|
|
A short history of trout and
salmon flies and fly tying
 |
| Old trout flies dressed on gut
snoods - now very fragile! |
Trout and salmon flies come in a huge variety of sizes shapes
and colours. Wet flies, dry flies, nymphs, emergers, hoppers, streamers
and each of these general types has a multitude of variations and tying
techniques. Salmon flies are also divided into a host of types, classic
patterns, hairwing flies, dry flies, bombers, bugs, tube flies, bottle
tubes, temple dogs, skaters and shrimp flies. Fly tying has even become
an art, the creation of amazing patterns of fur and feather on a hook
that will never get wet, an expression of flair, skill and patience. It
is therefore with some trepidation that I have tackled fly tying on the
site because it is such a vast and difficult subject, but how could a
fly fisherman's site avoid doing so? I know that this contribution is
woefully small in comparison to the volumes of subject matter available,
in mitigation some of the flies are original and very successful patterns
that have become favourites all over the world. Allys Shrimps, Cascade,
Allys Fancy and a bunch of lesser known but very good flies. My range
of special flies are illustrated on the downloadable
brochure.
 |
| Old salmon flies dressed either onto gut snoods or
with simple (not twisted) gut loops and hand made hooks circa 1800 |
To start with however a look at some of the flies that were
used in Scottish rivers and lochs hundreds of years ago, and which no
doubt would still catch a few fish today. All of these flies were tied
onto tapered shank hooks with natural gut strands or snoods tied underneath
the dressings to allow the flies to be attached to the "cast"
(the word leader is a comparatively recent term). Materials on these flies
are simple and easily obtainable, no fancy feathers were available because
the Victorian era of bird collecting had not started when these were made,
some of these flies are believed to be over 200 years old and they remained
in good condition in a paper accounts book that an angler had used as
a fly wallet. It is dated 1790 and despite the fragility of its contents,
especially the gut, most of the flies survived in pretty much the state
that they were in last time they were used. It's a pity that the book
does not contain the story of it's life, I often wonder who the owner
was and where he fished. He certainly would not have foreseen that his
flies, so skillfully tied in the hand could now be seen on the world wide
web!
Fly fishing in the British Isles was practiced in the 15th
century and it may have started some considerable time before that because
the Roman's recorded the construction of artificial flies in the 1st century
and the Chinese probably caught fish with artificial flies many years
previous. Hooks made of copper were recovered from the period of the Shang
Dynasty (16 century to 11 century BC) and there are records of silk fishing
lines from the same time. And so we modern anglers with all the latest
tackle and gadgets are still trying to catch fish with an artificial fly
and after thousands of years I suspect that we are very little nearer
understanding our quarry and that is why fishing is such an amazing sport.
|
 |
