The Tyee Club of British Columbia is one of the most remarkable fishing associations in the world. Named after the great salmon that come cruising in over the shallow flats at the mouth of the Campbell River each summer, the club was founded 75 years ago. Since then it has remained dedicated to the preservation of the salmon runs, and to the traditions of Tyee fishing in Campbell River.

To fish for Tyee under club rules, you have to be in a rowed boat - navigating at times through tides that rip past like rivers. The hours spent are long; the fish are few. And when they come they are often such huge, wild salmon that they escape - leaving broken tackle, and broken anglers, behind them.

Van Egan, a writer who lives on the banks of the Campbell River, has fished the Tyee grounds for decades and himself was named Tyee Man in 1987. A fine writer and a careful historian, Van Egan traces the formation of the club back to a visit by Zane Grey, in 1919, who first made the Campbell River's run of salmon famous. Another great writer, Roderick Haig-Brown, would later add to the growing reputation of the Tyee with his own words of praise.

Catching a Tyee on the flats off Campbell River must surely rate as one of the world's greatest fishing challenges, and Van Egan has done the fish, and the club, an honor with this finely crafted work.

As well as telling the detailed history of the club, and explaining why the Campbell River grows such big salmon, Van Egan also manages to capture the atmosphere on the water, where generations of anglers have gone, drawn by their obsession. Using the rhythmic beat of the rod tips to set the rowing pace, boatsmen today follow the same rituals as they did in Zane Grey's day.

Van Egan describes the scene in the early morning darkness:

"The boatman steadies the oars, checks for other boats nearby and from dim silhouettes estimates five or six already at the fishing.

Before dawn there is an unsureness to the fishing. The guide is uncertain as to his position in the pool or his distance off the bar. He cannot see the rod-top and thereby measure his strokes. The fisherman feels the working lure one moment; then, unsure, reels in to check for weed. The charcoal air has dulled the senses; there is none and the line is set out again - 15 pulls, the weight, and 15 more pulls. It may happen again, and again. It is the pre-dawn dilemma of tyee fishing - a blind sacrifice not to miss that moment when a big fish can be enticed to take the lure."

In recent years the Tyee grounds have at times been closed to fishing because runs were so low. But the community of Campbell River, which is proud of its fishing past, has been working hard to restore stocks, in conjunction with the federal and provincial governments.

Anyone going to fish for the Tyee should read Van Egan's book before setting out. It won't help you catch a salmon, but it will connect you to a rich history and help you to understand why this club has attained such a global reputation.

Tyee - The Story of the Tyee Club of British Columbia can be found in Campbell River bookstores, or it can be ordered by contacting the publisher, Ptarmigan Press, at 1372 Island Highway, Campbell River, B.C. Phone 250-286-0878

The Estuary Flyfisher. By Steve Raymond. Frank Amato Publications. Price: about $20 US.

If you were just going to read one author on the subject of sea trout in the Pacific Northwest, you'd want it to be Steve Raymond. Not only is he a fine writer, but he's an enormously knowledgeable fly fisherman. Like all the good fly fishing writers, he's a serious researcher, who wants not only to know how to catch fish - but why fish are where they are, and what they are doing.

Estuaries provide the richest environmental zones on the coast, but they can be intimidating places to fish, especially if your experience in the past has been mostly on lakes and rivers. In the Estuary Flyfisher, Mr. Raymond explains how estuaries work - the run of the tides and the relationship of trout to the movements of the water.

One of the greatest mysteries surrounding sea run cutthroat trout has been where the fish go when they move out of the estuary proper. In this book, the author examines a fascinating research project by the Washington Fly Fishing Club, whose members launched an investigation into sea run behaviour. When that project failed to provide definitive answers, the author set out to do his own study. The results are contained in several fascinating and detailed pages, in which he plots the response of trout to different tidal conditions.

Fishing for searun cutthroat, even for experienced anglers, has always been about searching. Too often, for too many anglers, it is blind searching. The Estuary Flyfisher is for the serious angler, who wants to fish with purpose and focus. It is for those who want to understand the nature of estuaries, and the fish they hold.

Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon. By Bruce Ferguson, Les Johnson and Pat Trotter. Frank Amato Publications. Price: about $20 US.

First published in 1984, Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon still remains one of the most important and definitive works on this growing sport.

When they first put the book together, fly fishing for Pacific salmon was still a relatively new sport - even though the first recorded salmon on fly was taken in 1876!

Over the past decade, the sport of fly fishing for salmon has exploded. But for many years, only a small number of anglers pursued Pacific salmon in freshwater - and it was rare to see anyone fly fishing in the salt, unless they were trolling a bucktail.

Now we know that all species will take flies, and that they can be taken just about anywhere. Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon is a good jumping off spot for anyone who's new to the sport, whether you're interested in casting for big springs in the open ocean swells off the West Coast, searching out coho in kelp forests, or drifting nymphs to a fresh run of pinks in a river.

The authors of the book clearly took their job seriously when they set out to research their sport. They produced an impressive book that thoroughly explains where to look for salmon, and how to catch them when you find them.

It's a rock solid body of work, with lots of details on fly patterns, techniques and descriptions of salmon food sources.