Flyfishing History

Flyfishing

the first reference to fly fishing is in Ælian’s Natural History, probably written about 200 A.D. Ælian was born in about A.D. 170 at Praeneste, where he later held a religious post, dying in about A.D. 230. At some point he became a pupil of Pausanias of Caesarea, who taught him rhetoric, and as a good student Ælian also learnt excellent Attic Greek. He later studied history under the patronage of the empress Julia Domna, and moving within her circle would have allowed him to meet not only Galen, but Oppian

" I have heard of a Macedonian way of catching fish, and it is this: between Borœa and Thessalonica runs a river called the Astræus, and in it there are fish with speckled skins; what the natives of the country call them you had better ask the Macedonians. These fish feed upon a fly peculiar to the country, which hovers on the river. It is not like the flies found elsewhere, nor does it resemble a wasp in appearance, nor in shape would one justly describe it as a midge or a bee, yet it has something of each of these. In boldness it is like a fly, in size you might call it a midge, it imitates the colour of a wasp, and it hums like a bee. The natives generally call it the Hippouros.
These flies seek their food over the river, but do not escape the observation of the fish swimming below. When then the fish observes a fly on the surface, it swims quietly up, afraid to stir the water above, lest it should scare away its prey; then coming up by its shadow, it opens its mouth gently and gulps down the fly, like a wolf carrying off a sheep from the fold or an eagle a goose from the farmyard; having done this it goes below the rippling water.
Now though the fishermen know this, they do not use these flies at all for bait for fish; for if a man’s hand touch them, they lose their natural colour, their wings wither, and they become unfit food for the fish. For this reason they have nothing to do with them, hating them for their bad character; but they have planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their fisherman’s craft.
They fasten red (crimson red) wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in colour are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive."

http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/aelian.htm

 

Izaak Walton

 Izaak Walton (9 August 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies which have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.

The Compleat Angler 

first published in 1653

 

..doubt not that angling is an art ; is it 
not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly ? a 
trout ! that is more sharp-sighted than any hawk you 
have named, and more watchful and timorous than 
your high mettled merlin is bold ; * and yet I doubt 
not to catch a brace or two to-morrow for a friend's 
breakfast ; doubt not, therefore, Sir, but that angling 
is an art, and an art worth your learning. The question 
is rather, whether you be capable of learning it ? for 
angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so : 
I mean, with inclinations to it, though both may be 
heightened by discourse and practice : but he that hopes 
to be a good angler, must not only bring an inquiring, 
searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large 
measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity 
to the art itself ; but having once got and practised it, 
then doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant, 
that it will prove to be like virtue, a reward to itself. 

http://www.archive.org/details/compleatangler00waltuoft

 

George Edward MacKenzie Skues

 Born August 13, 1858, died August 9, 1949

THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 

published in London in 1921

One frequently sees it maintained in books and in articles 
in the press that it is impossible to say why trout come 
on to the rise. With all possible respect for the distin- 
guished authors of those books and articles, I venture to 
disagree. Trout come on to the rise for two reasons in 
combination — (i) because they are hungry, and (2) because 
there is food. It is no answer to say that frequently fly is in 
quantity on the water and is neglected. That is quite true, 
and yet it is consistent with the trout not being hungry — 
being perhaps gorged — or being busy with some preferable 
diet under water. It is clear that the trout do not rise 
without something to rise at, that when they come on 
to the rise they do so with remarkable unanimity, that 
they leave off with a unanimity almost as remarkable, that 
when fly food is scarce they do not rise as freely as when it is 
plentiful. And when it is plentiful and they are not rising 
it is not too great an assumption to suggest that it is because 
they are not hungry. It is probably within the experience 
of most chalk-stream anglers that fleets of upwinged duns 
sail down neglected, with only a trout rising fitfully here 
and there among them, and that that trout here and there 
is singularly amenable to the attraction of an iron-blue dun - 

http://www.archive.org/details/wayoftroutwithfl00skuerich

 .Skues has been described not only as the father of nymph fishing, but as the greatest fly fisher who ever lived. He was also a modest, humorous and warmly accessible writer whose writings never lost sympathy for this his fellow anglers. His self-deprecating and deceptively simple-sounding writings on trout and fly fishing remain among the wisest and most revealing in the sport's enormous literature

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Edward_MacKenzie_Skues

 

American Museum of Fly Fishing

 

Established in 1968 in Manchester, Vermont, by a group of interested anglers, the American Museum of Fly Fishing was created to preserve and exhibit the treasures of American angling.

http://www.amff.com/

 

Water cure "torture" as a term for a form of torture refers to a method in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time, resulting in gastric distension, "water intoxication", and possibly death.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cure_%28torture%29

A water cure"therapeutic" in the therapeutic sense is a course of medical treatment by hydrotherapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cure_%28therapy%29

Water cure may refer to: ... Water cure (cultivation), an alternative method for the very last step (curing) in cannabis cultivation.