The History of Fly Fishing
This newly released work called A History
of Fly Fishing for
Trout by John Waller Hills is the quickest and easiest way to learn
more about the sport we both love. Inside this magnificent work
you'll
get over 450 years of knowledge starting with a full chapter on
the first
book on fishing published in England in 1496. This book contains
absolutely everything any fly fisher searching for information
on his
chosen sport needs.
The work is divided up into 11 comprehensive chapters:
Chapter 1: Sporting Literature in France and England ·
This chapter sets the scene for the first
fly fishing book ever written,
the Treatise of Fishing with an Angle. It examines life at the
time and
looks at some of the books and authors of the fifteenth century.
Chapter 2: The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle ·
Published in 1498, the first of the great
fishing books includes directions
for making rods; how to make hooks; thickness and type of line
to use. This
chapter also includes fishing techniques and strategies.
Chapter 3: From the Treatise to the Compleat Angular ·
This chapter centres on the work of three
writers: Leonard Mascall,
William Lawson and Gervase Markham, and includes fishing instructions
from the 1620’s. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries
fishing was very popular. Many shops sold rods, creels, landing
nets and
hooks; but reels were not yet invented.
Chapter 4: Early Fly Fishing in France·
In France, where fly fishing was not as advanced
or as popular as in
England, most fishing was done with nets and traps.
Chapter 5: Charles Cotton and his Contemporaries
In the mid seventeenth century there were
five authors whose work had a
deep influence on the history of fly fishing: Barker, Walton, Franck,
Venables
and Cotton. The reel is first mentioned by Barker in 1651. Types
of fly, their
general appearance and fishing strategies of the time are discussed.
Chapter 6: From Cotton to Stewart
In the eighteenth century, as the use of reels
became more widespread rod
lengths shortened by an average of eight feet!
Chapter 7: Stewart and the Upstream School
Upstream fishing is first mentioned by Venables
in 1662, in the Experienced
Angler. Even in the seventeenth century there was disagreement
as to whether
one should fish upstream or downstream.
Chapter 8: The Dry Fly
The first mention of the dry fly is in Pulman’s
third edition of Vade Mecum of
Fly Fishing for Trout printed in 1851. Pulman was a well known
tackle maker at
Axminster; he fished on the Axe, on the eastern side of Devonshire
Chapter 9: The Evolution of the Trout Fly
A list of twelve flies in use in the early
twentieth century is compared with the
list from 1496. A full description is given of each fly including
materials used and
how they evolved.
Chapter 10: The Evolution of the Trout Fly (contd.)
How flies were dressed and tied and what materials
were used. Some flies like the
February Red were dressed almost identically in the nineteenth
as in the fifteenth century.
Chapter 11: The Literature of Fly Fishing
We take a final look at the great writers,
from Dame Juliana in 1496, through
Cotton, Stoddart, Stewart and Bowlker, right up to Ronalds, Halford
and Lord
Grey and many others in between.
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