An Old Alarm Clock and Fly Fishing
I suppose it was inevitable that I would do the research and write an article on the history of fly fishing. I grew up wanting to know what makes things tick and quite literally I made my first discovered at the age of eight. It was to my great delight, when I became the rightful owner of a large alarm clock that ‘‘ticked ‘and obtained the permission to dissect it to discover where the ticking sound came from. If you are a Baby Boomer like me, then you know I’m referring to a time prior to the digital age, when clocks had all those moving parts and a wonderful ‘‘tick tock’‘ sound.
Now if you are an avid fan of fly fishing like me, you know there is no better thrill than wading out into a body of water and pitting you’re casting skills in snaring a beautiful fish in their own natural habitat! I suppose man has been fishing in some way or another since the beginning of time, however it’s the sport of fly fishing that captures the imagination and there is nothing quite as popular as the art of fly fishing. A quick search of Google reveals over thirty three million inquiries on the subject, so like the old alarm clock; I decided to see where all the ‘‘ticking’‘ comes from.
‘‘They fasten red (crimson red) wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in color are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.’‘ Translated from a piece of literature dating back to 1558 the above is a reference to a Macedonian fly that was observed to hover over water and when it landed on the water, it floated there long enough for a fish to take it. As far as we know this is the earliest reference to the observance of a type of fly that could be used to catch fish.
Around Medieval Times a text was found referring to the catching of trout and grayling using a ‘‘feathered hook’‘. Other texts identify fly fishing as the chosen method of commoners from 1360 onwards.
The earliest rods were about six feet in length. This was a rod that was ideal for fishing on overgrown rivers where there is no clear back-cast, but the main reason for was that six feet is about the maximum length of straight hazel shoot, which was the basic material available at that time.
It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that silk lines appeared. Up until silk was available, early anglers fished with knotted from horsehair lines. These lines would have been about the same length as their rods, and most likely the fly was tied directly onto the end of the horsehair. The fly would float at first, and then sink to a depth of a few centimeters. A reference to casting a fly was made in 1620 in the form of footnotes to a poem, ‘‘… a line twice your rod’s length of three hairs’ thickness, in open water free from trees on a dark windy afternoon, and if you have learned the cast of the fly,’‘ The concept of the ‘‘dry fly’‘and the ‘‘wet fly’‘were centuries in to the future.
Rings first appeared on rods towards the end of the seventeenth century. The invention gave anglers much more control over the line while a fish was being played, however it had little effect on casting distances.
Jointed rods were becoming more common by the latter half of the eighteenth century. These were often made of wood, sometimes reinforced with brass, and were terribly unreliable. Trout fly rods were still much longer in these early years and were as much as fourteen to seventeen feet. The majority of them were shorter rods. A typical rod might have measure twelve foot long for fishing with lines that terminated in two hairs or more; nine feet for fishing with single hairs ‘‘for the small fly’‘, and seventeen feet long for salmon. An experienced angler might reckon to throw twelve yards of line with one hand, and or seventeen with both, while using a sixteen foot rod.
The tackle trade had become well established by the eighteenth century, and sold every conceivable item a fly fisher would have needed, as well as many that they didn’t need. In the last half of the century, the multiplying reel was developed. The multiplying reel gave the angler a much higher rate of retrieve, but most designs had brass gears, which ground to shreds under any kind of strain, leaving the fisherman in a horrible state of affair for much of that period.
In the early days anglers had had to twist their own fly lines, generally out of horsehair. During the industrial revolution a variety of tapered manufactured lines became available which could be cast with greater accuracy. By 1850, tapered reel lines were pretty much standard issue and it was pretty much a routine for anglers to reverse a fly line when one end had worn out.
The years 1851 to 1900 were a time of great change in the world of fly fishing. The false cast was discovered, the dry fly technique emerged, split cane rods were perfected, and ‘‘modern’‘ reels were developed. The winds of change began to blow in 1857, when Stewart, a young Scotsman, suggested upstream wet fly fishing with for ‘a light stiff, single-handed rod of about ten feet long. The discovery of the false-cast and the beginnings of dry fly fishing began the trend towards shorter trout rods that led to the split-cane rods of Halford’s generation.
With Aluminum came a brief practice for using of all sorts of exotic materials. Rubber was in popular use for fly-reel construction between the years 1851 (when Goodyear put in his first patent for rubber processing), to around 1925. American indigenous reels had almost completely replaced imported products by 1845.
The 1850s marked the beginning of the end of long double-handed trout rods, although they didn’t totally fall from favor for at least another forty years. At the turn of the century the hexagonal split-cane rod was the dominant design, with single, double and steel-centered builds available on request.
In the 1890s, the development of wet trout fly fishing effectively stalled, and dry fly fishing was to drive the technology of the next century.
Glass-fiber rods first appeared in the late 1940′s, but it took a while for the new material to be adopted. In 1949, polyvinyl chloride became available, and the first nylon fly line appeared. In 1952, the discovery of a method of altering the thickness of the PVC coat on the new lines allowed the taper on these lines to be controlled to a precise amount, and the invention of ways to alter the specific gravity of the PVC coating produced a line with greater flexibility than anyone had ever dreamed of in a fly line.
The early years of the twentieth century were a time of great innovation, and the design of the fly reel was greatly improved. At long last, technology was up to the job, and the designers were free to experiment.
Today you can’t pick up a fly rod without taking part in history, so next time you cast your line and flick your fly into the future you are part of the ever developing and exciting history of fly fishing!
About the Author
More information including tips and techniques on fishing can be found at Best Source for Fishing Tips and Techniques
Quotes and parts of this article were printed with permission. A more detailed history of fly fishing can be found at Fly Fishing History by Dr. Andrew N. Herd
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