An Angler's Entomology

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Hellmtflies
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An Angler's Entomology

#1

Post by Hellmtflies »

I just finished plowing through one of the best books on entomology for the angler. I know there are several others out there but this one deserves high praise for the absolute best detailed description and explanations of what the the metamorphosis of the mayfly cycle is and how it unfolds. For someone like myself that has a simple rudimentary knowledge of the process this book made it all come together for me. I wish I had read this years ago. So, I strongly suggest "An Angler's Entomology" by J.R. Harris. Published by The Countryman Press, 1973.
Mark

Note; The chapters are completed by how the individual species respond to a given situation. Those are insects from the UK. Though some may overlap to your area it wasn't the focus on the chapters and can be skipped. The meat of each chapter is what I praise.

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creakycane
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Re: An Angler's Entomology

#2

Post by creakycane »

Funny you mention Dick Harris. I was supposed to meet him in the early 90's, but schedule difficulties and health problems threw us off, and he passed in 1994 before I had the pleasure, his 2nd book unfinished. The book I posted about last week, Tom Fort's Far from Compleat Angler, also has a short chapter on Harris.....
His entomology (pretty much the same as '72 Countrymen was first done in 1952 in London) is very interesting to expert and layman alike. I am going to (try to) re-read it, since I think that is a very interesting take about skipping the details of the flies and reading the rest. I usually start looking at the diagrams, the latin names, get bogged down and move on. FWIW, I have a plate from the book (an extra, from publisher's error, stuck loosely in the book) with Cloen spinners, above my tying desk in a mylar protector. There are many detailed pictures of various spinner in the book. the plat reminds me of what spinners look like when tying.
Harris was associated with Trinity College in a research capacity, as well as Garnett and Keegan's, the hunting and fishing supplier in Dublin. One of many irishmen, including Ned MacGuire and Tom Hanna, I would have loved to have shared a bit of river with.........
Last edited by creakycane on 05/04/20 11:08, edited 1 time in total.

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Hellmtflies
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Re: An Angler's Entomology

#3

Post by Hellmtflies »

Creakycane,
Interesting. I had received a PM from another Forum member saying that he had met Harris in 1970 while fishing in the UK. He had tied fries for that trip based on the work in "An Angler's Entomology". Gotta love this forum. :)

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