Flies For Atlantic Salmon & Steelhead

A History Of The World’s Most Elegant Fishing Flies

Flies For Atlantic Salmon & Steelhead is Trey Combs’ comprehensive historical study of the long evolution of salmon and steelhead fly design. With a historian’s eye and an angler’s sensibility, Combs traces how these patterns developed over hundreds of years — not in a straight line, but through cycles of innovation, revival, and stubborn tradition. There were zigzags and fads; at times the flies remained essentially unchanged for decades. Tradition, after all, resists erasure.

To tell this story of transformation, the narrative requires its craftsmen. Combs brings together a “who’s who” of master fly dressers, from the salmon rivers of Scandinavia and Scotland to the steelhead waters of the Pacific Northwest. Presented in striking close-up photography rarely seen elsewhere, these creations — historic and modern — illuminate the enduring artistry at the heart of the sport.

Buy the Book
Limited Edition Hardcover — $119.00 (Amazon)
Digital Edition — $24.99 (Amazon - Kindle)

Limited Edition / Large Oversized Art/Museum Format

• Limited Edition - 1500 Copies Only

• Limited Edition Dust Jacket

• Cloth Hardcover w/Embossed Graphics

• Oversized 12.5" x 10.25" x 1.5"

• 384 pages on heavy art-book matte stock

• More than 1,000 photographs and illustrations (sample image gallery at bottom of page / click to enlarge)

• ISBN 9781735541549

Chapter Descriptions

Part I - Origins: A Migration Of Classic Salmon Flies To The Steelhead Coast

A Speyside Soliloquy — Jock Scott Creates A Vision — The Golden Age Of Salmon Flies — John S. Benn And The Birth Of The Steelhead Fly — Greasing The Line — Zane Grey Spreads — The Gospel — Traditional Steelhead Flies — Syd Glasso’s Stylish Transformation Of The Wet Fly

Part II - Three Amigos: Tube Flies Take Over

Roland Holmberg — Håkan Norling — Mikael Frödin

Part III - Modern Salmon Flies

Pot-Bellied Pigs — Sunray Shadow-Øystein Aas — Flamethrowers — Ally Gowans

Part IV - Modern Steelhead Flies

A Dark Fly For Steelhead — New Takes On A Classic Style — Intruder-Jay Nicholas — Guide Flies — Rabbit Strips And More — SteelFlash

Part V - Arise

The Muddler — Bugs And Bombers-Steve Silverio — Wake Them Up!-Thomas R. Pero