From the Inside Flap
Ernest G. Schwiebert published the first edition of Nymphs in 1973 but never ceased working on the project, and over the next thirty years he continued his research into the entomology necessary to successful trout fishing. Fly fishers in the early twenty-first century are accustomed to myriad types of artificial flies and approaches to catch trout, but back when there were still many anglers who populated a rules-bound world of dry flies and traditional wet flies, what Schwiebert said in the first edition of this book was novel and heretical. Vincent Marinaro, author of that touchstone American text, A Modern Dry-Fly Code, and hero to Schwiebert, refused to speak with the younger writer after Nymphs first appeared, as this new book promoted a violation of form that was unacceptable to the gentleman of the Letort Spring Run. Schwiebert, however, stood solidly behind his methods of identifying, tying, and fishing imitations of nymphs, a revolution in the sport. Ultimately, critics hailed his highly original book as a landmark achievement in both the art and science of fly fishing, and thousands of anglers today carry fly boxes crammed with nymphs of various sizes and colors. Now, the classic text has been fully revised and greatly expanded--in two volumes--and includes taxonomic details of multitudes of individual nymphs from many different insect genera, hundreds of recipes for imitations, and digitally remastered original illustrations and numerous new illustrations by the author. Schwiebert backs his text with authoritative support from the classic work of numerous entomologists, such as James Needham, Justin Leonard, Jay Traver, and George Edmunds, and colors it with his stories of fishing with legends of the sport, including John Hemingway, Charlie Fox, and Joe Brooks. This new Nymphs calls upon decades of angling experience--years that connect extraordinarily different eras of fly-fishing--to present a lasting, highly usable angler's entomology for all of North America.
From the Back Cover
“Ernest Schwiebert was one of the most influential anglers of his time, bringing fluid prose and scientific precision to the knotty problems of enticing trout with artificial flies. Now a new generation can experience the Schwiebert touch as he adds still greater dimension to the art of nymph fishing.”
―John Merwin, Fishing Editor, Field & Stream
“Ernie Schwiebert, or simply Ernie, or ‘Ernesto' as he was known to the fly-fishing fraternity, was a larger-than-life character who set his stamp on fly fishing forever. This two-volume work, revised upward from the original one-volume Nymphs, is an example of why. Quietly, Ernie spent the 33 intervening years since the 1973 original publication researching this, its successor. A classic over-achiever with doctorate and post doctorate degrees, Ernie devoted his life to pursuing the roots and truths of beauty in every form, from architecture to art, wine, history, philosophy, literature and his first and foremost love―fly fishing. From the age of ten he was the quintessential hatch matcher and Nymphs is his crowning achievement in that art/science genre. Nymphs sets Ernie's new standard: one that will never be exceeded in fly-fishing literature. It was my great good fortune to have worked with him. Hail, Ernesto!”―John Randolph, Editor, Fly Fisherman
“When you read one of Ernie Schwiebert's books you get taken on a journey. Rather than reading an instruction manual, you go to Iceland or Ireland or the Nerversink. You learn about the history of our famous rivers and about the culture that surrounds them. You are on the river with Schwiebert, hearing the sounds and smelling the aromas of a trout stream in June. And you get a glimpse into the true genius of a man who could not only figure out the mysteries of subsurface
feeding, but could also invent the pattern to match it, and draw the natural with spectacular beauty. I've had thousands of hours of pleasure with the original Nymphs over the past thirty years. To have a new and updated version with a whole world of new adventures is going to make this book valuable well into the 21st century.”―Tom Rosenbauer, author of The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide
About the original, 1973 edition:
“Few books in the entire history of fishing literature have constituted such a startling advance. Nymphs now seems to me to stand alone as the most accomplished solo writer-artist contribution to fly-fishing literature. With words and art, this book opened the eyes of the next two generations of fly fishers.”
―Paul Schullery, author of American Fly Fishing: A History
About the Author
Ernest G. Schwiebert, Jr.'s first book, Matching the Hatch, which appeared in 1955, is considered an angling classic and coined the phrase, "match the hatch." Before he was thirty, Schwiebert fished the major rivers of Europe and South America as well as the waters of the United States and Canada, and gained world-wide recognition as an authoritative writer-conservationist, artist, and angler. Life magazine profiled him shortly after he published Matching the Hatch.
Schwiebert began to write and publish numerous and important magazine articles on fly-fishing through the 1960s and '70s, and his later books included Nymphs, 1973, and his two-volume Trout, 1984. Paul Schullery's American Fly Fishing, A History includes fourteen references to Schwiebert's books.
A frequent public speaker, Schwiebert served as a pioneer in the fishery conservation movement in America and helped found Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, and the Federation of Fly Fishers. He served on the scientific advisory boards of TU, FFF and The Nature Conservancy, and was a Director of the TGF. In 1997, he received the International Wild Trout Symposium's A. Starker Leopold Award for his conservation efforts. He died in December 2005, survived by his wife, Sara, and son, Erik.
