Botham on the Fly - The origin of Fly Fishing

" the art of fly fishing was born many years ago but it didn't just happen overnight and it didn't happen by accident."

" Fly fishing is very much an intellectual challenge. It's in the case of the last century you had well heeled Victorian anglers who had an awful lot of money, and time on their hands. Who did a tremendous amount pioneering work, not only in terms of tackle design or fly design which of course they did. But also understanding the trout, understanding its food, and did an awful lot to categorize the various flies that live in the river, and the various stages that they'd go through. For me the real pioneers of the modern dry fly fishing were three Victorian anglers; George Sowin Marriot, -- Marriot was very much an amateur scientist at the time he studied cell growth in plants. Francis Francis was a great angling writer- a great all around angler, and H. S. Awl was responsible for reinventing -- Later of course, nim fishing developed and it was here at Abbott's Barton, that a young lawyer came to fish who became very interested in the larva form of the insects that hatch from the river. He studied them, devised a whole series of dressings to imitate them, and gave the world nim fishing. It was quite revolutionary, and certainly not accepted at first. There were great debates because by then, the dry fly school had become very well-entrenched and there was great debates, and great arguments about the ethics of using sinking flies. Despite all the years that Skew spent on developing his nymphs, the further developments that Frank Sawyer brought in to place in the 1950s. Really, provided three patterns of nymph which are almost universal today; the pheasant tail nymph, the gray goose nymph, and the killer bug. I think the passion for angling for me really is the opportunity to spend quality time. -- And the opportunity to try and fool a wild creature that's on his own terms And with any luck if you hook, and land the fish then that is really very satisfying, seems to satisfy something very deep in the soul."