TO MEET THE FIRST MARCH BROWN. By Geoffrey Bucknall. Illustrated by Aideen Canning.

1994 1st edition. 8vo (155 x 227mm). Pp176. Colour plates of flies, b/w photographs, illustrations, bibliography. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

Anecdotes and experience from thirty years of fly-fishing and fly-dressing. "Drawing on a long experience of fly fishing all over Britain and Western Europe, the author seeks to return the angler to an earlier age when it was accepted that a basic fly fishing technique could be applied to catch any species of game fish in any environment. The result is a fascinating excursion from one end of Britain to the other, from distant Shetland to the sea-trout rivers of the West Country, and from a mountain torrent in Austria to a lazy chalk stream in Normandy. He explains how common sense and application of observation and technique can overcome the unfamiliarity of the stranger and match the advantages enjoyed by the local experts." A nineteen-page appendix gives a classified list of fly patterns relevant to discussions elsewhere in the book, with some comments about their origins and uses; "I have grouped together the flies I have used according to their type, and not by the book's sections. I have not repeated standard dressings of popular flies which are in all text books, but I list rarer patterns, innovations and variations which, I hope, will add to your angling success." Chapters include: An early start; The structure of the fly; In the footsteps of Halford; Nymph fishing on rain-fed rivers; Border fishing; Fishing the 'big-cow'; Where the wind rules; Blagdon and after; Two lakes and innocence; When seven stars shine; In the footsteps of George Kelson; Fashions and flies; My salmon way; Beck and call.