TO FISHERMEN.
R. B. LODGE
INVITES ATTENTION TO HIS
Permanent * Portraits
OF ANGLERS AT THE RIVER SIDE WHILE ACTUALLY FISHING.
These aim at being not only Portraits, but also Pictures, which show you
engaged in your favourite sport by the side of some pool, or knee deep
in some shallow of your own particular river, the sight of which in
after years will bring back to your memory many pleasant reminiscences
of bygone success.
_Angling Outings and Matches attended by appointment._
Terms on application to
R. B. LODGE,
1, Chase Green Villa,
=ENFIELD.=
+Fishing on the Itchen.+
TO LET,
_BY THE DAY,
WEEK, MONTH,
OR SEASON_.
Apply to
W. CHALKLEY,
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Fishing Tackle Maker+,
+=The Square=+,
WINCHESTER.
=THE=
"+Bayonet-Pointed Gaff+"
=(DR. BRUNTON'S PATTERN).=
(REGISTERED.)
[Illustration]
These Hooks are made of really good steel, carefully hardened and
tempered, and each one separately tested with an opening strain of 56lb.
See notices in _Land and Water_, February 5; +Fishing Gazette+,
February, 12; and _Field_, February 19, 1887.
No. 1. Length 6in., gape of hook 2in.: price 4s.
No. 2. " 7in., " " 2-1/2in.: price 5s.
No. 3. " 8in., " " 3in.: price 6s.
Also made with long concave shank for binding on handle at 6d. each
extra. To be obtained through all Fishing Tackle dealers and Cutlers, or
of the Makers,
R. H. BROWNE & CO.,
Brunswick Street, Well Street, Hackney, London, E.
_New Illustrated Catalogue (2000 Engravings and Coloured Plate of
Flies), Post Free, 2d._
Shooting. Fishing.
[Illustration]
TRADE MARK.
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Gun, Rifle, Revolver, and Fishing Tackle Manufacturer.
_SPORTSMAN'S COMPLETE OUTFITTER FOR ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD._
=Every Requisite for the Angler.=
_SPLIT CANE RODS (my own make), a Speciality_,
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131, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.=
"RED PALMER."
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE FIRST EDITION.
"LAND AND WATER."
"This unpretentious, yet well written, work contains a large amount of
information, which may be read with advantage by all followers of the
more refined branch of the gentle art."
"FISHING GAZETTE."
"Like Piscator's humble friend, the chub, it is 'a good dish of meat,'
and excellent for entering a young angler. Mr. Tayler's views as to
tackle are generally sound and practical. On the subject of flies he
gives excellent advice. We can safely recommend it as a useful manual
for any young aspirant to Fly-Fishing honours."
"FISHING."
"The author, in its pages, gives the result of many years' practical
experience of Fly-Fishing, and evidently is no tyro. His work,
therefore, will afford much useful information to those who are in need
of it."
"HAMPSHIRE COUNTY TIMES."
"This capitally written essay on the whole art of Fly-Fishing is from
the pen of Mr. James Tayler, who is recognised throughout the kingdom as
an authority in the sport on which he gives such excellent instruction."
=OF JAMES TAYLER,=
25, HAZELVILLE ROAD, HORNSEY RISE, LONDON, N.
AND OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.
_PRICE ONE SHILLING; By Post, 1s. 1-1/2d._
_SECOND EDITION._
[Illustration]
RED PALMER:
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON
FLY FISHING.
BY
JAMES TAYLER.
LONDON:
+Published by the Empire Printing and Publishing Co., Lim.+,
2 and 3, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, E.C.
1888.
LONDON:
EMPIRE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED,
2 AND 3, SALISBURY COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
+Dear Dr. Brunton+,
I dedicate this little book to you, knowing that you have proved
yourself to be one of the most skilful anglers of the present day; while
all anglers who have the pleasure of your acquaintance know you to be a
most genial and intelligent member of the craft, always ready to promote
its interest, and to communicate the result of your great researches and
experience to your fellow-fishermen.
Yours faithfully and respectfully,
JAMES TAYLER.
+To J. Brunton, Esq., M.A., M.D.+
FLY-FISHING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Having read papers on Fly-fishing before the Gresham and Islington
Angling Societies, and contributed occasional articles to the fishing
periodicals, I have been persuaded by some of the members of those
societies to publish my ideas on the subject, and I now submit them to
the public, premising that the following treatise is neither historic
nor scientific, but simply an endeavour to communicate what nearly fifty
years of practice and careful observation have taught me to consider as
correct principles in a concise and practical form. Trusting that it
will be received as such, and will be of some assistance to young
anglers in cultivating that, which, we are assured by the highest
authority on angling, is "an art worth learning."
In preparing this short treatise I have assumed, what is generally
admitted by fishermen, that catching trout with an artificial fly is the
highest branch of the piscatorial art; for, although some bottom-fishers
and spinners claim that as much skill is required in their branch as is
in fly-fishing, yet I think the palm must be yielded to the fly-fisher.
It differs in many respect from all other kinds. The greatest care must
be taken not to scare the fish, either by the sight of the angler or his
shadow, or by awkwardness in managing the rod, line, and flies. You have
only to watch a fly-fisher and a bottom-fisher a short time to decide
where the greatest skill is required and attained.
I recollect, when a very little boy, having a book, in which there was a
coloured print of a trout, and underneath were these lines--
"Angler, mind well what you're about,
If you would catch the cunning trout,"
and I suppose I must have profited by the advice, for in an old diary,
kept by me in 1839, there is a record of my having caught four trout
weighing 7-1/4lbs. when I was thirteen years of age. But those were not
caught with a fly.
The late Mr. Francis Francis, than whom there is no higher authority,
says in one of his books, "There is far greater skill, caution,
patience, and cunning required to delude a brook trout than is thought
of in landing the noblest twenty-pound salmon that ever sailed up Tweed
or Tay." And in further proof of this I will give an extract from that
excellent little book, "Stewart's Practical Angler." The author says:
"Everything combines to render fly-fishing the most attractive of all
branches of the angler's art. The attempt to capture trout, which are
seen to rise at natural flies, is in itself an excitement which no other
method possesses. Then the smallness of the hook and the fineness of the
tackle necessary for success increases the danger of escape, and
consequently the excitement and the pleasure of the capture; and, for
our own part, we would rather hook, play, and capture a trout of a
pound weight with fly, than one of a pound and a half with minnow or
worm, where, the hooks being larger, there is less chance of their
losing their hold, and, the gut being stronger, there is less risk of
its breaking. Artificial fly-fishing is also the cleanest and most
gentlemanly of all the methods of capturing trout. The angler who
practises it is saved the trouble of working with worms, of catching,
keeping alive, or salting minnows, or searching the river's bank for the
natural insect. Armed with a light single-handed rod and a few flies, he
may wander from county to county and kill trout wherever they are to be
found."
In addition to the pleasure and satisfaction experienced in exerting the
faculties necessary to capture the most cunning and cautious of fish,
what can be more delightful in the sweet spring-time than to take one's
rod and stroll away into the green meadows, by the side of the rippling
brook, where the eye is gratified by the trees and hedge-rows which are
putting forth their young leaves; where the sense of smell is refreshed
by innumerable wild flowers and herbs, and where the ear is charmed by
the soft "coo" of the wood pigeon, the tinkling of a distant sheep-bell,
the cry of a partridge to its mate, or the occasional splash of a trout
in the stream, which sounds alone disturb the silence? Well may Walton
exclaim:--
"I was for that time lifted above earth,
Possessed of joys not promised in my birth."
An all-wise Creator gave man dominion "over the fish of the sea, over
the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth;" and a very large proportion of the human race, either from
motives of necessity or recreation, exercise the powers thus given them
either in killing or subjugating the lower branches of the animal
creation.
Without wishing to detract from other sports, I think Walton was quite
right in claiming for angling a decided preference. In the present day
it is followed by men of all classes, from the nobleman who owns miles
of salmon river to the East-end mechanic or apprentice, who trudges off
to the Lea river on a Sunday morning with his eighteenpenny roach-rod,
and many of whom, but for this angling opportunity, would have no
relaxation from the dull, mill-horse round of their daily lives, save
some kind, perhaps, far more demoralising; but who, by its judicious
indulgence, by breathing the pure air of the country, and by being
brought into contact with beautiful river scenery and animal and
vegetable life, re-invigorate their bodies, exalt their minds, and beget
a state of quiet contentment, patience, and perseverance exceedingly
useful in these days of high-pressure wear-and-tear. Sir Henry Wotton
says of angling, he found it "a cheerer of the spirits, a tranquillizer
of the mind, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a diverter of sadness."
Ladies, too, ever since the time of Cleopatra, have liked to "betray
tawny-finn'd fishes," and Dame Juliana Berners has shown by her "Boke of
St. Albans" that she had a minute and practical knowledge of "fyshynge
with an angle" far beyond the previous writers on the art; and with the
present rage for out-of-door amusements among the fair sex, fishing has
its votaries, notwithstanding the attractions of croquet and
lawn-tennis.
Having been a fly-fisher many years, I venture to offer a few ideas on
the subject, not with a view to instruct my elder brethren in the art,
but merely to explain some principles that my experience has proved to
be correct, and thereby to save, perhaps, some trouble and loss of time
to young beginners. I am fully aware that no amount of theory without
practice will ever make a fly-fisher, but I am also aware that practice
will become much easier, and be far more likely to prove successful, if
based on a correct theory, than if left to itself.