Founded | 1884 |
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Type | Gentlemen's club |
Location |
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Patron | King Charles III |
Website | flyfishersclub |
The Flyfishers' Club is a gentlemen's club in London, England, which was founded in 1884 for enthusiasts of flyfishing. [1] In 1894, the club had more than three hundred members, while in 1984, this number had risen to between eight and nine hundred members. [2] [3]
The club's library has been described as one of the finest of its kind in Europe; [3] it has a collection of around three thousand works on the subject of fishing, including works such as the successful Floating Flies and How to Dress Them and Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice by F.M. Halford, one of the club's co-founders. [2] Many well-known writers on angling are members, and have contributed signed copies of their publications to the library.
According to Basil Field, the founding president, the original prospectus described the club's purposes as follows:
The club publishes a long-standing magazine, the Flyfishers' Journal; writers included G. E. M. Skues, who has been described as "one of the greatest trout fishermen that ever lived." [5] [6] [7] Skues dedicated his 1921 book, The Way of a Trout with the Fly to The Flyfishers' Club "in gratitude for many happy hours and some priceless friends". [8] In 1938, a debate was held at the club on Skues's controversial theories about the use of nymphs in fly-fishing, which led him to publish Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout. [6]
The club also has a museum of fishing memorabilia which holds a rod used by David Garrick and a case of flies reputed to have belonged to Izaak Walton. [9] Other items include a rod box originally exhibited in The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in 1851 and a pirn (used as an alternative to a fishing reel) which belonged to the "Ettrick Sheppherd" James Hogg. [10] [11]
The Flyfishers’ has had a number of homes. It had no permanent home of its own for the first four years of its existence, but opened its first rooms of its own in the Arundel Hotel in 1888, then moved to No. 8 Haymarket in 1889 and remained there until 1907, when it moved to Swallow Street, Piccadilly. It stayed there until destroyed in The Blitz in 1941. Since then it has leased premises in several other London clubs. Today, the Club leases rooms in the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street in central London.
Its current patron is King Charles III.
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has generic name (help)Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is insufficient to overcome air resistance, it cannot be launched far using conventional gears and techniques, so specialized tackles are used instead and the casting techniques are significantly different from other forms of angling. It is also very common for the angler to wear waders, carry a hand net, and stand in the water when fishing.
Arnold W. Gingrich was the editor of, and, along with publisher David A. Smart and Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of Esquire magazine. Among his other projects was the political/newsmagazine Ken.
Dry fly fishing is an angling technique in which the lure is an artificial fly which floats on the surface of the water and does not sink below it. Developed originally for trout fly fishing.
This general annotated bibliography page provides an overview of notable and not so notable works in the English language regarding the sport of fly fishing, listed by year of first publication. Although not all the listed books are devoted exclusively to fly fishing, all these titles contain significant fly fishing content. The focus of the present page is on classic general texts on fly fishing and its history, together with notable public or university library collections dedicated to fly fishing.
Ernest George Schwiebert (1931–2005) was born in Chicago on June 5, 1931. An architect by profession, Ernest "Ernie" Schwiebert was a renowned angler and angling author. Schwiebert spent his childhood in the Midwest, attended high school at New Trier, north of Chicago, earned his bachelor's degree in architecture from Ohio State University, and earned two doctorates at Princeton in architecture and the history and philosophy of architecture.
Frederic Maurice Halford, pseudonym Detached Badger, was a wealthy and influential British angler and fly fishing author. Halford is most noted for his development and promotion of the dry fly technique on English chalk streams. He is generally accepted as "The Father of Modern Dry Fly Fishing". John Waller Hills, A History of Fly Fishing for Trout (1921) called Halford "The Historian of the Dry Fly".
George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues (1858–1949), was a British lawyer, writer and fly fisherman. He invented modern-day nymph fishing. This caused a controversy with the Chalk stream dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford. His second book, The Way of a Trout with a Fly (1921) is considered a seminal work on nymph fishing. According to Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing historian, Skues:
was, without any doubt, one of the greatest trout fishermen that ever lived. His achievement was the invention of fly fishing with the nymph, a discovery that put a full stop to half a century of stagnation in wet fly fishing for trout, and formed the bedrock for modern sunk fly fishing. Skues' achievement was not without controversy, and provoked what was perhaps the most bitter dispute in fly fishing history.
The Piscatorial Society is one of the oldest angling societies in England, if not the world. It was founded in 1836 and still flourishes today. It leases fly fishing water on a number of chalk streams in Hampshire and Wiltshire, including the Wylye, the Test, the Itchen and the Hampshire Avon. It no longer has a base in London, but maintains a Rod Room on one of its Wiltshire rivers. Although members originally fished for all sorts of fish, the society now concentrates on fishing for brown trout and grayling with upstream dry fly or unweighted nymph imitations dressed lightly in the style of G. E. M. Skues.
Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream and Kindred Studies is a fly fishing book written by G. E. M. Skues published in London in 1910. Minor Tactics was Skues's first book and set the stage for his ascendancy as the inventor of nymph fishing for trout.
The Way of a Trout with a Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G. E. M. Skues published in London in 1921. This was Skues's second book after Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream (1910).
Floating Flies and How to Dress Them - A Treatise on the Most Modern Methods of Dressing Artificial Flies for Trout and Grayling with Full Illustrated Directions and Containing Ninety Hand-Coloured Engravings of the Most Killing Patterns Together with a Few Hints to Dry-Fly Fishermen is a fly fishing book written by Frederic M. Halford published in London in April 1886 by Sampson Low. A deluxe edition on large paper sold out before publication and the trade edition of 500 nearly so.
A Book on Angling – Being a complete treatise on the art of angling in every branch is a work of angling literature with significant fly fishing content written by Francis Francis, angling editor to The Field and published in London in 1867 by Longmans, Green and Company.
This annotated bibliography is intended to list both notable and not so notable works of English language, non-fiction and fiction related to the sport of fly fishing listed by year published. Although 100% of any book listed is not necessarily devoted to fly fishing, all these titles have significant fly fishing content. Included in this bibliography is a list of species related fly fishing literature.
This annotated bibliography is intended to list both notable and not so notable works of English language, non-fiction and fiction related to the sport of fly fishing listed by year published. Although 100% of any book listed is not necessarily devoted to fly fishing, all these titles have significant fly fishing content. Included in this bibliography is a list of fly tying, fly tackle, regional guides, memoirs, stories and fly fishing fiction related literature.
Fly Fishers International (FFI) is an international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Livingston, Montana. It was founded in 1964 and formalized a year later in 1965. FFI is an organized voice for fly fishers around the world; they represent all aspects of fly fishing, which include the art of fly tying, casting, and protection of the natural systems that support healthy fisheries and their habitats. Today, the organization's goals are to ensure the legacy of fly fishing worldwide. They focus on conservation, education and a sense of community.
Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice (1889) is British author and angler Frederic M. Halford's second and most influential book on dry fly fishing. It followed Floating Flies and How to Dress Them (1886) and this pair of books initiated some 40 years of a rigid, and sometimes dogmatic school, the Halfordian school, of dry fly fishing, especially on English chalk streams. The work also played a significant role in the development of dry-fly fishing in America.
George Selwyn Marryat was a country gentleman and British angler most noted for his relationship with F. M. Halford, Francis Francis and the development of dry-fly fishing on the chalk streams of southern England. Upon his death in 1896, he became known as the "Prince of Fly Fishers".
The Fly-Fisher's Entomology, Illustrated by Coloured Representations of the Natural and Artificial Insect and Accompanied by a Few Observations and Instructions Relative to Trout-and-Grayling Fishing, first published in 1836 by Alfred Ronalds (1802–1860), was the first comprehensive work related to the entomology associated with fly fishing. Although the work was Ronalds' only book, it was published in 11 editions between 1836 and 1913 and has been extensively reprinted in the last 100 years.
Fly Fishing, first published in 1899 by English author and diplomat Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1862–1933), is a book about fly fishing English chalk streams and spate rivers for trout and salmon. It includes reminisces about the author's fly fishing experiences on Hampshire rivers. The book was in print for nearly 50 years and has been extensively reprinted in the 21st century.