Book Review: Tying and Fishing the Fuzzy Nymphs by Ernest "Polly" Rosborough…Innovator of Simplicity9/9/2024
 Pencil sketch by Michael D. Day Just as Frank Sawyer’s skill, observation and artistry brought about the pheasant tail nymph, Polly Rosborough provided the world with the Casual Dress, the Near Enough, among many others. Sawyer was able to see what few anglers saw, the essence of a swimming nymph from the perspective of a trout, and Rosborough has done the same. Rosborough, like Sawyer, was a reductionists, thereby capturing the essence of aquatic life. Tying flies with two to three materials, Rosborough’s flies demonstrated “life,” and life is a trigger for trout. Today Rosborough’s Casual Dress has been further modified by Dave Hughes with the use of spun squirrel hair, and these patterns in rust, olive and tan/brown/gray, can solve problems on the river when other flies fall short.  Pencil sketch by Michael D. Day This is a wonderful book, providing the reader with not only Rosborough’s fly patterns, but his suggested best practices in terms of presentation. I’ve presented his fly patterns in all directions on small streams and larger rivers, and fooled trout when nothing else seemed to work.
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