Perfect tackle indeed for modern day nymphing Paul but make no mistake, these old guys were always trying to imitate the hatched and floating dun. The literature makes that clear and it's a major point in my book to show that they weren't wet fly anglers as most people have said...Paul Arden wrote:It would be very interesting to try fishing with the tackle they used in those times. I'm quite sure it's perfect for nymphing! When I was French Nymphing in Bosnia on the Ribnic I overhead one guy tell another that I wasn't "fly fishing" - in fact he obviously wanted me to know
I'll order up a copy of your book when I'm back in the UK. It sounds like the sort of thing I need!
When people quote Walton & Cotton's advice to 'fish fine and far off', bear in mind that they COULD NOT fish further off, effectively, than two rod lengths. Owing to having short, fixed lines. When reels and longer lines came in, their flies sank!
BTW Skues' jealous fellow-members at Abbots Barton on the Itchen tried to get him out of the syndicate on the grounds that in nymphing he was not fly fishing, and hence was in violation of their lease. He hung on in there for another 2 or 3 years tho'.