I have been considering buying Oliver Edwards flytying masterclass as I see he has a spiral bound reprint for £29.99? Is it worth it as I cannot seem to find much information on the contents or patterns it contains. I just fancy something a little different to pass the time during these awful snowy winter evenings than tying the run of the mill patterns (although they catch plenty of fish?). I am suffering from cabin fever at the moment and need to get a life!!
Any help appreciated before I part with my hard earnt cash!

Mark

Fill your boots!

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

I'm probably going to buck the trend here and say that although it's quite a nice book to own, the patterns are great and I have the utmost respect for Oliver Edwards knowledge, skill and understanding ... I'm not that impressed.

From my perspective I don't think the total reliance on line drawing works - a mix of line drawings and photographs I feel would have been more successful - the line drawings swamp the pages.

In addition, when viewing the line drawings you need to appreciate that OE is a left handed tyer who ties by bringing the thread towards himself - to begin with I found myself wondering why some illustrations seemed to show that he'd reversed the thread direction ... then the penny dropped. I believe the majority of us tie right handed with the thread rotation away from us.

However, having said all that, the patterns are great and clearly well researched and the result of many years experience. He clearly is 'expert'.

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[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

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Have you looked at Steve Thorton's books "Listen To The River", volumes 1 & 2. Checkout website Virtual Nymph - Home
Some of his petterns I think are over dressed, too finicky but I just leave out those bits. The books contain colour photos of the steps for tying.

I have the Masterclass and also Thornton's first Listen to the River.

I haven't opened either in years. Both specialise in those true to life flies that people post on forums and their admirers go "nice job dude" or "woooaaahhh that's sooo lifelike".

If that floats your boat - fill your boots.

If you want variety of flies and flies to fish with:-

Courtnay Williams Dictionary of Trout Flies
Bob Church - Guide to the New Fly Patterns
John Roberts - River Trout Flies
Watson - Angling with the fly.
The flies in the two books mentioned can be quite complex to tie, I've been tying a quarter century, have taught tying, and I used to tie 5/0 fully dressed Jock Scotts so do know a tiny bit about it.

That said these books have a huge following.

I feel that Mr Edwards has lost a golden opportunity to give us something different rather that a re-hash of the original book. I was never totally enamoured by the original not for it's lack of clarity but for the pattern selection within it's pages. Still many treasure it.
Tight Lines

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"The Future's Bright The Future's Wet Fly"

Thankyou all for your advice.

The content does concern me a little, I will wait until I get to examine the book for real before I make a purchase.


Thanks again
Mark