Nymphs, Stoneflies, Caddisflies, and Other Important Insects: Including the Lesser Mayflies Hardcover - 2007

From the rear cover

"Many of us who began our trout fishing at a young age had our 'go to' books, essential texts that reinforced our stream-side lessons with dry flies. But later, after having given up garden hackle for fur and feathers, we began to explore what was under the surface. Then and there we discovered a treasure: Ernie Schwiebert's beautifully illustrated, studious and stylish Nymphs. This was a text and a reference for serious anglers of every age. And now Ernie's final project, one that he was truly excited about, this expansive, updated, two-volume edition, is a last gift from one of fly fishing's premier authors." --Peter Van Gytenbeek, President and CEO, The Federation of Fly Fishers"Did you ever wonder if you knew enough about nymphs? After you've read this revised and updated version of Ernest Schwiebert's masterpiece, you can move on to worrying about more pressing issues, for between the covers of these two volumes is literally everything you need to know about identifying the larvae that trout love to eat. Even better, Schwiebert's elegant prose and fascinating storytelling make for enjoyable, engaging reading. Nymphs is so detailed and comprehensive that the rest of us will be depending on Schwiebert's work for decades to come."--Philip Monahan, Editor, American Angler"Just as nymphs and other aquatic macroinvertebrates are the ecological foundation of our trout streams, Schwiebert's classic book is the foundation of any well-educated angler's understanding of those waters. No other angling treatise provides as comprehensive a view of what occurs beneath the stream's surface as his." --Charles Gauvin, President and CEO, Trout Unlimited"Knowledge, hungrily acquired and readily shared, was the key to Ernie's approach to life. In my opinion, he was the most important figure of the 20th century in the fly fishing world. He would have been the first to tell you that he stood on the shoulders of Skues, Halford, Gordon, LaBranche, Marinaro, and others dating back to Walton and Cotton, but Ernie's synthesis of all that inherited knowledge is the stuff of genius."--Howell Raines, author of The One That Got Away, My Soul Is Rested, and the novel, Whiskey Man. About the original, 1973 edition: "Few books in the entire history of fishing literature have constituted such a startling advance. Nymphs now seems to me to stand alone as the most accomplished solo writer-artist contribution to fly-fishing literature. With words and art, this book opened the eyes of the next two generations of fly fishers."--Paul Schullery, author of American Fly Fishing: A History

From the jacket flap

Ernest G. Schwiebert published the first edition of Nymphs in 1973 but never ceased working on the project, and over the next thirty years he continued his research into the entomology necessary to successful trout fishing. Fly fishers in the early twenty-first century are accustomed to myriad types of artificial flies and approaches to catch trout, but back when there were still many anglers who populated a rules-bound world of dry flies and traditional wet flies, what Schwiebert said in the first edition of this book was novel and heretical. Vincent Marinaro, author of that touchstone American text, A Modern Dry-Fly Code, and hero to Schwiebert, refused to speak with the younger writer after Nymphs first appeared, as this new book promoted a violation of form that was unacceptable to the gentleman of the Letort Spring Run. Schwiebert, however, stood solidly behind his methods of identifying, tying, and fishing imitations of nymphs, a revolution in the sport. Ultimately, critics hailed his highly original book as a landmark achievement in both the art and science of fly fishing, and thousands of anglers today carry fly boxes crammed with nymphs of various sizes and colors. Now, the classic text has been fully revised and greatly expanded--in two volumes--and includes taxonomic details of multitudes of individual nymphs from many different insect genera, hundreds of recipes for imitations, and digitally remastered original illustrations and numerous new illustrations by the author. Schwiebert backs his text with authoritative support from the classic work of numerous entomologists, such as James Needham, Justin Leonard, Jay Traver, and George Edmunds, and colors it with his stories of fishing with legends of the sport, including John Hemingway, Charlie Fox, and Joe Brooks. This new Nymphs calls upon decades of angling experience--years that connect extraordinarily different eras of fly-fishing--to present a lasting, highly usable angler's entomology for all of North America.