The Complete Book of Flyfishing for Yellowfish

A Book Review by Ian Cox

Flyfishers have written about fly fishing for yellows for at least 100 years. So , no it was not the TVN nymph that did it. Bennion wrote about catching yellows on a Greenwell Glory back in the 1920’s. Strangely though, no one has written a book that deals exclusively with the subject. This makes the TCCF’s recently published, The Complete Book of Flyfishing For Yellowfish the first of its genre. No one else has, far as I can tell, written a book devoted exclusively to fly fishing for yellows.

I must say that I was somewhat sceptical about the title on my first quick read through. It’s a play on the name of the publisher, I thought, and PJ does not claim that it is the last word in his introduction. Indeed, its magazine style invites you to the conclusion that it is a compilation of articles. This is especially so if you are from KwaZulu-Natal and are disappointed that our scalies did not get the star billing accorded to the small mouth and large mouth yellowfish.

But don’t be deceived. Yes, as PJ Jacobs says in his introduction, The Complete Book of Flyfishing For Yellowfish does not claim to be the last word on the subject, but it you will find on close examination that it does cover the whole subject. Yes, the focus is on smallies and largies, but this is understandable given that is where most of the flyfishing effort is concentrated.

The more I dug into the contents of the book the more impressed I became. It is a very cleverly put together book and clearly a great deal of thought went into its production. There is a huge amount of really useful stuff in The Complete Book of Flyfishing For Yellowfish. So, I think the title is an accurate description of its contents.

And the magazine style is particularly suited to dealing with what is a very wide ranging but nuanced subject. The book is broken down by chapters into the various species of yellowfish, small mouth, largemouth and other. Each of those chapters contains short articles dealing with fish ecology, conservation, tackle flies and tactics written by a number of acknowledged experts. I find the multi author approach very useful as there is much to learn from the different perspectives each has. And this rich texture of nuanced knowledge deepens as each chapter cross pollinates with the other.

You do not, for example, get one expert view of fishing for largies. There are interesting tit bits for everyone. I, for example, did not know that largemouth can technically hybridise with small mouth. Of course, whether it has happened or may happen in the wild is another matter entirely.

There are also chapters on the more popularly frequented destinations such as the Vaal and Orange rivers and Sterkfontein. And no KwaZulu-Natal does not feature. But this is largely because scalie flyfishers tend not to write about it.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book. In fact, if you are looking to learn more about flyfishing for yellows this is a must buy. It can be bought from most flyfishing tackle shops as well as the publishers of the complete Flyfishing Magazine.

Well done PJ. This is an and much needed excellent contribution to the body of South African flyfishing literature.