Fly Fishing History
Fly Fishing History
Fly fishing history goes back over two-thousand years. While there are no written accounts, about who actually invented fly fishing, or in what year, my theory is that way back many centuries ago, someone noticed fish snatching insects floating on the surface, and decided to tie some, fur, hair, or feathers on a hook, and cast the contraption out to the fish, when a fish actually took this “fly” fly fishing was born…it could have happened that way.
While searching back through fly fishing history, the earliest known writing which describes fishing as a sport was the “Book of Things” which mentions people using silken lines, hooks and Thornwood rods to fish with. It is believed fly fishing had it’s beginnings in China during the Chow Dynasty more than 2300 years ago. One of the earliest known writings on fly fishing goes back to the year 200 AD, when Claudius Aelianus wrote a book titled “On the Nature of Animals” in it he describes how people fished with a fly in the Astraeus River in Macedonia.
The next account in fly fishing history was in 1425 when an article was written titled “A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle” by Dame Juliana Berner who lived in an English convent at that time, but wasn’t published until 1496. In this article she described in detail how trout and salmon were angled for, using artificial flies. One of her observations that she wrote about was how there was a seasonal occurrence of insect life on her fishing waters, and designed twelve fly patters, one for each month of the year, and describes in her article how to tie them, she also describes the building of rods, and how the rod sections could be joined using a ferrule. She described making fishing lines from horsehair, and how to dye them various colors, how to snell hook, the proper methods for fishing , such as staying well back from a river, perhaps hiding behind a streamside bush to prevent the anglers shadow from alarming the fish. This is the first piece of literature in fly fishing history that proves people fly fished for sport back as early as the 1400’s
The next milestone in fly fishing history was The Compleat Angler written by Isaak Walton and published in 1653; in 1676 Charles Cotton writes a “treatise” titled “Being Instructions How to Angle for Trout and Grayling in a Clear Stream’ which was added to a revised printing of The Compleat Angler. In reading Cotton’s writing, he seemed to understand fly fishing quite well , describing sixty-five fly patterns for the entire season, as well as how to fish them. Although The Compleat Angler was written over three-hundred years ago, it was one of the first “How to” books on fishing and is probably the most well known book on fishing. It is still in print today, and is interesting for anyone interested in the fly fishing history. Many other books on fly fishing were published between the time of The Compleat Angler, and 1900, including “Experienced Angler” by Colonel Robert Venables in 1662. “Anglers Sure Guide” by Robert Howlett in 1706. “The Art of Angling” by Richard Brookes in 1740. “Fly Fisher’s Legacy” by George Scotcher in 1816. “Fly Fishers Entomology” by Alfred Ronalds in 1836. River Angling for Salmon and Trout” by John Younger in 1840.” Practical Angler “by William Stewart in 1857. ‘Modern development of the Dry Fly’ by Frederic Maurice Halford in 1910. This is not a complete listing of fly fishing books published in that time period, but they were some of the most popular books on the subject.
The fly fishing equipment they used back in Walton’s and Cotton’s day was crude compared to the modern gear we use today, the rods were long , between 16 and 18 feet , made of various types of wood that were joined with ferrules, the line was made of horsehair, and since the reel had yet to be invented the line was tied to the rod, and the line wasn’t cast like it is today, but “swung out” to where a fish believed to be, it would be safe to assume that fly fisherman were very limited in their casting distances. By the end of the eighteen century the first fly reels were invented, and fly rods were shortened after that from 16 to 18 feet down to about 12 feet, and made of woods such as hickory, greenheart or bamboo, and even whale bone. The split cane rod was invented in the 1840’s by an American violin maker, by gluing bamboo strips together, years after that Orvis and Hardy began producing very good quality split cane rods, these rods were popular with fly fisherman right up until the 1950’s when rods started being manufactured from fiberglass, and then graphite. .
By the middle of the nineteenth century there was a huge improvement in fly lines, they were then being made of oiled silk, which helped improve casting distance, but had to be removed from the reel after every fishing trip and dried on special dryers, or wound on the back of a chair, so they wouldn’t rot. At about the same time period leaders were being made of silk gut. It was a common practice for many fly fishermen to use 5 or 6 wet flies on their leaders at one time, and no less than 3.
By the nineteenth century many new fly patterns had been developed, and fly fishing became more and more popular but it was also thought of by a lot of people at that time as a “snobbish” way to fish, practiced by gentlemen of the upper class. At about the same time period dry fly fishing had its birth on the chalk streams of England, and became the belief of some that dry fly fishing was the only proper way of catching trout. By the end of the nineteenth century, and early twentieth century many more improvements had been made to fly tackle, and some of the split cane bamboo rods, and brass reels produced at that time by makers such as Hardy and Orvis were works of art. The “Perfect” fly reel by Hardy is a good example of this quality.Fly fishing history began in North America in the early to mid eighteen century, when immigrants from the British Isles, brought their knowledge of fly fishing with them. by the mid nineteenth century fly fishing had become very popular on this side of the Atlantic. While the Brown trout was the species fished for in England, in North America fly fisherman fished for Brook Trout in the East and Steelhead or Cutthroat in the West. Brown trout weren’t first imported and stocked in North America until the 1880’s; the Brown trout were imported from Germany. Nymph fishing was invented by George Edward Mackenzie Skues in England during the nineteenth century. The Buck Tail and Streamer were an American invention in the 1920’s. The elaborate classic feather wing salmon flies were being used less and less, being replaced by the simpler hair wing flies. In the Twentieth century more and more refinements and improvements were developed in fly fishing equipment, such as monofilament leaders that replaced the old gut leaders, the modern floating fly line, as well as the sinking fly line, fiberglass and graphite fly rods, the lightweight fly reels. As well many new fly patterns were developed during the twentieth century. Also hundreds of books on every aspect of fly fishing were written in the twentieth century.
But after the end of the Second World War fly fishing lost much of the popularity it had previously. Spinning and spin cast rods and reels hit the market, as well as a large variety of metal lures, of every size shape and color. You could catch fish with these outfits, and they were easier to learn to use than a fly rod. But during the latter part of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century fly fishing has been making a steady comeback, and I believe will continue to do so. Fly fishers today angle for many species of freshwater and saltwater fish that the old times who only fished for trout and salmon wouldn’t have dreamed of fishing for. So here is a summary of fly fishing history from it’s beginnings to the present time, but it is only a summary, to go into it in great detail would take a complete book or website just on the topic of fly fishing history. I find reading about fly fishing history very interesting, learning how the equipment and methods we use today evolved.- http://www.fly-fishing-for-everyone.com/fly-fishing-history.html
Tags: FlyFishing, History
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