HOW TO TIE SALMON FLIES: A treatise on the methods of tying the various kinds of salmon flies. With illustrated directions. By Major J.H. Hale (East Lancashire Regiment). Third edition. With an appendix giving the dressings of 361 salmon flies.

(1892) 1930 3rd edition. 12mo (100 x 165mm). Ppxii,189. Illustrated with text figures from engravings. Brown cloth, spine and upper board titled in gilt, rounded corners uniform with other Fishing Gazette titles.

Hale's text is very practical and is supported by fine illustrations of unusual clarity. "He was a supporter of the then very strong lobby which insisted that a salmon fly had to be 100pct correctly dressed as to originality, colour, position of individual feathers or their fibres, length, and neatness of all materials used, if it was to attract a fish. His instructions for tying on materials are as useful today as they were when they were written, for Hale was able to describe the most difficult or tricky techniques. I would place him at the height of the transition from the early 'drab' flies, through the 'gaudy fly' period which included Hale, to the simplified patterns of today." (John Veniard in his introduction to the FFCL edition).