Category Archives: Fly tying book

If you want to know more about fly fishing for Smallmouth Bass, I suggest you pick up the new book by Jake Villwork, “Smallmouth Bass Flies Top to Bottom”.

This is a gorgeous book with beautiful photos throughout. On top of that Jake really goes through everything you need to know to catch smallmouth with a fly rod. He explains rods, lines, and leaders. Tools he uses for fly tying, seasonal strategies, and fly movement. He includes 16 of his favorite flies with step-by-step instructions on how to tie each one. With flies included, he takes you through each section of the water column, top, middle, and bottom. The icing on the cake is the over 300 flies with recipes from today’s top tyers.

Here is a brief introduction from the book.
“Smallmouth bass swim in lakes and rivers across the United States and Canada and are a premier fly-rod game fish in almost every way—they take flies readily, feed on diverse foods for a long period of time, tolerate higher water temperatures than trout, and fight harder than any other North American freshwater fish their size. This is the first book dedicated to the best modern flies for these fish that includes both detailed step-by-step tying instructions as well as top patterns and recipes for flies that cover the complete water column, from top to bottom. With over 500 full-color step-by-step images and 300 patterns by today’s top tiers from around the country, this book is the definitive resource for smallmouth bass.”

The book is available in many places, here are a couple links.
TCO Fly Shop: https://www.tcoflyfishing.com/products/smallmouth-bass-flies-top-to-bottom
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Smallmouth-Bass-Flies-Top-Bottom/dp/0811737845/

Jake Villwock is owner and head guide of Relentless Fly Fishing. He grew up in a commercial fishing family on the Eastern shore of Maryland. After guiding in Alaska, Jake returned to the East Coast and worked for TCO Fly Shop. He started Relentless Fly Fishing, which serves as TCO’s contract guide service. In addition to guiding, Jake is a Fulling Mills Signature tier, blog writer, author and contributor to Eastern Fly Fishing magazine.
You can follow Jake on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/relentlessflyfishing/

Weather you’re a beginner or experienced fly fisher, this is a book you need in your collection.

Tying Bugs: The Complete Book of Poppers, Sliders, and Divers for Fresh and Salt Water is a new book by Kirk Dietrich. Kirk is extremely knowledgeable on the subject of tying poppers. In this book he not only takes you through tying with foam poppers, but through the entire process of making your own poppers from cork, wood, or foam.

He delves way back into classic poppers and how they were made. He also met with Lefty Kreh and picked his brain on the subject as well. I thought the information on the White Bomber was very interesting.

Kirk covers shaping poppers and how to place them on hooks correctly. Painting, coloring them and covering them with clear coats or epoxy. Using eyes, weed guards, tying materials, and fishing them. I’m making this sound simplistic, but Kirk goes into detail and gives you in-depth knowledge on these applications.

The subject of divers and sliders are covered. A subject that is not very well explained in social media or other means. One style I was not aware of was pushers. Which is another slight variation of the slider that Kirk explains in the book. This inspired me to design my own popper which is part pusher, part diver.

I found myself going back through the book again and again picking up information that I didn’t see the first time. The quality of the photos are excellent and the captions are interesting too. Here is a brief review from reader, Bev Sullivan.

“Kirk’s Book, “Tying Bugs”, is an absolute must have. The directions are spot on and easy to understand. Each photo has an explanation that is clear and descriptive. But, if I couldn’t read I could still make bugs because the photos are top notch. Kirk’s work is masterful both in his making of poppers and writing about making them. He describes the process, the materials and the tools in a way that allows both the beginner and the old timer to produce excellent results.
Thanks for sharing your hard work, Kirk.”

I highly recommend you pick up a copy because it is a book you will continue to flip through time and time again to help with your own popper fly tying.

You can of course find the book on Amazon here.
For an autographed copy of the book inscribed to you by the author, send $40 free shipping, to his email; if you don’t use PayPal, email him and he will give you his mailing address for sending a check by mail.
Amazon and their 3rd party vendors are selling the book cheaper without the author’s inscription.

Kirk has a Facebook author page setup if you would like to follow him there. Go to this link:
https://www.facebook.com/TyingBugs/