The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G. E. M. Skues published in London in 1921. This was Skues's second book after Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream (1910).
The Way of a Trout was originally intended to be a treatise on the theory and practice of dressing trout flies but, by Skues's own admission, does not do a very good job of it. The book does include a number of original and interesting chapters on fly dressing and Skues's theories on the vision of trout. Additionally, the Minor Tactics section expands on Skues's exploration of nymph fishing for trout.
In Notable Angling Literature (1945) James Robb said of Skues and The Way of a Trout:
He pursued the matter [Nymph fishing] with his striking books The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout. Mr. Skues is a useful antedote to the extremists who followed Halford and should be read along with that author. To Mr. G. E. M. Skues anglers are indebted among other things for his particular method of tying as well as for his imitations of nymphs; they are given in his Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream and The Way of a Trout with the Fly.
In The Well-Tempered Angler (1965) Arnold Gingrich listed The Way of a Trout as one of the top 30 literary and technical books on fly fishing since the publication of the Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle (1496)
Dr. Andrew Herd, noted British fly-fishing historian, characterizes The Way of The Trout:
This is a classic and I often wonder if Skues knew it would be when he set pen to paper. The book is inspirational in a way that Halford's work never was and grips the reader's attention right from the cover, which in the first edition bears the words: ....
The Way of a Trout shows Skues at the height of his powers and it contains the best of his thinking on fishing nymphs and semi-submerged patterns, illustrated by the sort of asides, stories and vast fund of experience that only he could call upon.
In Skues on Trout (2008) Paul Schullery notes:
His second book, which many still regard as a masterpiece, was The Way of a Trout with the Fly (1921), and it quickly established him as one of the day's great angling theorists--as it also established the intellectual and ethical basis for sunken flies as legitimate tooks of a well-rounded angler.
Foreword - ix
Division I
Part I
I. Considerations Of Motive - 1
II. The Why - 3
III. Freewill and Predestination - 5
Part II
I. The Sense Of Taste - 8
II. The Sense Of Smell - 9
Part III - The Vision Of Trout
I. A Preliminary Cast - 10
II. The Sense of Form And Definition - 13
III. The Invisibility of Hooks - 17
IV. The Sense of Position - 18
V. A Problem for The Optician - 20
VI. The Sense of Number - 23
VII. The Sense of Colour - 24
VIII. The Sense of Size - 31
IX. Tone - 32
X. In Dusk and Dark - 34
XI. Looking Upward - 36
XII. Looking Upward In Dusk and Dark - 43
Part IV - How
I. The Mouth of A Trout - 48
II. A Speculation in Bubbles - 50
III. The Rise - 51
IV. Assorted Rises - 59
V. Fausse Montee - 65
VI. The Moment - 67
Part V - What
I. Flies as Food - 69
II. Fly Dressing as An Art - 75
III. Imitation, Representation, Suggestion - 77
IV. Styles of Fly Dressing - 79
V. Kick - 82
VI. Ex Mortua Manu - 83
Part VI – Bafflement - 89
Division II - Some Further Minor Tactical Studies
I. Some Problems - 90
The Hare's-Ear Puzzle - 90
Upstream Wind - 91
A Curious Contrast - 96
The Red Quill - 100
The Entrance Out - 102
The Alder and Canon K. - 104
The Willow-Fly - 107
II. Some Fly-Dressing Examples - 108
Iron Blue - 108
A Good Small Olive - 109
July Dun - 110
Little Red Sedge - 113
Pheasant Tail - 115
Rusty Spinner - 117
The Pope and the Tailers - 118
III. Some More Fly Dressing—Principles and Practice - 121
Theories of Wet-Fly Dressing of Trout Flies - 121
The Dressing of Nymphs - 125
The Purposes of a Hackle - 129
The Spade Feather - 132
Buzz - 133
A Good Entry - 134
Quality in Fly-Dressing Materials - 135
IV. Sundry Observations - 138
What Made the Dry Fly Possible - 138
The Excommunication of the Wet Fly - 139
The Cultivation of Shyness - 149
Semi-Submerged, Etc. - 154
Wind and the Evening Rise - 157
On the Accuracy of Authorities - 161
Driftweed and Bad Advice - 162
V. B.W.O. - 166
B.W.O. - 166
VI. Tactical - 172
Glimpses of the Moon - 172
Side Strain - 176
Of Pocket Picking - 180
Of the Ways of Brer Fox - 181
Picking It off: A Very Minor Tactic - 183
Argillaceous - 184
Of Glycerine - 186
The Switch - 188
VII. Psychological - 192
Hands - 192
Accuracy and Delicacy - I94
The Triumph of the Inadequate - 196
VIII. Frankly Immoral - 201
Makeshift - 201
IX. Episodical - 205
Established Principles and Trout - 205
An Abnormal Day - 208
One of Life's Little Cast Ironies - 210
Another of Life's Little Cast Ironies - 212
A Borrowed Rod - 213
A Local Fall - 217
At the Second Culvert - 219
Bobbing Reed - 224
Sporting Hazards on a Berkshire Brook - 226
Four - 232
Nine to One - 237
A Travelling Companion - 242
The Following Day - 246
My Sticking-Plaster Trout - 252
X. Doggerel from the Club Journal - 255
Little Brown Wink - 255
A Sequel - 257
Advertisement—Amadou - 260
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. THE BLUE DUN AS RENDERED IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS - Frontispiece
II. Method of Dressing Nymphs - 124
III. Another Method of Dressing Nymphs - 128
Skues, G. E. M. (1928). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (2nd ed.). London: A & C Black.
Skues, G. E. M. (1935). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (3rd ed.). London: A & C Black.
Skues, G. E. M. (1949). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (4th ed.). London: A & C Black.
Skues, G. E. M. (1955). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (4th Edition 2nd Printing ed.). London: A & C Black.
Skues, G. E. M. (1961). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (4th Edition-Revised ed.). London: A & C Black. ISBN 1-4995-0836-0.
Skues, G. E. M. (1973). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (4th Edition-Reprint ed.). London: A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-0712-2.
Skues, G. E. M. (1993). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (Flyfisher's Classic Library 1921 Facsimile ed.). Wales, UK: Bovey Tracy.
Skues, G. E. M. (1996). The Way of a Trout with the Fly (Collectors ed.). Norwalk CT: Easton Press.
Hills, John Waller (1921). A History of Fly Fishing for Trout. London: Philip Allen & Co.
Robb, James (1945). Notable Angling Literature. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited.
Walker, C. F. (1956). Angling Letters of G. E. M Skues. London: Adam and Charles Black.
Gingrich, Arnold (1974). Fishing in Print: A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press.
Herd, Andrew Dr (2001). The Fly. Ellesmere, Shropshire: Medlar Press. ISBN 1-899600-19-1.
Robson, Kenneth (1998). The Essential G. E. M. Skues. London: A & C Black. ISBN 9780713638929.
Hayter, Tony (2002). F. M. Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution. London: Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-6773-9.
Skues, G. E. M. (2008). Schullery, Paul, ed. Skues on Trout: Observations from and Angler Naturalist. Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books.
