What would Viator think about our own twenty-first-century collections of ‘essential’ tying materials.
But then Cotton takes us through the tying of a fly. No vice …
PISCATOR. You see, first, how I hold my hook; and thus I begin. Look you, here are my first two or three whips around the bare hook; thus I join hook and line; thus I put on my wings; thus I twirl and lap on my dubbing; thus I work it up towards the head; thus I part my wings; thus I nip my superfluous dubbing from my silk; thus fasten; thus trim and adjust my fly. And there’s a fly made; and now how do you like it?
VIATOR. In earnest, admirably well; and it perfectly resembles a fly.
And what modern category of fly has a body, upright wings and no hackle? Why, the most effective category of dry fly, the hackleless dry fly (see here, and here)!
Four of Cotton’s flies have been selected to show the two styles, palmers and winged flies.
GREAT-HACKLE [a palmer], the body black, and wrapped with a red feather of a capon untrimmed; that is, the whole length of the hackle staring out …
WHITE HACKLE, the body of white mohair, and warped about with a white hackle-feather …
The artificial GREEN-DRAKE then is made upon a large hook, the dubbing of camel’s hair, bright bear’s hair, the soft down that is combed from a hog’s bristles, and yellow camlet, well mixt together; the body long, and ribbed about with green silk, or rather yellow, waxed with green wax, the whisks of the tail of the long hairs of sable, or fitchet [polecat], and the wings of the white-grey feather of a mallard, dyed yellow …
Cotton then tells how to dye the mallard feather yellow. That fly would catch any trout eating large duns anywhere today.
WHIRLING-DUN … is commonly made of the down of a fox-cub, which is of ash colour at the roots next to the skin, and ribbed about with yellow silk; the wings of the pale grey feather of a mallard.
CHETHAM’S STRANGE CONTRIBUTION
James Chetham published his Angler’s Vade Mecum in 1681, five years after Cotton’s contribution to The Compleat Angler. His flies are very similar to Cotton’s, but he insisted that, in addition to what the trout sees – what it smells or tastes like is also important.
Next folow Ointments and Receipts which I have read and been informed of, by several knowing Anglers … they’ll not only allure, but even compel Fish to bite … Take Man’s Fat and Cat’s Fat, of each half an Ounce, Mummy finely powdred three drams, Cummin-seed finely powdred one Dram, distill’d Oyl of Annise and Camphor four Grains, make an Ointment according to Art; and when you Angle anoint 8 inches of Line next to the Hook therewith …
FRENCH CONNECTION
By the beginning of the eighteenth century French fly-tyers were producing flies with a similar structure to those made in Britain, though often the body was of plain silk whereas the British school mostly used dubbed fur for their bodies. These French artificial flies matched closely real flies. Louis Liger gave several examples in his book Amusemens de Champagne (1709), reprinted in 1714 as Traite de toute sorte de Chasse et de Peche. The following is typical entry:
Dans le mois de May ils en fonte une, couverte aussi de soye, maise elle est de couleur rouge, et avec de filets tirans sur l’or: la tete en est noire, et on y joint les plumes rouge d’un capon.
This fly is an excellent imitation of the many species of upwinged fly spinner that have red or red-brown bodies.
TROUT FLY EVOLUTION INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
During the 200 years following the publications of Barker and Cotton, three different styles of trout fly became established. The first was a winged fly that was an attempt to imitate real flies. This and the second style, the ‘buzz’ fly can best be seen in Alfred Ronalds’ The Fly-Fisher’s Entomology, which was first published in 1836 and was still in print in a new edition as late as 1921. His book was also the first to have fairly good illustrations of both the natural fly and corresponding imitative fly. The following are typical examples.
Plate 1
Plate 2
Plates from The Fly-Fisher’s Entomology, showing some of the earliest coloured illustrations of real and artificial trout flies.
STYLE ONE – THE WINGED IMITATIVE TROUT FLY (SEE PLATE 1, LOWER-LEFT FLY)
Example: Little Yellow May Dun
Hook: Size 15.
Thread: Not given; presumed yellow.
Tails: Two whisks from a dun hackle.
Body: Pale ginger fur from the back of a hare’s ear.
Rib: Yellow silk.
Hackle (Ronalds called this ‘Legs’): A light dun hackle lightly dyed yellow-green.
Wings: Drake mallard lightly dyed yellow-green.
STYLE TWO – THE BUZZ TROUT FLY (SEE PLATE 2, SECOND FLY FROM BOTTOM)
This was a fly with a palmered body hackle, like the Palmer flies of Cotton (see here). The term ‘made buzz’ indicated the palmered hackle.
Example: Marlow Buzz
Hook: Not given; size 12 suggested.
Thread: Red.
Body: Black ostrich herl and peacock herl twisted and wound together.
Wings and legs: ‘Are made buzz with a dark furnace hackle.’
STYLE THREE – THE NORTH COUNTRY SPIDER (ALSO CALLED THE SOFT-HACKLED WET FLY)
Two Yorkshire men were instrumental in establishing
