The Dry Fly and Fast Water
By G.L.M. La Branche
Introduction by Paul Schullery
Illustrations by Ernest Lussier
Greycliff Publishing Company, Helena, Mont.,
$24.95 paperback ISBN 0-9626663-6-X
When Bob Linsenman asked me to write this review for the Riverwatch I went to my bookshelf and retrieved my 1952 edition of The Dry Fly and Fast Water. I had not read it since the 50's, but I remembered that I had enjoyed it and found it instructional a half a century ago.
I began reading the 1998 edition with some questions hovering in my mind. Here was a book first published in 1914, a book that I remembered as enjoyable and instructional forty years after publication. After another forty years what relevancy would this book have to the present day angler? How could a discussion of fishing with cat-gut leaders, silk lines, bamboo rods and flies tied with no synthetic material relate to our world of hydrocarbon, plastics, graphite, and Hi-viz?
The answer is to read LaBranche, especially this new edition. This edition presents three important additions over the earlier editions. First, an excellent introduction by Paul Schullery which provides a great deal of insight into LaBranche's life and character. Second, a large number of illustrations by Ernest Lussier and photos which reinforce the readers' sense of the timeless aspect of dry fly fishing and which I think would have pleased G.L.M. LaBranche. Third, Appendix 2 which gives some edited selections or correspondence between G.L.M. LaBranche and George Edward Mackenzie Skues, the English nymph fishing pioneer. These letters show the depth of devotion to trout fishing and an interesting view of angling culture from a half a century ago.
All right, the introduction and appendix are good. What about the book itself?
Despite the decades between the first publication and the present, it is a timely book. There are discussions of deforestation problems and the resulting warming of rivers. The casting instructions are relevant, and the emphasis on presentation and accuracy are perhaps even more important today.
The prose may be somewhat archaic, but it is precise and conversational. It is understandable with little of the surplus verbiage one attributes to early 1900's writing.
The book, especially Chapter 4, makes the reader realize that although many changes take place over the years, many things remain constant, especially a love for rivers and fishing a dry fly.
In later chapters LaBranche exhibits an excellent knowledge of entomology. He extols the enjoyment of catching the difficult trout as opposed to the easy catch, which he terms the "fool fish." He is truly the angler who is more interested in getting a rise from a trout that has eluded him in the past than in filling his creel.
In total, The Dry Fly and Fast Water is a book that will give enjoyment on an evening when you might want to bridge the years of three-quarters of a century and think of how little things have really changed. If you have fished as long as I, the book will bring memories of soaking catgut leaders and Daisy fly boxes. RWOL
© Copyright 1998- , Anglers of the Au Sable, Inc. All rights reserved. Last modified: January 29, 2002
