Fly fishing history - The northern writers.
While these early bass fishers were plying their craft in Kentucky, bass fishing did not receive the attention it deserved in the North. Frank Forester (Henry W. Herbert), the popular sporting writer of his day, probably never caught a black bass. In an appendix to his “Field Sports” (1847) he says: ” Other fish there are, the name of which is legion; the best, perhaps, of these, and the most sporting- after the Trout - is the Black Bass of the lakes, which will rise freely to a large red and gray fly, made of Macaw, or parrot and Silver Pheasant or Guinea Fowl. . . . There is also a fish called ” Trout ” to the southward, which is certainly not a trout, though I do not know its correct appellation, which is eagerly pursued and considered a game fish.” The ” trout,” of course, is none other than our friend the large-mouthed black bass.
Brown in his “American Anglers Guide” (1849) went the limit in misinformation by stating that ” the black bass has a swallow tail.”
Dr. Bethune, the first American editor of Walton’s ” Angler,” a bookish man and a good fisherman, had a better idea of the bass than any of his contemporaries. In one of his notes (1848) he says: “. . . it is impossible to refrain from a brief notice of that fish which is, next to the Salmon family, most prized by the American angler in fresh waters. Angling for him may be begun in June, when he is to be found in about 14 feet of water, among the grass. . . . Nothing can exceed the vigor and liveliness of his play; for he will try every art, even to flinging himself high out of the water, that he may shake off the hook; and the rod must not be kept perpendicular, but moved in various directions, and sometimes even partly submerged, to counteract his rushes, and hold him under the surface. . . . The bass takes the fly freely; a favorite fly being made on a stout hook (the fish’s mouth is large) with wings of scarlet cloth and a body of white feather. Other colors have been tried though not to much advantage. But the best fly is made of scarlet feather or cloth (which is better) with a piece of pickerel’s tongue, cut in a fork so as to hang from the bend of the hook.” The latter to this day is a favorite lure of the bait caster, but, almost needless to say, not of the fly fisherman!
The only mention of the bass by Thad. Norris in his “American Anglers Book” (1864) states that he caught them skittering a spoon. Genio Scott in his “Fishing in American Waters” (1869) says nothing more of the bass than: ” This fish is taken by casting an artificial fly or by trolling with a feathered spoon, with a minnow impaled on a gang of hooks and forming spinning tackle.” Robert Roosevelt in his ” Superior Fishing” (1865) says: “That evening was devoted to the black bass which took fly and spoon greedily ” but as trolling a fly was more commonly practiced than casting it he probably used that method.
That the sport of fly fishing for bass was a long time in getting general recognition may be seen by referring to the files of Forest and Stream, where one will find that a spirited controversy was waged in the early ’70’s on the subject of whether or not a black bass will rise to a fly!
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Fly fishing history - Early bass fly fishing
One of the very first to write of black bass fishing was Bartram, the naturalist. In 1764 he wrote an account of ” bobbing ” in Florida for ” trout ” as black bass are still called in the South. This method, somewhat similar to ” skittering,” as practiced in the North, consists of manipulating a large treble hook concealed in a tuft of bucktail hair and red feathers called a ” bob.” This ” bob ” is tied to a very short, strong line on a long pole. ” The steersman paddles softly and proceeds slowly along shore; he now ingeniously swings the bob backwards and forwards, just above the surface and sometimes tips the water with it, when the unfortunate cheated trout instantly springs from under the reeds and seizes the supposed prey.” . Bobbing is still practiced but one could hardly call bobbing fly fishing although similar to it in principle and not differing a great deal from the ” fly fishing ” methods no doubt pursued by our cave-men ancestors in the brave days of old.
Fly Fishing History. Part 2.
Although fly fishing was probably practiced much earlier the first mention of it is made by Elian in his ” History of Animals,” written about 230 A. D. He describes a fly with a purple body and red hackles which was cast with a rod about eight feet long on a line of the same length and trout fisher-men must derive considerable pleasure in the fact that this pioneer fly was used to catch ” speckled fishes.” The fly itself is still in use, being the pattern known as the red hackle. It is a killing trout fly and fairly good for bass. Every true fly fisherman should carry one if only for its association. The story of this fly is charmingly told by Mary Orvis Marbury in her ” Favorite Flies and Their Histories.”
It has been said that our Saxon ancestors earned the tribal designation ” Anglo ” because of their great skill in hook and line fishing, but it is quite probable that fly fishing was introduced into the British Isles by the Romans. They are also said to have introduced red chickens into Britain and we venture the theory that they took them there not only for cock fighting but to be assured of plenty of red hackles!
The beginning of fly fishing history and the ancient and honorable art of taking fishes with an angle is lost in the dim, misty reaches of the past before men made a pictured or written record of events. Nearly all ancient peoples, however, had their quaint and curious fables on the origin of angling and many of these legends tell us that the art was handed down to men from the Gods which is, indeed, a reasonable supposition.
The earliest authentic mention of angling we find in the Book of Job, written about 1500 B.C. The Lord asks him.: ” Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook?” Fish hooks are also mentioned by Amos (IV, 2) written 787 B.C., and the prophecies of Isaiah (XIX, 8), written 760 B.C., sound a warning to unrighteous fishermen: “The fishers shall mourn and all they that cast angles into the brooks shall lament and they that spread nets on the waters
shall languish.”
In Egypt, the civilization contemporary with that of the Hebrews, angling was no doubt practiced in remote times. Lake Moeris was constructed for a fishing pond about 1500 B. c. and in later days Plutarch tells of the prank played by Cleopatra on Mark Antony. They were fishing together, you will remember, and Mark had divers go down and fasten big lunkers to his hook, which he pulled up in a matter-of-fact way, as if it were an everyday occurrence with him. Cleopatra detected the fraud, however, and invited a number of her friends to come the next day and see what a mighty angler was Mark. Then she had her divers go down and fasten a salted fish to his hook which sort of took the wind out of his sails, so to speak.
The Greeks were fond of angling, and Homer mentions the art several times while with the Romans, who understood fly fishing, it amounted to almost a passion and at least one prominent citizen of that great city was ruined financially by spending too much money on elaborate fish ponds. The poet Oppian saved his father from the wrath of the Emperor Severus by writing a book on angling and many other classical writers were interested in the subject.
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