About Peter Lapsley: Peter Lapsley has been fly fishing and fly tying
for over forty five years. A British national game angling instructor
(STANIC and APGAI), he owned and ran a stillwater trout fishery in
Hampshire for several years in the 1980’s. He has contributed
countless articles to British game angling magazines and occasional
ones to overseas journals, and has written, co-written or edited seven
books on fly fishing. For ten years now, he has done most of his fishing
for trout at Abbotts Barton on the lovely River Itchen in Hampshire,
where G.E.M. Skues fished for 56 years from 1883 to 1938, and for sea
trout in the Falkland Islands. He is fascinated by the history and ethos
of the sport and is a member of The
American Museum of Fly Fishing. Peter is married with two grown up
children and lives in London where, as his ‘day job’, he is chief
executive of a national medical charity. We are honored and delighted to
have him here.
Bug Tank Benefits
The most famous debate in angling history took place at The Flyfishers’
Club in London on 10 February 1938. Its purpose was to examine the
propriety of nymph fishing on chalk streams. The arguments in favour
of nymph fishing were set out by G.E.M. Skues and supported by Dr
Walshe and John Waller Hills. They were opposed by Sir Joseph Ball,
The Reverend F.P. Sheriffs, Dr R.C. Mottram and Messrs Norris, Myers
and Peck.
A central theme of the debate was the question as to whether ascending
nymphs are active or inert and whether it was possible to imitate the
wriggling of an ascending nymph - if indeed they wriggle. What is intriguing
about the whole thing was the uninformed nature of the discussion. We
know that Skues caught nymphs and preserved them in formalin, the better
to study their form and colour, and Sir Joseph Ball quoted (conflicting)
evidence from Martin Mosely and F.T.K. Pentelow, both eminent
entomologists. But it appears that none of ‘the pundits of fly fishing,
gathered in solemn conclave’ had ever actually themselves seen and
studied ascending nymphs. Nor, it seems, had F.M. Halford (or his
collaborator, G.S. Marryat), much quoted by both sides in the argument.
To set the record straight, 60 years on, Mosely was right. Ascending
nymphs do proceed to the surface in alternate bursts of extreme energy
and inertness. How do I know? By having watched them doing it, time
and time again - not simply gazing down on them from above but in a bug
tank, in which I have been able to view them from every angle.
Originally published c. June 2, 2002 on Fly Anglers Online by Peter Lapsley.