Darrel Martin, Trout Romeo

Paul Guernsey notes that Darrel Martin is one the great quiet seducers of trout. Evidence includes his preparation for trip to the English chalk streams. “Prior to traveling, not only did Darrel build every piece of his fishing equipment from scratch, but he handicapped himself by restricting himself to the technology of Izaak Walton’s time. He constructed a loop-rod of spruce and a fly line of horsehair; he forged his own hooks-and of course, he tied his own flies on them.” Mr. Martin is a contributing editor of Fly Rod & Reel and the author of Micropatterns: Tying and Fishing the Small Fly (The Lyons Press, 352 pages, 1999) and the excellent The Fly Fisher’s Illustrated Dictionary (The Lyons Press, 292 pages, 2000).