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                               Practical Fly-Fishing

Founded on Nature

By John Beever

(1849)

The old saying " The more things change, the more they stay the same ", is certainly true of this book. Our equipment has certainly changed and improved, but it ultimately comes down to us, our flies, and the fish. Written over 150 years ago, you will be surprised how "current" some of the authors observations are today.

"Practical Fly-Fishing was founded on nature and tested by the experience of nearly forty years in various parts of the United Kingdom. With instructions for imitating all the most useful flies and also remarks on fly-rods and the best woods for them and the best way of making them." Although the materials used to fly fish for trout have changed, the trout, their behaviors, and the methods used to fish for them, have changed little.

I found this book to be interesting on several levels. Having been written over 150 years ago, I was interested in the details describing the equipment used by the Fly Fisherman back then. Also, with the lack of  weather channels and  local fly shops to advise them on the hatches currently in progress,  they still managed to catch trout by careful observation. Imagine that !

The following paragraphs are from Practical Fly Fishing;

Hints on Fly-Fishing

Fish fine and far off, say the books; fine and you please, but never far off, when you can help it. Not that you are to place yourself immediately above the fish, with a short line, but get below them, or, at any rate abreast of them.  Nineteen out of every twenty fish, taken by the fly, are killed with a line under ten yards long from the top of the rod. Whilst the fisher is straining nerves and tackle, and cracking off his flies, to reach a fish in a broad part of a river, let him remember that other fish are rising at the same time in narrower places which he can cover with ease. It is of no use throwing more line than he can swim when it is thrown; and this swimming of the artificial-fly is beyond my power to explain, as it partakes of the nature of Genius. Some acquire it, in a degree, very early, whilst others would plod for a hundred years, without ever dreaming that such a thing was requisite. Give a fiddler, who knows how to play, Paganini’s violin and bow-will that make him a Paganini?

A fact or two will better illustrate my meaning.  Two Gentleman went out together, in Derbyshire, for a few hours’ fishing; they used the same flies; both were attentive and diligent. After the lapse of a few hours one of them had eighteen pounds, the other not more than four.

Two anglers got permission for a day’s fishing, and the use of a boat, on a lake in Wales. One of them made a few flies for their joint use. The one, at the end of the day’s sport, had forty-eight Trout, weighing twenty-four pounds; the other had not three pounds.

Let no learner despair, or think to himself, I shall never be a fly-fisher; I shall never return home with a basket full of fish. Depend upon it, you will. Industry, neatness and perseverance, will do anything. I had just your ideas when a youth. I was standing on the margin of that broad and beautiful pool, below the bridge at Cromford; the flies were on the water; the fish were rising; but I could take nothing.

A brisk and cheerful little man jumped over the wall, and came to me in his shirt sleeves, with a fly-rod in his hand. It was Frank, the chaise-driver of Matlock, one of the nicest and best fishers in England- always true to his colours. And what was far better, one of Natures’s gentlemen. I showed him the fish I had been throwing at, and he took them. Then he showed me his flies, and kindly told me what they were, and pointed out their resemblance to those which I had seen upon the water.

I followed him for some time, to watch him fish, and to ask from him such information as occurrences suggested, which he kindly gave me; and I have never desponded since.

THE ANTIQUITY OF FLYFISHING

The Art of Fishing with the Artificial Fly is of much higher antiquity than is generally imagined; as will be seen by the following extract from AElian, a Greek author, who flourished more than sixteen hundred years ago, and who is quoted by Walton, in his “Complete Angler”; though, most probably, he had never read his works, as a passage so interesting could not well have escaped his notice. We are informed by his biographer, that Walton had not the advantage of a learned education, and that he quoted chiefly from the translations of Topsel and others.

EXTRACT FROM AELIAN.

 “I have been informed of the following method of fishing, practiced in the river Astraeus, which flows between Beraea and Thessalonica. The fishes bred here are tinged with many colours, and provide themselves food from the indigenous insects which flutter about the river.

“Nor are these flies of the same species with those which are found everywhere; they are unlike Bees, Wasps, and Hornets: they bear, however, some affinity to each of these, for, together with a degree of boldness, which they possess in common with many others, they have the size of the Hornet, the colour of the Wasp, and like the Bee make a humming noise (the inhabitants call them Hippuri). These insects, fluttering about on the surface of the water, are not unnoticed by the fish; for as soon as a fish sees one of these flies come upon the water, he sails to it in the quietest manner, lest the agitation of the water should cause it to change its situation; and approaching directly to its shadow, like a wolf snatching a sheep from the flock, or and eagle a goose from the flight, so does he with his widely-gaping mouth devour it.

“Now, although the fishermen are by no means ignorant of this circumstance, they do not make use of these flies to ensnare the fish, for upon begin touched with the hand, they immediately lose their natural colour, their wings fall off, and the become unfit for the food of fishes, as they do not value them in the least. They, however, who are eminently skilled in the art of angling, by a certain crafty device and cunning machination overreach these fishes. They wrap the hook round with scarlet wool, and to this they add two wings from the beard or wattles of a cock, and of a yellowish colour: they from these into the figure and shape of the fly: their rod is four cubits long, and their line a similar length: these hidden deceits they cast upon the water; the fishes, allured by the colour, eagerly approach, and believing from its fair appearance that it is their much-admired food, are transfixed by the hooked bait, and with the loss of their liberty, obtain the vexatious food.”—

AElian, De Animalium Natura, XV,I.

I leave you with a statement by Mr. Beever which gives you a sense of the man and his commitment to learning and his unpretentiousness about his knowledge of Fly Fishing. " I put before you my principles, and give you my experience. If you can improve upon either, do so by all means."

I hope you like this ebook as much as I did.

Only  $1.99 USD

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