The Great Debate
By Neil M. Travis, Montana
The art and practice of fly fishing as we know it evolved on
the English chalkstreams, notably those in Hampshire and
Wiltshire. Rivers with names like Avon, Test, and Itchen
were the nursery for such master anglers as Marryat, Skues,
Halford, Hills, Dunne, Wilson, Sawyer and Kite, to name just
a few. These anglers were both formed and perfected by these
demanding rivers, and their experiences formed the foundation
of modern fly fishing. Thus, in the latter part of the 19th
century, the two evolving schools of angling practice engaged
in a debate whose echoes still ring today.
Although not the only players in this great debate two names
stand out above all the rest; Frederic Maurice Halford and
George Edward MacKenzie Skues.
Halford was born in 1844 and produced his first book, Floating
Flies and How to Dress Them in 1886, a scholarly work that
codified the dry fly method that had been quietly developing for
over a half century. In the intervening years he authored no less
than seven books until his death in 1914. Halford was a man of
well ordered intelligence and strong opinions, and his influence
led to many of the practices we still use today.
Halford had two friends who greatly influenced his work; George
Selwyn Marryat and Henry Hall. Marryat taught Halford the art of
fly tying, they were close friends for many years and when he
published Floating Flies and How to Dress Them he
gave lavish praise to Marryat for his contributions. Many scholars
credit Marryat with the idea of tying dry flies with paired upright
wings, a technique normally believed to be Halford's. Marryat was
a shadowy figure, and little is known about him outside of what
Halford wrote about him. Unfortunately, Marryat died in 1896
during an epidemic. Historians can only speculate what more he
might have contributed to fly fishing had his life not been cut
short.
Henry Hall was an engineer who, in 1879, perfected the complicated
metallurgy, subtle forging techniques, and tapered eyes of modern
fly-tying hooks. Halford wrote of the evolution of the forged,
light-wire eyed hooks in his first book. He demonstrated that
by eliminating the silk under wrappings and gut snell that a
much lighter and more delicate fly could be constructed. Eyed
flies could be fastened to tippets of various diameters to
accommodate any type of water condition. This was a considerable
advancement for the angler that was attempting to fool shy
chalkstream trout.
A neighbor of Marryat, W.G. Turle added another component to
the development of dry fly angling, the Turle knot. This knot
was perfectly suited for attaching a tapered eyed hook to a
fine drawn gut tippet. It created a rigid connection for the
fly, and it held the fly in a cocked position as it settled
on the water.
In 1889 Halford published, Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory
and Practice, and much of what he wrote remains true
today. In this book Halford and Marryat made several major
leaps toward the development of modern dry fly angling techniques.
The woven oiled-silk lines had been developed earlier in the
century, but they were not quite satisfactory with Halford and
Marryat. Working together and with several manufacturers they
developed improved techniques for producing these lines and
even developed the prototypes of modern double-tapered lines.
The methods for producing and using these lines were carefully
described in Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice.
With the publication ofDry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice
the era of modern dry fly fishing was fully launched. Halford
took over three hundred pages to set forth his ideas, and his
chapters on dry fly theory and technique are still worth
consideration by modern anglers. He gives lavish credit to
Marryat, but clearly most of the book belongs to Halford.
Dry-Fly Entomology was published in 1897,
Modern Development of the Dry Fly in 1910, and
The Dry-Fly Man's Handbook in 1913. Given the
stature of the author these books were relatively disappointing,
and it was during this latter period that Halford's disdain
for wet-fly anglers became open hostility. Halford wanted
the traditional wet-fly angler banned from the chalkstreams,
particularly those anglers that used the blind fishing technique
and did not cast the fly to a specific trout. He was particularly
hostile to the nymph-fishing theories of Skues. Nymph fishing
enraged Halford, and Skues publication of Minor Tactics
of the Chalk Stream in 1910 brought the two men into
a bitter confrontation.
During the latter stages of his life Halford was completely
committed to dry-fly purism, and he declared that chalkstreams
belonged exclusively to dry-fly anglers. So great was his
stature and influence that even today many club waters in
England are restricted to dry-fly angling only. Halford
died in 1914 leaving a legacy that still impacts fly
fishing today. Despite his dogmatic adherence to the dry
fly he was clearly the most outstanding angling author of
his time. He established dry-fly fishing as we know it,
and despite the advances in tackle and fly tying techniques
the basic method that he described remains the same. Find
a rising trout, cast accurately, and present you offering
delicately.
Despite his best efforts Halford was never able to banish
the wet-fly angler. George Edward Mackenzie Skues, a famous
attorney in London was a wet fly angler and was unwilling
to buckle under to the dogmatic religion of the dry-fly
purists. His first book, Minor Tactics of the Chalk
Stream that so enraged Halford was based upon well
reasoned logic, a commanding knowledge of angling literature,
a sense of angling tradition, and much original thought. It
was in the Flyfisher's Club in London where Halford, now
advanced in years, challenged the younger Skues.
"Young man," Halford retorted, "You cannot fish the Itchen
in the manner you describe in your book."
"But I have done it," Skues replied.
The Way of a Trout with a Fly was first published
in 1921, and expanded upon Skues theory of wet fly and nymph
fishing techniques. This book was clearly Skues best work,
and included a well written doctrine on imitating and fishing
nymphal imitations, and his discussion about the purpose of
hackles in fly dressing are worthy of consideration today.
Like his nemesis, Skues later works contained a detailed and
even bitter account of the fallacies of Halford's dry-fly only
arguments. It was unfortunate that Skues felt it necessary to
resurrect the feud with a man long in his grave. Skues died in
August of 1949 at the ripe old age of 91 years having lived
though the formative of years of modern fly fishing theory
and practice. ~ Neil M. Travis, Montana/Arizona
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