Book Title : The Practical Angler and A Caution to Anglers
Author : W.C. Stewart
Type :Standard edition
Price: £79.00

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The Practical Angler or The Art of Trout-Fishing more particularly applied to clear water, first published in 1857, revolutionised tactics and became one of the most important and influential books in angling literature. Stewart's upstream sunk-fly technique, using lightly dressed “spiders”, is described here, just one year before the birth of G.E.M. Skues, who applied the same idea to chalkstream fishing 50 years later.

“Another very sensible observation of Mr. Stewart is that the colour of a fly is not half so important as the way in which it is made to fall and float on the water. A small fly and clear gut are sine quibus non; and the thing to aim at is the appearance of life, not colour, in your artificial bait. A more practical, sound, sensible, and unpretending book we never read, and we recommend it without abatement or qualification.” Saturday Review, 1857.
We have commissioned expert fly-tier and photographer Terry Griffiths to re-tie Stewart's fly patterns in the style he would have used, and to provide superb new colour plates of those flies.

Also included in this new edition is the riposte, entitled A Caution to Anglers or The Practical Angler and The Modern Practical Angler Compared, to the publication of the similarly named book by Harry Cholmondeley-Pennell, to which Stewart took particular offence  - especially as Pennell's work contradicted his own.
A new introductory essay by Richard Hunter precedes this section, discussing the acrimonious relationship between these two men. "The carefully considered and finely crafted Stewart summary of the wisdom of using appropriately coloured and sparsely dressed ‘spiders’ fished upstream was summarily dismissed and contradicted by the old-fashioned Cholmondeley-Pennell in his ‘modern’ wide-ranging work. Clearly irked and insulted the young Scot was in no mood to back down and in the columns of The Field battle was publicly joined."  The two even met and fished in competition on Loch Leven in an attempt to prove who was the better angler.

Pp xl,232. B/w frontispiece plate of Stewart, 5 colour plates of flies, 1 full page b/w engraving, and  b/w illustrations•  Bound in a rich mottled burgundy bonded leather •  Gold tooling to front cover and spine • Top edge gilt • Green marbled endpapers • Matching pea green silk page marker •  Complimenting dark green cloth slipcase • Edition of 500 copies.

There is also a de luxe edition containing three of Stewart's flies tied by Peter Kealey, limited to 35 copies, fully bound in finest Morocco and presented in a velvet-lined slipcase.

Also available in a high-quality paperbound "Flytyer's edition", priced at £19.95.