A Guide to North Country Flies

A Guide to North Country Flies and how to tie them, by Mike Harding

Aurum’s Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole has so far sold over 43,000 copies, and has become renowned both for its superb close-up photography, and the wire binding that enables you to lie it flat to read from and keep both hands free for actually tying your fly. It has indeed become a Bible for fly fishermen.

Now Mike Harding, the broadcaster and comedian and also a keen and experienced fly fisherman who nowadays writes a monthly column in Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine, has written a comparable guide to tying one of the most well-loved and beguiling traditions of fly: the Northern Spider.

These designs of fly, conceived in the north of England around Bolton Abbey in the Yorksire Dales near Skipton, renowned for being both simple to tie and excellent for catching fish. They are characterised by using brightly coloured silk threads, and the feathers of birds like snipe, woodcock and pheasant. Mike Harding covers some fifty variants of fly, as well as the techniques of tying and the history of the North Country tradition.

The book features his own superb close-focus photography (his previous Little Books on church iconography for Aurum are evidence of his photographic skill), and is laid out in the same style as The Fly-Tying Bible.