Fly Fishing (book)

Fly Fishing
Title page 4th edition, 1920
Author	Edward Grey
Illustrator	Eric Fitch Daglish (and others)
Subject	Fly fishing
Publisher	J. M. Dent and Co., London
Publication date	1899
Pages	276

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 Hamptonshire rivers. The book was in print for nearly 50 years and has been extensively reprinted in the 21st century.

Synopsis

Where Sea Trout Run (1920 edition)

The work deals with fly fishing for trout, sea trout and salmon. Grey places presents fishing for sea trout as the pinnacle of fly fishing and describes the challenge of fly fishing for Atlantic salmon. On trout, he was the first writer of importance on the dry-fly who really knew what the wet-fly meant. Grey was an expert angler and he detailed much that is useful and instructive in prose that is clear and vigorous.

What are the qualities which a man most needs to become a good angler? Let us assume that he starts with keenness, that the prospect of hooking a fish produces in him that feeling of excitement which is the motive for a desire to succeed, is the beginning of delight in angling, and, like a first element, cannot be analysed. ...In angling, as in all other recreations into which excitement enters, we have to be upon our guard, so that we can at any moment throw a weight of self-control into the scale against misfortune, and happily we can study to some purpose, both to increase our pleasure in success and to lessen the distress caused by what goes ill.
— Introductory, Sir Edward Grey, Fly Fishing

Author

Main article: Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon KG, PC, FZL, DL (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, Bt, was a British Liberal statesman. He served as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, the longest continuous tenure of any person in that office. He is probably best remembered for his remark at the outbreak of the First World War: "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time". Ennobled as Viscount Grey of Fallodon in 1916, he was Ambassador to the United States between 1919 and 1920 and Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords between 1923 and 1924. He also gained distinction as an ornithologist and angler.

Grey was a contemporary of angler G. E. M. Skues at Winchester College, but it is unknown whether or not the two ever met or fished together while attending school.^[1] At the time of his writing Fly Fishing, Grey was considered one of the finest dry fly fisherman in England and a master of the Hampshire chalkstreams.^[2]

From 1st edition:

Chapter I – Introductory
Chapter II – Dry Fly Fishing
Chapter III – Dry Fly Fishing (continued)
Chapter IV – Winchester
Chapter V – Trout Fishing With The Wet Fly
Chapter VI – Sea Trout Fishing
Chapter VII – Salmon Fishing
Chapter VIII – Tackle All
Chapter IX – Experiments In Stocking
Chapter X – Some Memories Of Early Days
Index

List of illustrations

Salmon and Sea Trout Flies (1920 edition)

The Haunt of the Trout, from a drawing by Jessie MacGregor – Frontispiece
Hampshire Water Meadow, from a drawing by Jessie MacGregor
Dry Flies and Wet Flies
Winchester Cathedral, from a drawing by William Hyde
St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester, from a drawing by William Hyde
Where Sea Trout Run, from a drawing by Jessie MacGregor
Salmon and Sea Trout Flies
A Northumberland Burn, from a drawing by Jessie MacGregor

(The two plates of flies have been copied from specimens supplied by Messrs. Hardy of Alnwick)

Reviews

John Hills in his A History of Fly Fishing for Trout (1921) praises Grey's prose:

Lord Grey of Fallodon published his book at the end of last century. The dry fly was then at its zenith, and the other system [the nymph] was receiving somewhat intolerant treatment. He was the first writer of importance on the dry fly who really knew what the wet fly meant. Himself the best and most devoted dry fly fisherman in England, he thus started unconsciously that restatement of values which Mr. Skues has carried so far. But he did more. He is gifted with the power to write fine prose.
— John Waller Hills, A History of Fly Fishing for Trout (1921)^[3]

James Robb, in Notable Angling Literature (1945) ranks Grey's Fly Fishing very highly:

There are not many who have acquired angling fame by the publication of only one book. There are few, however: those who readily occur to one are Walton, Stewart, Scrope and Plunket Greene. To that select circle there must be added the name of Edward Grey, for Fly-fishing was his one angling book and it is ranked among the classics. Indeed some go so far as to regard it as the finest contribution that has ever been made.
— James Robb, Notable Angling Literature (1945)^[4]

Editions

From: Hampton's Angling Bibliography ^[2]

First edition, April 1899, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Jessie MacGregor
Second edition, July 1899, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Jessie MacGregor
Third edition, 1901, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Jessie MacGregor
Fourth edition, 1907, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Fifth edition, 1920, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Jessie MacGregor and William Hyde
Sixth edition, 1928, J. M. Dent, London
Seventh edition, 1930, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Eric Fitch Daglish
Seventh edition (large paper), 1930, J. M. Dent, London
Eighth edition, 1934, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Eric Fitch Daglish
Ninth edition, 1947, J. M. Dent, London, illustrated by Eric Fitch Daglish
Ninth edition (French), Peche A La Mouche, 1947, Librairie des Champs-Elysee, Paris

From abebooks.com

Modern Fishing Classics Series edition, 1984, Andre Deutsch Ltd, London
Pranava Books, 2009. Reprinted from 1920 edition.
Reprint of 1899 edition, Adegi Graphics LLC, New York, 2011

Additional reading

Hills, John Waller (1921). A History of Fly Fishing For Trout. London: Phillp Allan & Co.
Robb, James (1945). Notable Angling Literature. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited.
Gingrich, Arnold (1974). The Fishing In Print-A Guided Tour Through Five Centuries of Angling Literature. New York: Winchester Press. ISBN 0876911572.
Herd, Andrew Dr (2001). The Fly. Ellesmere, Shropshire: Medlar Press. ISBN 1899600191.
Hayter, Tony (2002). F.M. Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution. London: Rober Hale. ISBN 0709067739.
Halford, F. M. (2007). Schullery, Paul, ed. Halford on the Dry Fly. Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811702720.
Black, William C. (2010). Gentlemen Preferred Dry Flies--The Dry Fly and The Nymph, Evolution and Conflict. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 9780826347954.

Notes

↑ Black, William C. (2010). "G.E.M.Skues Picks up the Gauntlet". Gentlemen Preferred Dry Flies--The Dry Fly and The Nymph, Evolution and Conflict. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN 9780826347954.
1 2 Callahan, Ken; Morgan, Paul (2008). Hampton's Angling Bibliography-Fishing Book 1881-1849. Ellesmere, England: The Medlar Press Ltd. p. 121. ISBN 9781899600878.
↑ Hills, John Waller (1921). A History of Fly Fishing For Trout. London: Phillp Allan & Co. pp. 217–18.
↑ Robb, James (1945). Notable Angling Literature. London: Herbert Jenkins Limited. p. 80.

Angling and game fishing

Angling	Boat fishing Trolling Casting Spey casting Reach cast Surf fishing Rock fishing Bank fishing Kayak fishing Centerpin fishing Coarse fish Rough fish Bottom fishing Tackle Techniques Tournaments Traditional fishing boats Angling personalities Television series Confédération Internationale de la Pêche Sportive

Game fishing	Big-game fishing Land-based game fishing Salmon run International Game Fish Association

Sport fish	Bass Carp Fly target species Mahi-mahi Marlin Porgie (bream) Shad Smelt whiting Striped bass Swordfish Walleye

The catch	Bag limits Catch and release Ghille Ike jime Minimum landing size Panfish Priest (tool) Tag and release

Catch records	Europe UK

Fly fishing

Fly fishing	Fly fishing tackle Bamboo fly rod Fly rod building Fly Casting Analyzer Furled leader Spey casting Reach cast Tenkara fishing Float tube Trout bum Target fish Fly waters Bibliography of fly fishing

Artificial flies	Fly lure Fly tying Adams Amadou Clouser Deep Minnow Cul De Canard Dave's Hopper Diawl bach Egg sucking leech Elk Hair Caddis Flesh Fly Grey Ghost Streamer Hare's Ear Klinkhammer Muddler Minnow Parks' Salmonfly Partridge and Orange Pheasant Tail Nymph Royal Coachman Royal Wulff Sakasa Kebari Trolling tandem streamer fly Tube fly Woolly Worm Woolly Bugger

Organizations	American Museum of Fly Fishing Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum Federation of Fly Fishers Trout Unlimited

Literature	Blacker's Art of Fly Making A Book on Angling A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice Favorite Flies and Their Histories Floating Flies and How to Dress Them The Fly-fisher's Entomology Fly Fishing A History of Fly Fishing for Trout Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream Pseudonyms of notable angling authors The American Angler's Book The Salmon Fly The Way of a Trout with the Fly

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