Dry-Fly Patterns for the New Millennium

Rating:
Summary: Enhanced with 375 color photographs
Review: Compiled, edited, and illustrated by Poul Jorgensen, Dry-Fly Patterns For The New Millennium features flies from contributors and expert fly-tiers from around the world. More than 360 flies are shared, along with their individual recipes, as well as tying or fishing notes. Enhanced with 375 color photographs and 366 individual color fly plates, Dry-Fly Patterns For The New Millennium is a superbly presented and highly recommended addition to any dedicated angler's reference collection. Dry-Fly Patterns For The New Millennium is also available in a hardcover edition...

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I am a big Poul Jorgensen fan. I found this book disappointing. This book raises expectations, both that it has something to do with Jorgensen, and that it might have something to do with forward looking dry fly patterns of the millennium. But it is a failure on all points.

All Jorgensen did was take the photos, and write a short blurb about taking the photos. He submitted a fly. If he had something to do with choosing the other flies, then I am really disappointed. While he refers to each fly as a "masterpiece", many of them are really poorly tied, standard patterns un-attributed to their originators, or nondescript balls of fluff. By and large there is little commentary to indicate what is significant about any of the patterns. The next great innovation may be among them, but you won't know it from this presentation.

My heart rose when I saw a fly by noted tier Roman Moser. Apparently a two-for-one deal, since the pattern description is for an entirely different fly!

Whoever said "life is 90% just showing up" would like this book, since in general that is all that must have been required for one's pattern to be included here. The producers could have said it was an unfiltered cattle-call from the end of the century, and "look this is what we got" (somewhere it would have mattered like in the title). Maybe even producing a clever catalogue identifying interesting issues about a smaller number of patterns. It might have been worth it, and it would have been a more straight forward representation of what the book is about: Not a dinner in a fine restaurant, but a pot luck supper.

There have been a pile of recent books with loads of patterns, and some loose pretext like the Umpqua book, or books by various clubs. Usually they are a lot of fun. this one seems an exploitation of the genre.

Best to pass it over.