Published Sep 24. 2014 - 9 years ago
Updated or edited Dec 15. 2022

Book review: Take the F...ing Fly

Wisdoms and Frustrations of fly fishing in an irreverent poem

A very different fly-fishing book and a book right after my heart. Poetry, watercolors... and the F-word!


Info
Author: 
Milt Mays
Publisher: 
Self published
Publishing year: 
2013
ISBN: 
9780991329793
Pages: 
40
Price: 
16.39
US$
Reviewed by: 

THE FUNK cloaks my heart,
Hazes my mind,
Chokes out fun,
Good friends and sunshine.

All for a fish
That will eat that f*king fly.

The above is an example of the text found in Milt Mays' fabulous little book Take The F*ing Fly, which is a series of small, almost haiku-like poems, together creating one long epic poem. It's beautifully illustrated with watercolors by Mike Friehauf - or is that water color like photo manipulations? No matter what they suit the mood and style of the book perfectly.

We're not talking how-to, where-to or anything really practical here. Just a few pages expressing the feeling of frustration mixed with joy that we all know.

It's a book right after my heart and I wish there were more of its kind in fly-fishing. Sometimes the factual can be so boring and unsurprising. It's liberating when people do something different.
And Milt Mays has done that here. He usually writes suspense, and even though this book is vaguely exiting - will that fish take the f*ing fly? - it's not suspense as you normally understand it.

But it's brilliant.

Read more about Mays, his fishing and his other books on his web site.

Please fish, take the f*ing fly - A couple of pages from Milt Mays\' book
Poetry

Comments

Thanks for your grea...

Thanks for your great review. Never saw it until now. I had one of those days a week ago on the same river, with the same group of guys, the Bighorn in Montana. First day was 4 above when we hit the river.

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