Bookshelf: Flies for Atlantic Salmon & Steelhead

In October of 1992, I was in a tent on a gravel bar at the junction of the Nilkitkwa and Babine rivers. The spot is miles from the road, and the forest around it is a dark, mysterious maze of downed timber, witches hair, wolf moss, and grizzly feces. Despite all that, I carried with me a 512-page hardcover book that weighed nearly 3 pounds. In the tent at night I used a flashlight to once again read the pages that had inspired me to drive 14 hours and camp on what I considered to be hallowed ground. This was the promised land, and the book Steelhead Fly Fishing: Tackle and Techniques, the Anglers and their Fly Patterns by Trey Combs (Lyons & Burford, 1991) was my bible. It created the future fly-fishing universe I wanted to exist in. The people in it—Lani Waller, Randall Kaufmann, Bill Schaadt, Harry Lemire and others—became my idols, and rivers like the Dean, Kispiox, and Thompson rivers fed my dreams day and night.

I mention all this in admission that I am by no means a neutral commentator without preconceived notions. Steelhead Fly Fishing helped set the course of my life, inspired my 27-year career with Fly Fisherman magazine, and was the catalyst for a life of travel to British Columbia, Quebec, Iceland, Argentina, and Chile in search of anadromous salmonids. So when I heard that Trey Combs after a haitus of 17 years had published another book on a very complementary subject, I was more than intrigued—I was instantly enthralled with what I might find within those pages.

Flies for Atlantic Salmon & Steelhead: A History of the World’s Most Elegant Fishing Flies (Wild River Press, 2023) is no mere compendium of patterns and recipes, nor is it any type of fly-tying instructional manual. This is a deep dive into the single thing that sets us apart and makes fly-fishing so special: the flies. These tiny bits of fur and feathers attached to hooks are at the very heart of each and every casting gamble we make, and no genre of flies is as complex, rich, colorful, historic, and influential as the salmon and steelhead flies that helped birth the global sport of fly fishing as we know it today.

Trey Combs’s new book tells the history of these flies, the fish and the rivers they were created for, the materials they are comprised of, the people who created them, and the skilled artisans who are still perfecting them today.

It starts with chapters on the origins of these flies, stories from the River Spey and the River Dee and their flies such as the Lady Caroline; moves to the Jock Scott and married feather flies; and then into Victorian-era flies like the Thunder & Lightning, Shannon Butcher, and Green Highlander. Along with the dozens and dozens of flies, we learn how techniques like greasing the line developed alongside them, and by chapter 5, Combs also begins to weave in American fly-tying influences from the likes of John Benn in California, Zane Grey, Syd Glasso, and many others.

The book has a chapter on hair-wing flies like the Green-butt Skunk, Comet, the Skykomish Sunrise, and their historic pioneers, and next tackles the overwhelming influence of tube flies led by Scandinavians like Roland Holmberg, Håkan Norling, and Mikael Frödin.

And then, appropriately, with about two-thirds of the book already dedicated to history, Combs moves on to modern salmon flies like Pot-bellied Pigs, Sunray Shadows, and Flamethrowers and creators like Stuart Foxall, Øystein Aas, and Ally Gowans.

Then, in a final crescendo that will likely be of most interest to American readers, Combs takes us home in the final part of his book titled “Modern Steelhead Flies.” As with the previous sections, there’s so much meat here that it could be a book on its own. In this curtain call we get new insights on flies from the Deschutes like the Signal Light, Freight Train, and Coal Car; original dressings from Oregonian Dave McNeese, the beginnings of the Intruder, and beautiful specimens tied by Jay Nicholas; Brian Silvey’s “guide flies;” rabbit strip flies, the author’s own SteelFlash flies; and finally surface flies like Muddlers, Bombers, and Wakers of all varieties.

Perhaps even more important than the gathering of all this information in one compendium is the presentation. After all, we all are all fishermen, and we appreciate that how a book is presented is just as important as how a fly is tied, and exactly how it swims in front of a fish.

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To make sure this message is an nuanced and appealing as possible, Combs has assembled the work of the world’s most remarkable fly dressers, captured their efforts with stunning photographs, and reproduced it on 100 lb. satin matte paper using the most precise and vibrant printing processes in the world.

In short, the book as beautiful as the flies within. For anyone with a mind for fly tying or an attraction to the mystical arts of sea-run trout and salmon, this book will spark your imagination and provide reverence for the rivers and the people who have waded them before us.

As a side note, there is a limited edition of this book bound in handsome blue leather, with a stamped Jock Scott classic salmon fly and matching leather slipcase signed and numbered by the author for $500. There are also 10 deluxe edition copies that come with flies framed by Satoshi Yamamoto, and dressed by the likes of Will Bush, Stuart Foxall, Brent Jensen, Jerome Malloy, Dave McNeese, Jay Nicholas, Peter Ohlsson, and Steve Silverio. The deluxe editions are available for $5,000.

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Ross Purnell is Fly Fisherman's editor and publisher.