The Floating Fly by Malcolm Greenhalgh

This is a great book that cleverly combines the development of the floating fly, as Malcolm describes it, with examples of the latest ideas working in practice.

The book follows the history of the dry fly and refers to earlier writing on the subject, where significant developments have taken place. This is particularly useful, if like myself you are fairly new to fly fishing. Malcolm brings each thread up to date with the most recent thinking. Each subject is supported by stories from Malcolm's own experiences, either rejecting or supporting various ideas.

The latter part of the book provides details of some of the patterns that Malcolm uses, how they were developed and situations where they might be used. They are described as "Dry flies that catch fish" and give the impression that is what they do, they are not flashy flies for the angler, but in the most part very simply flies. The book does not give tying instruction, there are plenty of others to give you the infomation you need to tie the patterns.

A book well worth reading, written as though you were just chatting at the bar, very readable.