Although GEM Skues was the father of nymph fishing, one of the anglers who had most influence on the development of nymph fishing was Oliver Kite who claimed to be able to catch fish on a bare hook. And blind fold: which he did once for a television programme. Although he wrote his weekly Fisherman's Diary for the then Shooting Times, and many articles and essays for fishing and other magazines, he produced only the one book. A Fisherman's Diary, published in 1969, was an edited collection of his articles published in Shooting Times, Elements of Nymph Fishing was an edited and condensed version of Nymph Fishing in Practice, first published in 1963.

Swan Hill Press has just published a new version of Kite's book with and introduction and much interesting additional biographical material included, written by Robert Spaight, and a number of personal memories from well-known fishermen who knew and fished with Oliver Kite.

In his introduction Spaight writes: "Oliver Kite was a man ahead of his time, with great clarity of thought and expression and originality of mind. His precision of thought and distilled minimalist thinking challenges our more complicated modern ways. He based everything on observation of fish behaviour, and he started from the point of view of the fish, not of the fly. At the turn of the century, and more than thirty years after his untimely death, it is good to provide a new edition of a classic work - arguably the most straight-forward book on clear-water nymphing (or Netheravon-style nymphing) ever published. As with the clarity of Oliver Kite's fishing thinking, there is clarity of writing."

Oliver Kite had his first heart attack at 35 and was dead at 48 - a tragically short life. He was retired from the Army in 1965 due to ill health and spent the rest of his life as a naturalist, TV film maker and professional fisherman. In this book on the Netheravon-style of nymphing, he describes very clearly the characteristics of the six groups of nymphs that he identified and they are illustrated with splendid line drawings, some full-page size.

The book is well illustrated with a selection of black and white and good colour photographs, including flies Kite designed tied by such well-known tiers as Oliver Edwards, Charles Jardine and John Goddard as well as some of Kite's own tyings. Interestingly for someone so keen and devoted to nymph fishing, he designed more dry flies than nymphs - the Bare Hook nymph and the New Forest Stream nymph. Perhaps the answer to the unasked question is that he claimed to use only one pattern - the Sawyer Pheasant Tail nymph - but in a range of sizes. A chapter at the end of the book covers the flies of and those associated with Kite and includes recipes and tying instructions.

Some aspects of the book are dated - and obviously so - but they do not detract from the book's real value to all nymph fishermen today, including stillwater and grayling anglers - he could never resist the challenge of a well-educated grayling! Kite was firmly of the opinion that the key to "successful nymph fishing is primarily dependent on the life-like employment of the artificial by the angler". Chapter three contains much good advice on when to fish the nymph and stresses the importance of observation.

The first five chapters cover the technical aspects of nymph fishing and these are followed by chapters covering practical aspects and problems encountered and how to overcome them. One point that comes out very clearly is the importance of accurate casting.

One of the many good things about this book is that it does have its own style. In a chapter called A Wet Morning on the Upper Avon, Kite writes: "Nymph fishing, I think, may be likened to deer stalking. The cast, like the actual shot, should be no more than the coup de grace. The hard work, both the physical effort involved in the approach and the mental preparation which precedes it, is mostly done beforehand. The nymph fisher, however, has one great advantage over the stalker. Whereas the latter's hands are tied, in that his shot must take one particular trajectory, and one only, from the point at which it is fired, the nymph fisher can put his artificial almost anywhere within reasonable reach of the trout and persuade his quarry to come and get it."

Although the supporting information is of interest, it still does not stop me, as a keen book collector, from wanting to buy a first edition of this excellent book.

Nymph Fishing in Practice by Oliver Kite. Introduction and Notes by Robert Spaight. Published by Swan Hill Press at £19.95. Hardback 208 pages.

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