Theo Pike and Roy Christie recount the resurrection of the
Carshalton Cocktail and the Carshalton Dun, two famous old
English flies.
In the great sweep of human history, it's odd how the little
details so often get forgotten.
Cast your mind back to the classroom, for instance, from
whichever side of the Atlantic you're reading this. Chances
are, you'll remember being taught about the Battle of Trafalgar
in October 1805, and how Admiral Horatio Nelson died with the
words "Kiss me, Hardy" on his lips. But how many of you
dedicated fly-anglers really knew that the great Admiral was
a fly-fisher too - in fact, one of the angling celebrities
of his generation?
Until I read Salmonia by his fellow fisherman
Sir Humphrey Davy, inventor of the life-saving Davy Miners'
Lamp, I didn't either. I'd admired the Admiral's reputation
before - but it's that little human detail, knowing that
"Nelson was a good fly fisher, and as proof of his passion
for it, continued the pursuit even with his left hand," which
really makes me cherish his memory on the waters we share
across the sweep of time.
It's said that you can never step into the same river twice,
and as far as the little River Wandle in South London is
concerned, that's certainly true. When Nelson gave his
lady love, Emma Hamilton, the funds to buy Merton Place in
September 1801, his new country estate was the dominant
property in an ancient Surrey village, just across the
Wandle from an Abbey whose history stretched back almost
to the Norman Conquest. And that river was one of the
most famous chalk stream trout fisheries in the world,
where Frederic Halford would later learn to cast a dry fly,
and where even on opening day in 1899 a local resident could
take sixty fish from a hundred-yard stretch of its headwaters
in Carshalton.
In fact, naval duty called so insistently that Nelson was
only able to spend short periods at Merton, from October
1801 to April 1803, and from mid-August to mid-September
1805. But it's clear that he made the most of his time
on the banks of "the best and clearest stream near London."
Despite having lost his casting arm in battle several years
before, he taught himself to fish with his other hand: one
issue of London Illustrated from 1890 carries an
account from a very old man remembering the Admiral fishing
at Abbey Mills in Merton - and stopping to talk to little
boys who might even have helped him tie on his flies and
net his fish.
Two hundred years later, the world has changed, and Nelson's
river has died and been reborn. During the 19th and 20th
centuries, London crept out around it: the Victorians recorded
at least ninety mills on eleven miles of water, and by the
1960's the heavily re-engineered stream had actually been
designated as a sewer. Now, our ecological charity
www.jetsetclub.co.uk
is successfully cleaning it up again. The river is full of
chub, dace, and barbel, and we're slowly reintroducing trout
too, through our British rollout of Trout Unlimited's "Trout
in the Classroom" project.
As part of our fundraising efforts, the Salmon and Trout
Association generously agreed to host a charity dinner for
us at St Paul's Cathedral on 13th October. And as a
commemorative gift for our guests, we decided to recreate
some of the flies that Nelson himself might have cast on
the Wandle.
But as we dug deeper into our own libraries, and the
encyclopaedic resources of London's Flyfishers' Club,
it became clear that the brief wasn't quite so simple.
Despite the proliferation of fly life mentioned by
contemporary writers - a summer-long procession of
"little blue and yellow duns," accompanied by stern
warnings that "younger brothers of the angle must expect
no sport unless they fish fine in the extreme" - it's
now our theory that the era of modern tackle development
and imitative fly tying only really took off after the
Napoleonic Wars had ended, and the fly-fishing classes
had a new generation's creativity and time on their hands
to develop the minutiae of their sport.
Even Nelson, after all, only ever spent a few months at
Merton - none of those during the recommended Wandle
trout season. And it's noticeable how, before Alfred
Ronalds' The Flyfisher's Entomology of 1836,
and William Blacker's rapid succession of self-promotional
fly-tying manuals from 1842 to 1855, the great majority
of published fly patterns were distinctly - even
heroically - non-entomological in nature.
On many rivers this wouldn't have mattered: when fishing in
Shropshire, or on the Thames at Staines, Nelson and his
buddies would have used natural flies literally impaled
on hooks for dapping over the surface of the water. But
when the mayfly weren't hatching, published artificial
fly patterns tended towards the generic and the terrestrial:
sometimes rough and ready, often palmered like modern
Griffith's Gnats, and in any case substantially unchanged
from Cotton-esqe listings of 200 years before.
On the other hand, it's true that where conditions dictated,
specific local patterns did develop to match worthwhile local
hatches. This exception to the rule would have made particular
sense on the Wandle, where the giant, juicily-impalable
Ephemera Danica never appeared at all, and where spooky trout
in clear water would later lead straight to Halford's discovery
of an early form of dry-fly false casting known as the "Carshalton
Dodge."
Here in the crystalline headwaters of the river, we discovered,
two imitative patterns had certainly evolved - to catch trout
then, and to catch our imagination a century and a half later.
As you'll deduce from Roy's words below, it's clear that our
researches are far from over (for instance, could the early
tying of the Carshalton Cocktail actually represent a missing
link, as one of the first ever dry-ish flies, designed
especially for delicate presentation Carshalton-style?)
So...two hundred years after Lord Nelson last cast a fly
over the Wandle, two little patterns, re-tied in
commemoration of a great fisherman, and a great battle.
Two little details, forgotten, remembered, floating once
again down the Admiral's favourite river.
Will they float down yours, too? ~ Theo Pike
Tying the flies
When I was asked to tie these flies as a tribute to
Admiral Nelson and in aid of the restoration of the
river, I accepted gladly, of course. I knew that there
might be obstacles in working out the design of the flies
and perhaps in obtaining the suitable materials.
John Morgan's discovery of a Carshalton Cocktail marked 1853,
given to the Flyfishers' Club in 1940 by Maurice Riesco, and
now reposing in the Flyfishers' archive, allowed us to
accurately pinpoint the style of the patterns. The fly which
John brought to light is in the style of a swept-back wet fly,
designed for good entry. However, being bushily hackled with
a high quality light dun cock hackle with a slim body and
short tails, it doubles as a most effective dry and dapping
fly.
We can, in fact, learn from the design a lot about how it
may have been fished. On a horsehair line with horsehair
or silkworm tippet the fly would have been presented upstream
by preference, but, dependant on wind direction, could also
be dapped or placed gently on the surface and allowed to float
with the current. When it passed down by the angler, he could
control its progress and retrieve it as a wet fly. The Wandle
is not a wide river and the rods would not have had to exceed
ten or twelve feet. With a good south or southwest wind upstream
the flies could have been reliably placed to fish seen rising
to natural insects. Walton had been practising his craft on the
London rivers two hundred years previously, with tackle and flies
not greatly dissimilar to these.
Did Nelson fish the dry fly? Well I cannot say for sure,
though I am sure that he sometimes fished the fly dry.
The Carshalton Cocktail appears to represent the Large Dark
Olive and is similar in effect to the Blue Dun in Scotcher's
1800 book The Fly Fisher's Legacy. There is
again a close similarity to the Blue Dun in Bowlkers' Art
of Angling back in 1746 or thereabouts. The three
recipes listed portray the insect Baetis Rhodani in its seasonal
variations from February through April, going from darker to
lighter as the season progresses. In Hofland's British
Angler's Manual of 1839, the Cocktail is described as
"a dun fly...made with peculiar neatness in the London tackle-shops
(which) will be found a good killer in other streams as well
as the Wandle."
The Carshalton Dun is an excellent Black Gnat imitation,
also good for midge and passable as an Iron Blue Dun. I
would suggest that these flies had adapted over time from
the standard patterns, evolving into these bushy little
flies, suitable to the Wandle's crystal turbulences.
I decided to emulate the bushy style of the Carshalton
Cocktail from the FlyFishers' Club. I chose a #14 hook
for the Cocktail, as that was the same as the Flyfishers'
sample and just right for a chalkstream LDO. For the
Carshalton Dun, I chose a #16, as the small black fly
has more density in the water and I like my black flies
smaller too. Both hooks are Partridge Ritz dry E4A.
Sourcing the materials - Cookshill for the starling and
Pearsall's silk for guaranteed quality and authenticity
- I also found one lovely rooster neck suitable for the
Cocktail from Christina at Chevron Hackle. This was in
her classics collection and allowed me to tie a fly
identical to the sample; thereafter I was able to
experiment with dyeing my own hackle to match the original
in texture and colour. For the Dun I managed to find a
lovely dark grizzle hackle in my collection.
I mixed enough dubbing for the bodies of the Cocktails
from yellow mohair, hare's ear fur and muskrat with the
guard hairs removed. I blended the furs in a large coffee
jar in warm water and washing-up liquid, shaking it
vigorously for a good few minutes (phew) then dried it
on newspaper. I still have enough left for another thousand.
Armed with materials suited to the period, I sat down to
tie flies fit for the Admiral's rod. Silk, fur, feather
and twist were duly laid upon iron over a period of some
weeks to produce these replicas.
A pair of these flies was presented to each guest at our
remembrance dinner in the crypt at St. Paul's Cathedral
by the tomb of one of the world's most respected heroes.
[The photo at the top of this page is his monument in
St. Paul's Cathedral.]
I am honoured and flattered to have been given this task.
I am delighted that my tribute was well received, and wish
to thank all who offered their support in every way.
Particular thanks are due to Tony Bird and his staff at
the Salmon and Trout Association, and to the Flyfishers'
Club; also to Alan Suttie and everyone involved in the
Wandle project for their ongoing trolley-extraction
manoeuvres; and especially to Mrs. Anna Tribe, who joined
us on the night to dine with us at St Paul's in honour
of her great-great-great-grandfather Horatio.
I'd like to think that for the next centennial, some
nimble-fingered tyer might repeat my efforts. At the
same time, I'd like to think that by then the Wandle
will be so clean that our descendants will have to find
a better use for the proceeds. To keep up with our ongoing
battle for the river, see
www.jetsetclub.co.uk. ~ Roy Christie
NOTES and RECIPES
Recipes for the Carshalton Cocktail:
TC Hofland rev E Jesse: The British Angler's
Manual: p214: 1848 (apparently this edition was
enlarged from the first edition of 1839, which had only
410 pages and 14 plates): "Made with a peculiar neatness
in the London tackle-shops..."
Body Light blue fur
Legs Dark dun hackle
Wings The inside feather of a teal's wing
Tail Two fibres of a white cock's hackle
Hook No.9, or No.10
- plus illustration on plate opposite p211
Mounting from FF'ers Club: captioned Ephemera 3rd
Edition 1853:
Body Blue dun fur mixed with a little light
fur of hares ear or yellow mohair
Wing Light fibres hen starling
Hackle Small light dun hackle
Tail 2 fibres grizzle hackle
Hook 11, 12
From sheet plus recipe from Tony Bird: captioned "Old
wallet flies, bustards and bumbles:" undated
- illustration plus recipe typed, attached - probably
from Hofland.
Body Light blue fur
Legs Dark dun hackle
Wings The inside of a teal's wing
Tail Two fibres of a white cock's hackle
plus ref to Mitcham Fancy and Wandle Cocktail in the
Fishing Gazette: Alfred Jardine: 1894 writing about 1870's.
Recipes for the Carshalton Dun
TC Hofland rev E Jesse: The British Angler's Manual:
p214: 1848 (not entitled the Carshalton Dun, but captioned as "For
Carshalton and the Test"...)
Body Black silk, ribbed with a silver twist
Legs A dark grizzle hackle
Wings The dark feather of the starling's wing, made
spare and short
Hook No.10
Again from Tony Bird: as above, probably from Hofland:
Body Black silk, ribbed with silver twist
Legs Dark grizzle hackle
Wings The dark feather of the starling's wing, spare and short
Hook No.10
References to natural flies on the Wandle
1828: Humphry Davy: Salmonia: the earliest reference
we've found so far:
"...of the blue dun, there is a succession of different
tints, or species, or varieties, which appear in the
middle of the day all the summer and autumn long. These
are the principal flies on the Wandle - the best and
clearest stream near London.
In early spring these flies have dark olive bodies; in
the end of April and the beginning of May they are found
yellow; and in the summer they become cinnamon coloured;
and again, as winter approaches, gain a darker hue. I do
not, however, mean to say that they are the same flies, but
more probably successive generations of Ephemerae of the
same species."
1848: TC Hofland rev E Jesse: The British Angler's Manual: p98
"My young brothers of the angle must not expect any sport
in the Wandle, unless they fish fine in the extreme:- a
single hair should be used for the foot link, or at least
a gut as fine as a hair, and small blue and yellow-bodied
duns...
Hofland's fancy, No.1, the yellow dun, No.7, and the small
soldier palmer, may be used with success; also a dun-fly,
sold at the tackle-shops under the name of the Carshalton
cocktail, No.6"
About Theo and Roy:
Theo Pike is a freelance writer and Senior Vice President
of the newly founded Wandle Piscators. When he's not
fishing small streams around Europe and, occasionally,
America, he's cleaning up South London's River Wandle,
the chalkstream where Frederic Halford first cast a dry
fly. He can be contacted via his email.
Roy Christie is well known for his inventive outlook on
fly tying and his progressive stance on conservation and
environmental restoration, also a founder member of the
Wandle Wands. Email:
reversedparachutes@yahoo.co.uk
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