Art of the Wet Fly

The History of Fly Fishing for Trout & Books of Historical Interest

Aelianus, Claudius, De Natura Animalium (translation by William Radcliffe in Fishing from Earliest Times, Murray, 1921). Fishing for speckled fish (trout?) in the rivers of Macedonia. The first known reference to fly fishing.

Aldam, W.H., A Quaint Treatise on Flees and the Art of Artyficall Flee Making, London, 1876. Supposedly based on the manuscript of an anonymous old man the Treatise introduces many familiar wet-flies and provides notes on dressing them, dyeing materials etc. The original (very rare!) contained flies dressed by James Ogden and his daughter. A precious book ripe for re-issuing! For those with a bit of brass, there are copies available from antiquarian booksellers but Lawrie’s Reference Book of English Trout Flies provides snippets from the Aldam’s book.

Bainbridge, G.C., The Fly-Fisher’s Guide, Liverpool, 1816 (now available via FFCL).

Barker, T, The Art of Angling, London, 1651 (re-published as Barker’s Delight or the Art of Angling in 1657). Contains an interesting description of tying palmer flies and the first illustration of a crude reel (‘winch’).

Berners, Dame Juliana, A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle in the Boke of St Albans, 1496 (see Origins of Angling by John McDonald and A History of Fly-Fishing for Trout by John Waller Hills). Whether the good Dame actually wrote the Treatyse or not is in dispute but the work printed by Wynken de Worde (was that really the name of Caxton’s successor!) at Westminster is the first English work on fly fishing and contains twelve apostolic trout flies.

Blacker, W., The Art of Fly-Making, London, 1843 (available via FFCL).

Bowlker, Richard and Charles, The Art of Angling, Worcester, 1746 or 1747. A popular book that went through many imprints yet not very original as far as fly fishing is concerned.

Chetham, J., The Angler’s Vade Mecum, London, 1681. A somewhat forgotten book yet it contains the first record of North-Country soft-hackled wet-flies! Chetham used a very extensive pallet of fly dressing materials but also seems to have had the nasty habit of lurking around graveyards – how else would he have been able to anoint his hooks with ‘dead man’s fat’? Somewhat obscurely, Chetham’s library in Manchester (England) has produced an edition of James Chetham’s book (access it via the internet).

Cotton, C., Being Instructions How to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in Clear Streams (added as Part II to Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler, London, 1767). There are many editions of The Compleat Angler but a very nice edition is now available from FFCL. If we are to believe him, Cotton wrote the work in only ten days but it contains a brilliant treatise on aquatic insects and fishing techniques. Cotton is something of a hero of mine – as you might guess if you have read any of my books.

Cutcliffe, H.C., Trout Fishing on Rapid Streams, South Molton, 1863. In spite of its turgid prose this is a very interesting book focusing on wet-fly fishing on the rain-fed rivers of Devon. Unlike the soft-hackled flies of the North-Country, Cutcliffe used steely and bright hackle feathers from Old English game cocks in order to provide ‘kick’ in the rapid water. Tinsels were often added to further the attraction. Cutcliffe’s flies have largely fallen out of use because of the difficulty of obtaining suitable hackle feathers. I have a battered first edition of this book and, in spite of Cutcliffe’s pompous style of writing, I just love it!

Edmonds, H.H. & Lee, N.N., Brook and River Trouting, Bradford, 1916

Gingrich, A., The Fishing in Print, Winchester Press, 1974. Get hold of a copy of Arnold Gingrich’s book if you can because it contains extended passages from many of the classic fly fishing texts.

Hills, J.W., A History of Fly Fishing for Trout, Allan, 1921 (a nice edition was published by Barry Shurlock in 1973). Of all the books on the history of fly fishing I still think this is the best and a very enjoyable read in addition to the information it contains. Another enjoyable book by Hills is A Summer on the Test, 1924 (Andre Deutsch paperback 1983).

Jackson, J., The Practical Fly-Fisher, London and Leeds, 1854. Many of the wet-flies contained in John Jackson’s book re-appear in Pritt’s North-Country Flies though the names sometimes differ. Jackson’s wet-flies were often winged whereas Pritt’s counterparts were generally hackled patterns.

Ogden, J., Ogden on Fly-Tying, Cheltenham, 1879 (now available via FFCL). In his day, Ogden was considered one of the leading fly-tyers and invented many famous flies such as the Invicta. Originally from Derbyshire, Ogden was fishing the dry-fly as early as the 1850s (as outlined by him in an article in The Field, 1853).

Pritt, T.E., Yorkshire Trout Flies, Goodall & Siddick, Leeds, 1885 (re-published as North-Country Flies, Low, London, 1886).

Stewart, W.C., The Practical Angler, Edinburgh, 1857.

Theakston, M., British Angling Flies, Ripon, 1853. Many of the wet-flies contained in Michael Theakston’s book re-appear in Pritt’s North-Country Flies though the names sometimes differ. Jackson’s wet-flies were often winged whereas Pritt’s counterparts were generally hackled patterns.

Turton, J.,The Angler’s Manual, 1836.

Venables, R., The Experienced Angler, London, 1662. Colonel Robert Venables wrote a good practical guide. Unfortunately, the English Civil Wars took too much of his fishing time away from him!

Voss Bark, C., A History of Fly Fishing, Merlin Unwin, 1992. Apart from working as a political correspondent for the BBC, and running a very successful fishing hotel with his wife, Anne, Conrad Voss Bark was a prolific angling writer. His History of Fly Fishing is an informative and thought-provoking book. Of particular interest is his experiments with the old ‘loop rod’ (see below).

Webster, D., The Angler and the Loop Rod, Edinburgh and London, 1885. At the very time Halford and company were plying their built cane (bamboo) rods and oil-dressed silk lines David Webster was outlining the advantages of the old ‘loop rod’ (line being tied directly to the tip of the rod). The experiments carried out by Conrad Voss Bark illustrate clearly that loop rods and horse hair lines were a little more sophisticated than we might imagine.

Younger, J, On River Angling for Salmon and Trout, Edinburgh, 1840 (now available via FFCL).

Lunn, M., A Particular Lunn, Unwin Hyman, 1990. Mick Lunn’s book (written in conjunction with Clive Graham-Ranger) outlines a hundred years of fishing on the Test as viewed by the Lunn keepering dynasty.

Watson, J.N., Angling with the Fly: Flies and Anglers of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, Smith Settle, 2008. A superb new book which is painstakingly researched. Beautifully illustrated, the book usefully includes contemporary personalities in addition to the historical figures of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Look out also for his forthcoming book on the Forgotten Flies of Roger Woolley.