatches on the Deschutes and many other Oregon rivers--are omitted. Furthermore, itwould be easier to recognize the key characteristics of an insect if some illustrations were included. But if Hughes had included everything, the book would no longer fit in a vest pocket and you might as well haul Western Hatches around with you.

Clearly, Western Streamside Guide is not intended to be a comprehensive book. On the other hand, it isn't a beginner's guide to fly fishing entomology, either. Some familiarity with terms is needed (you can get that in Western Hatches). Therefore, I think the book is well-suited to anglers who have some basic knowledge of streamside entomology, but would like a quick refresher before hitting the water--a reminder of what a green drake hatch is all about, what flies to use, and what presentations work. I suspect that at least 75% of the people who own a fly rod fall into that category, and also suspect that some of them will carry the book to the water and use it determine what was that dark, wiggly, six-legged thing they found under a rock--and what fly best imitates it. The binding is sewn, so the book will hold up to constant field use without falling apart.

Each chapter of Western Streamside Guide includes color photos of the insect (or non-insect trout food) in question and the flies that imitate it. And here is the book's greatest flaw, a failing not attributable to the author: the color printing job is horrible. On most pages, the colors are severely skewed toward green and yellow. So if you want to know just what color a fly should be, you have to read the recipe and make an intelligent guess, because you can't tell from looking at the photos.

I don't know if responsibility for this glaring problem lies solely with the printer or if the publisher has to share the blame for not properly checking the press proofs. Regardless, it's too bad, because the poor color detracts from an otherwise excellent and useful book.

Bottom Line: Handy streamside guide in new edition, marred by some production issues. 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 01/02/1999.

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