The Way of a Trout with the Fly

The Way of a Trout with a Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G. E. M. Skues published in London in 1921. This was Skues's second book after Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream (1910).

Synopsis The Way of a Trout was originally intended to be a treatise on the theory and practice of dressing trout flies but, by Skues's own admission, does not do a very good job of it. The book does include a number of original and interesting chapters on fly dressing and Skues's theories on the vision of trout. Additionally, the Minor Tactics section expands on Skues's exploration of nymph fishing for trout.

Reviews

In Notable Angling Literature (1945) James Robb said of Skues and The Way of a Trout:

He pursued the matter [Nymph fishing] with his striking books The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout. Mr. Skues is a useful antedote to the extremists who followed Halford and should be read along with that author. To Mr. G. E. M. Skues anglers are indebted among other things for his particular method of tying as well as for his imitations of nymphs; they are given in his Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream and The Way of a Trout with the Fly.

In The Well-Tempered Angler (1965) Arnold Gingrich listed The Way of a Trout as one of the top 30 literary and technical books on fly fishing since the publication of the Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle (1496) Dr. Andrew Herd, noted British fly-fishing historian, characterizes The Way of The Trout: This is a classic and I often wonder if Skues knew it would be when he set pen to paper. The book is inspirational in a way that Halford's work never was and grips the reader's attention right from the cover, which in the first edition bears the words: ....

The Way of a Trout shows Skues at the height of his powers and it contains the best of his thinking on fishing nymphs and semi-submerged patterns, illustrated by the sort of asides, stories and vast fund of experience that only he could call upon.Herd, Dr. Andrew, A Fly Fishing History

In Skues on Trout (2008) Paul Schullery notes:

His second book, which many still regard as a masterpiece, was The Way of a Trout with the Fly (1921), and it quickly established him as one of the day's great angling theorists--as it also established the intellectual and ethical basis for sunken flies as legitimate tools of a well-rounded angler.

Contents Foreword - ix Division I Part I I. Considerations Of Motive - 1 II. The Why - 3 III. Freewill and Predestination - 5 Part II I. The Sense Of Taste - 8 II. The Sense Of Smell - 9 Part III - The Vision Of Trout I. A Preliminary Cast - 10 II. The Sense of Form And Definition - 13 III. The Invisibility of Hooks - 17 IV. The Sense of Position - 18 V. A Problem for The Optician - 20 VI. The Sense of Number - 23 VII. The Sense of Colour - 24 VIII. The Sense of Size - 31 IX. Tone - 32 X. In Dusk and Dark - 34 XI. Looking Upward - 36 XII. Looking Upward In Dusk and Dark - 43 Part IV - How I. The Mouth of A Trout - 48 II. A Speculation in Bubbles - 50 III. The Rise - 51 IV. Assorted Rises - 59 V. Fausse Montee - 65 VI. The Moment - 67 Part V - What I. Flies as Food - 69 II. Fly Dressing as An Art - 75 III. Imitation, Representation, Suggestion - 77 IV. Styles of Fly Dressing - 79 V. Kick - 82 VI. Ex Mortua Manu - 83 Part VI – Bafflement - 89 Division II - Some Further Minor Tactical Studies I. Some Problems - 90 The Hare's-Ear Puzzle - 90 Upstream Wind - 91 A Curious Contrast - 96 The Red Quill - 100 The Entrance Out - 102 The Alder and Canon K. - 104 The Willow-Fly - 107 II. Some Fly-Dressing Examples - 108 Iron Blue - 108 A Good Small Olive - 109 July Dun - 110 Little Red Sedge - 113 Pheasant Tail - 115 Rusty Spinner - 117 The Pope and the Tailers - 118 III. Some More Fly Dressing—Principles and Practice - 121 Theories of Wet-Fly Dressing of Trout Flies - 121 The Dressing of Nymphs - 125 The Purposes of a Hackle - 129 The Spade Feather - 132 Buzz - 133 A Good Entry - 134 Quality in Fly-Dressing Materials - 135 IV. Sundry Observations - 138 What Made the Dry Fly Possible - 138 The Excommunication of the Wet Fly - 139 The Cultivation of Shyness - 149 Semi-Submerged, Etc. - 154 Wind and the Evening Rise - 157 On the Accuracy of Authorities - 161 Driftweed and Bad Advice - 162 V. B.W.O. - 166 B.W.O. - 166 VI. Tactical - 172 Glimpses of the Moon - 172 Side Strain - 176 Of Pocket Picking - 180 Of the Ways of Brer Fox - 181 Picking It off: A Very Minor Tactic - 183 Argillaceous - 184 Of Glycerine - 186 The Switch - 188 VII. Psychological - 192 Hands - 192 Accuracy and Delicacy - I94 The Triumph of the Inadequate - 196 VIII. Frankly Immoral - 201 Makeshift - 201 IX. Episodical - 205 Established Principles and Trout - 205 An Abnormal Day - 208 One of Life's Little Cast Ironies - 210 Another of Life's Little Cast Ironies - 212 A Borrowed Rod - 213 A Local Fall - 217 At the Second Culvert - 219 Bobbing Reed - 224 Sporting Hazards on a Berkshire Brook - 226 Four - 232 Nine to One - 237 A Travelling Companion - 242 The Following Day - 246 My Sticking-Plaster Trout - 252 X. Doggerel from the Club Journal - 255 Little Brown Wink - 255 A Sequel - 257 Advertisement—Amadou - 260 ILLUSTRATIONS I. THE BLUE DUN AS RENDERED IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS - Frontispiece II. Method of Dressing Nymphs - 124 III. Another Method of Dressing Nymphs - 128

Subsequent editions

The Way of a Trout with the Fly

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