The Feather Bender’s Advanced Flytying Techniques
By Barry Ord Clarke
(Merlin Unwin Books; £30)

Second in the Feather Bender series, the Advanced sequel. Nicely produced hardback. Barry Ord Clarke is a professional photographer, so unsurprisingly this is a very well illustrated book. The tying sequences are detailed and clear, materials and techniques are very well illustrated.

I’d say this takes me deeper into details about selected materials, especially CdC and Gallo de Leon, and into tying skills. 28 flies here, each with their own tying sequence – that’s a load of tying. As before, each pattern is also available as a YouTube video and each comes with a QR code and video address. Very multimedia.

The selection of flies is quite eclectic, from a general suggestive Ubiquitous Nymph, to an All Fur Wet Fly, then a Fluttering Caddis to The Worm or a Silicone Fry. These flies cover a fair range of tying techniques and just as wide a range of fishing.

Clarke is a highly skilled fly tyer, quite precise, his flies – especially hackled flies – can look fairly stylised. His techniques, and this is a book about tying technique, are exemplary. If you tie using these techniques, even if not tying these patterns, you will get a nicely made, good-looking fly.

As a teaching aid, either a refresher for old hands or the next tying steps for less experience fly tyers, this is excellent.

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