Patterns by John Atherton

[David S.]

I just got a copy of John Atherton's book "The Fly and the Fish". This is a real gem of a book, truly inspirational At least to me, his ideas about "impressionistic" flies seem to make a lot of sense.. /David S.

[Eperous]

David, very nice ties... and one of "the best" books I ever read about fly fishing... it changed my hold approach to this pastime... I moved away from Dr. Schwiebert's "exact hatch matching" school to one of "impressionism" and PRESENTATION...

Very nicely tied...

Ed

[viking]

Great flies, great tie .
//Janne

[David S.]

Thank you both, I'm real glad you liked them The more I read Atherton's book, the more sense his ideas makes to me. It's a real pity he only got to publish one book..
/David S.

[Eperous]

Thank you both, I'm real glad you liked them The more I read Atherton's book, the more sense his ideas makes to me. It's a real pity he only got to publish one book..
/David S.

David, I could be wrong on this... BUT, I vaguely recall he had another book in the works when he died.... by today's standards, I think he died at a young age...

Ed

[mikevalla]

-I was always told--maybe it's just folklore--that Atherton had another book in the works before he drowned.

-He was indeed an interesting fellow (the "new book" that in fact I just finished and shipped to Stackpole this afternoon) has an entire chapter on Atherton, including a couple of photos of his original patterns that I got my hands on. There is another chapter in the same book mentioned, that's now behind me, that features a fly tier, now dead, who held similar theories---Atherton wasn't the only one with those ideas. You'll find that one interesting also.

--And by the way--thanks to the many SGM members who shot me quotes for the book--or offered materials I was hunting down, or flies. It's 143,212 words, 523 printed pages, 603 Images. I wanted the thing off my desk. After 377 days of continuous work--non stop--and 4:00 AM wake-up times each day, to "get to work writing," and all of that freakin' photography---DONE! Ha! Time to fish!

Thanks again..

-Mike V.

[Bud]

Mike--

Someone once said to Gloria Steinem, "You've founded a magazine and written books and all kinds of articles. You must really love to write." She replied, "I don't like writing. I like having written." Congratulations on emerging from the tunnel at the end of the tunnel and into that blissful state.

--Bud

[mikevalla]

"I don't like writing. I like having written."

True.....My next book should be titled, "A Writer Never Sleeps."

Thanks, Bud

[jelovelace]

Mike,
Just got your "The Classic Wet Fly Box" in the mail today. Awesome! When do your expect your new book will be available?
Thanks,
John

[Mantis]

Excellent flies!

An interesting man, John Atherton. A friend, Wally, has owned Atherton's house on the Battenkill for quite a while now.
I had asked Wally some questions about J.A. and he replied to one of them as follows:
"Jack is buried behind the house here. Lee Wulff put him there in 1952. And the pool (or what used to be a series of pools) is called Atherton's Pool. Since its improvements, its prospects are looking up."

You may also recall the poem in "Gordon's Garland" by Bill Herrick that I will try to post below.

AthertonHerrickPoem.jpeg (80.03 KiB) Viewed 8984 times