I’d call this a fly-fishing handbook, or to be more exact, a handbook for fly-fishing streams and rivers American style. The format is simple, with written explanations illustrated with drawings and black and white photographs. Fly Fishing Strategies & Tactics covers just about all a beginner needs to get started: tackle; fundamental skills such as knots and casting; trout, how and where they live; river types; subsurface and surface fishing.

While this book will help novice anglers coming into our sport, the sheer ambition of bringing together all a beginner needs in a little under 200 pages is both the strength and weakness of this book. There are loads of facts but little discussion, and no doubts or questions about anything. Some of the facts are actually open to debate. For example, much of the tackle advice is based on American habits. UK and European anglers do it slightly differently. The description of casting leaves me cold. It’s hard enough to learn to cast by reading and this will not help. The section on trout biology and its stream environment is rather better with useful information on how and why trout live where they do, holding lies, feeding lies and so on.

The section on trout food is not good – it actually made me laugh. I thought trout food would consist of bugs but, apparently, trout eat artificial flies. Offering a picture of a fishing fly to illustrate bugs makes no sense. I certainly could not identify a mayfly dun by reference to a feather-wing March Brown or know what a stonefly looked like because I recognise a Stimulator. Images of bugs in their various stages help anglers identify fish food and inform both fly choice and fishing tactics – the contents of their fly-boxes do not help anglers identify bugs.

Sub-surface fishing techniques such as The Wet Fly Swing and Upstream Dead Drift Nymphing are described in sufficient detail; methods for rigging tackle with bite indicators and shot are the like are well described – a little advice on casting with that set-up might be useful.

Surface fishing is covered in some depth. Again I found myself questioning the advice. For example, “Accuracy is very important …” (p169). Yes, it sure is. But that warning is pointless without guidance on exactly where my fly should be placed: should I cast on top of the rising fish or ten feet ahead of it? Or anywhere else?

While there is much useful information in Fly Fishing Strategies & Tactics and the writing is clear and concise (with good illustrations), on balance I found myself frustrated by its lack of depth and insight into angling.