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12-28-2005, 05:52 AM
It is hard to understate the importance of Mottisfont Abbey in the evolution of modern dry fly fishing, for it is here that Frederic Halford fished from 1904 until 1913, shortly before his death. He leased the water & set about managing it along the lines of his book Making a Fishery and by the time of his death Mottisfont had become the equal of the Houghton Club as the very best fishing on the middle Test.
In many forms of human endeavor it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how & when a particular practice was ‘invented’, but in Halford we have the man who can be rightfully considered the creator of dry fly fishing as we practice it today. Essentially, he pulled together many strands of thought to codify a new method to trout fly fishing.
Ancient Egyptian wall paintings, dating back to the times of the Pharaohs, depict something akin to dry fly fishing and it is probable that many fishermen had practiced it in a haphazard manner down the centuries. But in Halford we have the man who drew together many strands of thought & practice, codified the manner of dry fly fishing and proposed this new method to replace the generally used method of the time, namely downstream wet fly.
For a moment it is worth putting Halford’s book Dry Fly Fishing in Theory & Practice in the context of it’s times, both social & piscatorial. This is the time of Empire, the height of the Victorian age moving into the splendid sporting excesses of the Edwardian age. Fly fishing was a sport practiced by the few who had the means and access to suitable fishing. It’s difficult to find a definitive figure on the number of regular fly fishers, but it would have only been a few thousand. But this was an elite bunch, which was connected by school, class, upbringing, clubs, family & wealth.
What was the New Orthodoxy?
For all the many books & articles that Halford wrote, and the countless others he spawned, it is really very easy to summarise the ‘New Orthodoxy”:
• Locate a rising fish
• Observe the insect being eaten
• Match the insect with the closest artificial
• Cast to the rising fish
Halford defined success in terms not of the number of fish caught but the manner of the catching. For him to observe one fish, select the correct pattern & catch his quarry with a single cast was the ultimate successful day.
To find a suitable analogy for what Halford proposed is hard, it was so radical. To misquote George Orwell in Animal Farm “dry fly good, wet fly bad” came to be the mantra of the true disciples to the Halfordian way. But the ‘New Orthodoxy’ as it became known, was to divide the fly fishermen for three generations. Herein we have the importance of Halford: he made his pitch for dry fly fishing and for decades took on all comers who wished to challenge his beliefs. Principal was GEM Skues, inventor of nymph fishing. Much was made at the time, and subsequently, of the ‘bitter enmity” between the two. However, since neither ever ventured in clear terms what he thought of the other, this can only be conjecture. But they did meet on occasions and by all reports got on fine.
At this point it’s worth asking precisely why the Halford dry fly revolution took such hold & swept through the fishing world, consigning the wet fly to chalkstream oblivion. Visitors to tackle shops & readers of magazines were assailed by Halford on every side. Halford reels, Halford rods, Halford flies – he was a brand before celebrity branding was invented.
The truth lay in the effectiveness of the methods he advocated. Fly fishing, lest we forget it, is a pastime for enjoyment & success. Dry fly was more fun & more effective than wet fly and that it was why it succeeded. Had it not, Halford’s Dry Fly Revolution would have soon vanished from sight.
In many forms of human endeavor it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how & when a particular practice was ‘invented’, but in Halford we have the man who can be rightfully considered the creator of dry fly fishing as we practice it today. Essentially, he pulled together many strands of thought to codify a new method to trout fly fishing.
Ancient Egyptian wall paintings, dating back to the times of the Pharaohs, depict something akin to dry fly fishing and it is probable that many fishermen had practiced it in a haphazard manner down the centuries. But in Halford we have the man who drew together many strands of thought & practice, codified the manner of dry fly fishing and proposed this new method to replace the generally used method of the time, namely downstream wet fly.
For a moment it is worth putting Halford’s book Dry Fly Fishing in Theory & Practice in the context of it’s times, both social & piscatorial. This is the time of Empire, the height of the Victorian age moving into the splendid sporting excesses of the Edwardian age. Fly fishing was a sport practiced by the few who had the means and access to suitable fishing. It’s difficult to find a definitive figure on the number of regular fly fishers, but it would have only been a few thousand. But this was an elite bunch, which was connected by school, class, upbringing, clubs, family & wealth.
What was the New Orthodoxy?
For all the many books & articles that Halford wrote, and the countless others he spawned, it is really very easy to summarise the ‘New Orthodoxy”:
• Locate a rising fish
• Observe the insect being eaten
• Match the insect with the closest artificial
• Cast to the rising fish
Halford defined success in terms not of the number of fish caught but the manner of the catching. For him to observe one fish, select the correct pattern & catch his quarry with a single cast was the ultimate successful day.
To find a suitable analogy for what Halford proposed is hard, it was so radical. To misquote George Orwell in Animal Farm “dry fly good, wet fly bad” came to be the mantra of the true disciples to the Halfordian way. But the ‘New Orthodoxy’ as it became known, was to divide the fly fishermen for three generations. Herein we have the importance of Halford: he made his pitch for dry fly fishing and for decades took on all comers who wished to challenge his beliefs. Principal was GEM Skues, inventor of nymph fishing. Much was made at the time, and subsequently, of the ‘bitter enmity” between the two. However, since neither ever ventured in clear terms what he thought of the other, this can only be conjecture. But they did meet on occasions and by all reports got on fine.
At this point it’s worth asking precisely why the Halford dry fly revolution took such hold & swept through the fishing world, consigning the wet fly to chalkstream oblivion. Visitors to tackle shops & readers of magazines were assailed by Halford on every side. Halford reels, Halford rods, Halford flies – he was a brand before celebrity branding was invented.
The truth lay in the effectiveness of the methods he advocated. Fly fishing, lest we forget it, is a pastime for enjoyment & success. Dry fly was more fun & more effective than wet fly and that it was why it succeeded. Had it not, Halford’s Dry Fly Revolution would have soon vanished from sight.