In its essence, the basic wet fly swing can be brutally simple: Cast across the current and hang on to the rod while the current brings the line tight and pushes – swings – the fly back across the river, ending straight below the angler. But, even for someone like myself who values simplicity, to simply cast and hang on is a mistake, and the idea paints an incomplete picture.
Fishing the swung fly is an art form – one whose mastery will bring both greater satisfaction and greater success on the water. What follows in Fishing the Swung Fly is a compilation of original ideas from some outstanding talents in swung fly angling (along with my own not-as-great but hopefully helpful rambling), who bring together hundreds of years of collective experience to share in this book – providing both fact and theory with the goal of helping you achieve your swung fly goals and dreams.
A special thank you goes out to the Swing the Fly team and the tremendous anglers (and writers) who participated in this book, along with all of you who support Swing the Fly. The spey and swung fly community is a small close-knit niche, and we very much appreciate you all. And another very special thank you goes out to Mitch Baker for his work compiling and editing
this collaboration.
A note about your quarry: Swing the Fly Conservation Editor Daniel Ritz authored an outstanding chapter about landing fish carefully. I ask you read it. Beyond that, we wrote this book about improving at our craft. We all want to be better anglers; when we get better as anglers, we impact more fish. I feel it must be mentioned that it is on us and only us to limit that impact. As you learn to catch more fish, please ask yourself every day you are lucky enough to tangle with a wild fish: Will catching another improve my day any more? Or has today already been made?
I hope you enjoy the book and learn plenty. Thanks again.
-Zack Williams, publisher
Fishing The Swung Fly, from Swing The Fly Press, is now available for purchase on SwingTheFly.com