Building Classic Salmon Flies

Rating:
Summary: The best book to start with for a future salmon fly tier
Review: I have been tying the classics for about 8 yrs. now and I can look back and say that Ron Alcott's book and tying style still influence my tying today.It goes into great detail, yet keeps it simple enough to not have a hard time digesting the info.My main complaint with the book is that it should have had more color photos on a better quality paper,but overall I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to tie the beautiful classics.

Rating:
Summary: No nonsense, straight-forward.
Review: Let's face it, there's so much information about Tying Classic Salmon Flies that no one book could possibly cover every aspect of the subject. In fact, several volumes wouldn't be enough.

If you want a book that teaches you to tie, this is it. Mr. Alcott has done a fine job of selecting clear, practical information to include. Starting with a short history, this book progresses on to: materials, types of wings, proportions, and building classic featherwings. The book is well written and the information is presented in a straight forward, no nonsense style.

Will it make you an expert? I wish it were so - buidling classic salmon flies can't be learned soley out of a book. It will, however, give you a solid foundation and start you down the right path. It provides enough scope to keep you busy absorbing the information. I highly recommend it. Fine book Mr. Alcott; now where's the next book?

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but unnecessary
Review: This book adds nothing really new that has not been covered by Poul Jorgensen's classic book "Salmon Flies - their character, style and dressing" and unlike that book will never become a "classic" book. The only critiscm that I ever had of Jorgensen's book was that the illustrations were in black & white and lost some of the detail. Why "Building Classic Salmon Flies" did the same is a little puzzling in view of the great advances that have been made in colour printing and the few colour illustrations that there are in the book are of poor quality. I learnt absolutely nothing new from this book and in view of Ron Alcott's reputation I was somewhat disapointed. I would rate this book as a mildly interesting book for a library on Classic Salmon Flies; but unnecessary.