This book is a real eye-opener. When I started river fly-fishing several decades ago, I fished with north-country wet flies, as did most of my contemporaries. Eventually, I graduated to fishing nymph and dry-fly patterns.

Nowadays, apart from early season, I fish dry-fly almost exclusively and enjoy seeing trout rising to one of my imitative patterns. Even though I have caught my biggest trout, both brown and rainbow, on streamers in still-waters, I have never considered using them on my local rivers. Why not? I ask myself.

It seems that since the Victorian era, we have all become brainwashed by the bug-based scientific approach to angling. This is reflected in the rules of many angling clubs, which eschew anything except the use of dry-fly and nymph.

Indeed, when a member of my own club was rumoured to have caught several large brown trout on streamers from a pool that was difficult to fly-fish by conventional methods, it raised a few eyebrows and met with several disparaging comments.

It makes sense, however, to fish with streamers because trout, especially big ones, are predatory and devour a wide variety of small fish, amphibians and mam- mals in addition to insects. Perhaps, therefore, we should be matching the munch rather than the hatch.

Theo Pike, the esteemed editor of the Journal of the Flyfishers’Club, sets out to debunk some of the misconceptions concerning the use of streamers in rivers. The book itself is divided into three parts. In part one, he seeks to answer why fish streamers for river trout.

He then considers the history of using streamers in rivers. After all, Scandinavians and Americans have a long tradition of this style of fishing. He goes on to consider the trout’s main prey species; where, when and how to fish streamers and the appropriate tackle to use.

Part two contains interviews with several top streamer fishers from around the world and provides dressings of their favourite patterns. Part three considers the future of this under-appreciated technique and expresses the hope that it will become more widely accepted. I shall certainly give it a go during the forthcoming season.

The book is beautifully produced and contains some stunning photographs. I feel sure that it will make many fly-fishers reassess their approach to river fly-fishing.

Keith Harwood