Austin Mac Francis

Last week we heard the sad news of the passing of Austin 'Mac' Francis, mostly known as the author of Catskill Fly Tier, Catskill Rivers and Land of Little Rivers.

Austin Francis became an expert on the history of fly fishing in the Catskills by accident. The importance of this very small area in the north eastern part of the United States had in the development of fly fishing and fly tying as we all know now can be read in his books.

I really enjoyed the book he did with Harry Darbee (he was working on a real biography about the Darbees, hopefully he had enough material so it could still be published).

The Land of the Little Rivers is in my opinion one of the finest books on the history of fly fishing in the Catskills. The pictures in the chapter about the history of the Catskill dry flies and its tiers are simply amazing. Due to the size of the book and the lay out it's also a wonderful coffee table book in its own right. I'm really bummed I didn't get a signed and personalised copy of the book*... 

A rare interview with Austin Francis:

*A thing to remember with other authors like Dave Whitlock, Mike Valla, etc.!