History of Fly Tying

Of all the ways to catch a fish, few are as exciting and rewarding as catching one on a fly you've tied yourself. An artificial fly can entice the slow rise of a trout or the explosive strike of a largemouth bass. And for many fly anglers, tying the fly is as satisfying as landing the fish....

No other aspect of modern sport fishing is as steeped in tradition and history as tying and fishing artificial flies.

The tools and materials of fly tying are reminiscent of a time when the rewards of a season's hunt - the feathers and furs of game birds and animals - were used to create fly patterns that would catch fish.

While many people credit Izaak Walton and his 1676 edition of The Compleat Angler with the beginning of fly fishing, the origins of tying and fishing artificial flies actually date back thousands of years.

The earliest written account appeared in the third century A.D., when the writer Aelianus described a Macedonian method of catching fish using artificial flies:

"They do not use [natural] flies for bait, for if a man's hand touch them they lose their natural color, their wings wither, and they become unfit food for the fish.

"[Instead] they fasten crimson wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers that grow under a cock's wattles, and which in color are like wax."

Centuries later, in 1496, an Englishwoman named Dame Juliana Berners wrote the popular Treatise of Fishing with an Angle, which included a description of dressing a hook with virtually the same materials used by the Macedonians.

In the years between Aelianus and Berners, fishing with an artificail fly had evolved from a practical way to catch fish to a highly refined sport, but the method of winding materials onto a hook remained the same.

Interest in fly tying blossomed in the 1880s as flytiers in Europe, Britain and America were tying both gaudy, fanciful wet flies and increasingly exact imitations of natural insects. But in America, these fancy wet-fly patters gradually gave way to more realistic flies, as the native Eastern brook trout was slowly replaced by the brown trout.

The brown, an import from Germany in 1883, was far more selective than the brookie. As a rsult, flytiers were forced to create patterns that more closely resembled the natural insects that made up the trout's diet.

At about the same time, in 1881, Dr. Henshall's Book of the Black Bass introduced artificial flies - many of them traditional trout patterns - to countless bass fishermen.

In the 1950s, the feathers and fur of exotic and endangered species that once had been among the standard fly-tying materials became increasingly difficult to obtain. Flytiers turned to other sources of natural material, and patterns no longer called for owl, condor or imported jungle cock feathers.

In the 1970s, the introductions of synthetics, such as Antron and Mylar revolutionized fly tying. Colors, particularly fluorescents, that were unobtainable in nature or through dying natural materials, were now available in synthetic threads, dubbing and wing materials.

Today, in an age of man-made materials and high-tech equipment, when fly angers pursue everything from bass and pike to bonefish and tarpon, the popularity of fly tying shows no sign of diminishing as another generation learns the craft of winding materials onto a hook in order to entice a fish to strike.