The The Feather Mechanic by Gordon Van Der Spuy and Tim Wage is a great book for all modern fly tiers who want to start designing their own fly patterns. Gordon affirms that the very best flies in the world were designed in water, as much as they were in the vice. Good fly design starts and ends with a good foundation. This book is written and drawn with so much passion that it inspires from start to finish. It challenges you to consider what fly tying and fly fishing are all about, and to take a critical look into your own fly boxes. It will make you want to sit down at your tying cabinet to immediately put his advice and his guidance into practice yourself.
Gordon Van Der Spuy is a natural teacher and enthusiast of life who lives to tie flies. So not surprisingly this book brings a new life to fly tying, fed by Gordon's incontestable experience and logic and aided by his exquisitely crafted drawings. But the book is far more than just an instructional manual. It is, as the title suggests, his whole philosophy of fly tying. He mentions clearly that roughly tied flies really do catch fish and that’s so very true. The Feather Mechanic is a fly tying book written in wonderful detail and it is richly illustrated with wonderful pictures and drawings.
Chapters include: The first wrap; Design; Be prepared; Materials; Mechanics; Diawl Bach; CDC and Biot Nymph; Perdigon; Plaza Pupa; Papa Roach; Dragon Nugget; The Killers; Squirmy Wormy; The Snake; The gun; Dry fly design; Parachutes; Macaw Midge; Para Rab; Fred's Shuck Emerger; Micro patterns; CDC Dun; Easy Peasy Hopper; Balbyter; Wolf Spider; Whip finish; No man is an island.