Graham Nicol takes a look at Topher Browne's Atlantic Salmon Magic, a book that covers all aspects of salmon fishing from around the world. Does it desrve a place on his coffee table?
If you were restricted to only several books on each subject then this one ought to be considered on a shortlist for salmon fishing. It combines all aspects of fly fishing for salmo salar and in addition is extremely up to date being published in 2011. As a consequence the author covers Scandinavian and Skagit techniques which, being quite recent, are not addressed in the old classics by luminaries such as Falkus, Waddington, Wood, Balfour-Kinnear, etc.
Topher Browne is based in Maine and fishes mainly the Canadian rivers but travels a lot and has fished all the Atlantic meccas of Norway, Russia, Iceland and Scotland and thus comments knowledgeably on various aspects pertinent to different geographies.
The chapters progress in a fairly logical manner focussing initially on general tactics of reading water, dry, wet, riffling hitch and sunk line approaches, and then progressing to playing them and casting. He concludes with a directory of all the main Atlantic salmon rivers around the world.
This is a mighty tome and can be classified in the coffee table book category as it measures 11in by 9in consists of 462 glossy pages and weighs 5lbs! Many photos are included in the text and some are quite sublime showing stream and rivers that just shout fish.
This is not an instruction manual but more for reference and what I particularly like about the author is that he is not dogmatic about styles and approaches. In easy language he explains various applications as well as his preferred but likewise states that the angler adopt whatever they feel more comfortable with. For instance striking fish the two main approaches are off the reel, release a loop of line or keep everything tight and lift when you feel resistance. All have their pros and cons and Topher uses the off the reel but at no point does he believe it to be the most superior but his preferred stance.
If I have to criticise the book it comes from two areas. The first is a reasonable part focuses on the dry fly and using bomber flies which seem to be mostly applicable to Canadian rivers. The second is the book is quite expensive with a retail price of £100. Fortunately Coch-y-Bonddu books are offering it at £50 which is far more realistic.
In summary a good update on some of the classics and worth adding to one's library if their floorboards can take the weight!