ordered two Thomas Ames books

[rrt]

As if I need any more books, but I have been reading a lot of Thomas Ames in the ff magazines lately, and he seems to be pretty well up on flies. So, I ordered--well, I had my wife order them since I'm too dumb to order online--Ames's Caddisflies and Fishflies. If the books are as good as his articles, then it should be money well spent.

 

[jrcll]

i got the caddisflies book about a week ago, the book is really good, andf there are lots of pictures the one thing i like is he has pictures showing the underside of the fly

 

[Acristickid]

Might have to check those out.

 

[rrt]

I received and read the first of the two Ames books, "Fishbugs." It is an absolutely beautiful book; the photography of the insects included in it is amazing. That my wife found it for only 15 dollars is a bonus, too.
This book is not, however, one that will actually lead you through the hatches. It does kind of generalize the order of appearance of the flies; but at least in my area, the order is somewhat different. Missing entirely is perhaps the most prolific hatch of all: E. invaria, the "big" sulphur. Ames does not tell the size of the flies either so that a tier-flyrodder might benefit. But, Ames does not really claim this to be a streamside guide for matching hatches and tying the flies that match the real ones.
The book is really a wonderful display of the beauty of the flies that Ames has photographed. If you're looking for a book that shows the beauty and the characteristics of various flies w/o telling you how big they are (you can find this information in a lot of other places), "Fishbugs" is a lovely book.

 

[rrt]

I finally finished plowing my way through Ames's "Caddisflies" last night (I was on babysitting detail and couldn't go fishing). It is a wonderful reference book/textbook with marvelous photographs. However, I cannot imagine its helping my fly-fishing very much. I think a book about caddisflies that is set up like Ted Fauceglia's "Mayflies" would be much more helpful, at least to me. I did my college textbook reading more than 40 years ago, and I cannot say I enjoyed reading the Ames text. Having said that, I am amazed by his vast wealth of knowledge about the caddisflies. However, his information about grannoms is much different from what I have observed about them over the past couple of years. Anyhow, if you have an extra 40 bucks and want to buy a reference book about caddisflies that contains wonderful pics, then the Ames book is one to add to your library. The scope of his knowledge is amazing.

 

[rrt]

Please do not think I am dissing the Ames book "Caddisflies." It is a wonderful reference book. I just think the amount of information for fly-fishermen, at least for me, is overwhelming. I can only imagine fishing with someone as knowledgeable as Ames: It would really be something to possess only a portion of the information that he does. To an old fart like me, the book is, as I have said, overwhelming. You young lions can undoubtedly profit greatly from the vast amount of information in "Caddisflies." Maybe if I use the book correctly, I can catch and release a few more fish, too. If I were young, I would make sure I added this book to my fly-fishing library.