A History of Flyfishing by Conrad Voss Bark

Author:Conrad Voss Bark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Merlin Unwin Books Limited
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

So, purely by chance, the new word caught on. It was so much easier and simpler to say ‘dry fly’ rather than ‘floating fly’ which was how it had been described before. Moreover the new phrase - fishing the dry fly - had an evocative appeal that fishing the floater lacked. Pulman was of course drying the line and not the fly - that was already dry, having come fresh from his wallet - which suggests that he was using either a silk line or a silk and hair line, both of which would absorb water, and not a horsehair line which is not absorbent, as we have seen. However, Pulman deserves a minor immortality for having introduced that one word ‘dry’.

Purely by chance, Marryat met F. M. Halford at Hammonds tackle shop in Winchester which led to the setting up of a remarkable partnership. It is worth looking at these two men for they had a considerable influence on the future of fishing.

George Selwyn Marryat (1840-1896) was born at Mapperton Manor in Dorset in southern England and went to Winchester School. He came from a military family and after leaving school became a lieutenant in the 6th Dragoon Guards with whom he served abroad, mostly in India. He retired early at the age of thirty, came back to live in Dorset and Hampshire, and spent the next 26 years of his life mostly fishing and tying flies. He became very knowledgeable and efficient at both and Viscount Grey - then Sir Edward Grey - who also fished the upper Itchen, described Marryat as ‘the finest fisherman in England’. Marryat, a retiring personality, would have found that embarrassing.

Frederic M. Halford (1844-1915) was a very different personality and not in the least retiring. He came from a rich family and for most of his life did not need to work. He began as a bait fisherman but had the chance of fishing the fly on the Wandle, a chalkstream near London, where he was advised to fish the dry fly which was known as ‘the Carshalton dodge’. He did so and then had the chance of fishing on the Test and became fascinated by the dry fly. He did not know a great deal about flyfishing at that stage but when he met Marryat in John Hammond’s shop in The Square at Winchester - and he would have known of Marryat’s reputation - he asked him questions about flydressings and Marryat answered as best he could.

Halford later asked Marryat to fish with him on the Test and after some time was so impressed with his knowledge that he suggested that Marryat might join him in a scientific study of fly dressings, the natural fly and its imitation, methods of fishing, and tackle and technique. Marryat agreed and Halford took rooms at Bossington Mill just below the Houghton water on the Test and they worked together for six years. Their joint studies resulted in the publication in 1886 under Halford’s name of his first book, Floating Flies and How to Dress Them.

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