I have the first edition of this book (called "Reading the Water" (1988)) - which you can still find on Amazon, I don't know why - and while the text of it is fantastic, the diagrams and especially the photos leave a lot to be desired (perhaps in 1988 it would have been two expensive to publish a full-color book for what was then a very specialized field). I mean, seriously, the photos are black and white and of such low quality that they're pretty much useless. On top of that, the photos tend to be laughably irrelevant: The one on page 65, for example, is in the chapter called "Reading Riffles" and is simply a photograph of a guy _releasing_ a fish _near_ some riffles! That was the photo that made it clear to me that Mr. Hughes, who writes almost brilliantly about how to read the water and fish for trout, clearly didn't have a photo editor - or at least didn't have one who understood how to properly use photos in such a book.
Anyway I was reading my copy of the 1988 book and decided that despite it's graphical shortcomings, the information was pure solid gold, and so I bought another copy for my friend, a 'rising' trout fisherman (yuck yuck) who I felt had enough experience to really get what Hughes is teaching. Lo and Behold, I get the 2nd edition in the mail (now called "Reading Trout Water" - a more accurate title actually) and whoa! Color photos! Better diagrams! Wow!
I bought a second copy of this 2nd edition for myself even though I have the 1988 edition.
This is simply an excellent tutorial on what clues to look for on the surface of the water to catch trout under it, and why the trout are there, as well as what type of flies (dry, wet, nymphs) to use and why trout like them. It also delves somewhat into what kind of insect life populate trout rivers.
I think this book would make a lot more sense to a fisher-person who already has some experience fishing, but even a beginner would get a real good idea of how to fish trout on a crick, stream, or river.
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Highlander in Yorkshire
A very good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2012