Ira W. Gruber is celebrated for the Atlantic salmon fishing techniques he developed over a lifetime of fishing on the Miramichi in New Brunswick, Canada. Ira is known for the 38 salmon fly patterns he originated and the thousands of salmon flies he tied over his lifetime, influencing such well-known contemporaries as Joe Bates, Morris Greene, Ted Niemeyer, and Leonard Wright.

Ira D. Gruber, grandson of Ira W., has authored this fishing biography. A professor of history at Rice before he retired, Ira D. Gruber did the research for the book using his grandfather's papers, annotated angling books, photographs, and notes and interviewing locals in New Brunswick and Ira W.'s native Pennsylvania. The book features stunning photographs of and the patterns for 91 flies from Ira W.'s personal collection, including most of his 38 original fly creations.