Editing, Flyfishers' Journal

The Flyfishers’ Journal: Summer 2021

Late May / early June means it’s time for the summer issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal.

Truth to tell, this wasn’t the easiest issue to be responsible for editing, including as it does some very poignant Appreciations for friends and fellow Members of the Flyfishers’ Club: recent past president Paddy Laverty, author and historian Tony Hayter, and the tragically early-departed (and maybe very distant relation of my own) Tim Pike.

But I’ve tried to brighten the cover with a spectacular bonefishing shot from Bob Bradley – who also won the latest Peter Lapsley Award for the best writing to appear in the Journal during the past year –  and the inner pages with predictably excellent articles contributed by Neil Patterson, Greg Belcamino, Andrew Bett, Miles Beharrell and others. This issue’s ‘good cause’ feature comes from the Wild Carp Trust (hat tip to Nigel Hudson) and there’s also the startling revelation of a new mayfly – Siphlonurus aestivalis – for the UK list (hat tip to Craig Macadam and Andrew Farr).

Maybe slightly against the odds, I think the latest issue is another 72 pages of excellent writing and personal reflections, and I hope it’ll provide lots to contemplate through a summer which may continue to see some of our pre-Covid-19 fishing travels quite constrained. If we can’t fly to Cuba, Japan or Montana at the moment, we can still read and dream!

(The Flyfishers’ Journal is a complimentary benefit of membership of the Flyfishers’ Club, and should have started landing on Members’ doormats a couple of weeks ago; it’s also available to non-members by subscription).