Fishing Flies. Smalley
THE MAURE FLY
The body of dusky wool; the wings of the blackest mail of the wild drake.
THE TANDY FLY AT ST WILLIAMS’S DAY
The body of tandy wool and a pair of wings of the whitest mail of the wild drake.
JULY
THE WASP FLY
The body of black wool and ribbed with yellow thread; the wings of the buzzard.
THE SHELL FLY AT ST THOMAS’S DAY
The body of green wool and ribbed with the herl from the peacock’s tail; wings of the buzzard.
AUGUST
THE DRAKE FLY
The body of black wool and ribbed with black silk; wings of the mail of the black drake with a black head.
Today we rarely tie and use flies that were devised over a hundred years ago. However the flies contained in the Treatyse were reprinted and recommended by several other writers up to and including Izaak Walton in The Compleat Angler (first published over 150 years later, in 1653).
A DOZEN EARLY FLIES FROM SWITZERLAND
In 1558 Conrad Gesner of Zurich published a large tome called Historia Animalium, the fourth volume of which was De Piscum et Aquatilium Animatium Natura, or Of Fish and of Aquatic Animal Life. He began his section on fishing flies with: ‘Certain skilful fishers fabricate diverse kinds of worms and winged insects from the feathers of birds in various seasons of the year …’ (trans. Andrew Herd). ‘Worms’ probably included all subsurface forms including larvae and nymphs. As in the Treatyse there were twelve patterns for catching trout and grayling. They lacked names, but were tagged to the months in which they were most effective, the first for each month being a grayling fly, the second a trout fly.
APRIL
Body: White [thread or wool?].
Wings: Whitish feather from the partridge belly.
Body: Red silk.
Wings: Red cock hackles.
Head: Green [thread?].
MAY
Body: Segmented black and white by twisting together black and white thread before winding down the hook shank [see DARK WATCHETT, (see here); FOOTBALLER MIDGE PUPA, see here].
Wings: Varied (i.e. hooded) crow back feather.
Head: Blue.
Body: Red silk and gold [tinsel?].
Wings: Red cock hackles.
Head: Black.
JUNE
Body: Green ‘from the feathers of the breast of the wild duck’ [which are brown – were these wound round the hook shank?].
Wings: Dark heron tail.
Body: Blue silk and gold [tinsel?].
Wings: Partridge underwing coverts.
Head: Yellow.
JULY
Body: Blue silk.
Wings: Hooded crow belly feathers.
Head: Black silk.
Body: Green silk and gold [tinsel?].
Wings: Yellow feathers.
Head: Blue silk.
AUGUST
Body: ‘Feathers of a crane’s wing’ [herl?].
Wings: Partridge.
Head: Green silk.
Body: Peacock herl, ‘bound with a golden feather’ [was the golden feather palmered as a body hackle?].
Wings: Back feathers of hazel hen.
Head: Yellow silk.
SEPTEMBER
Body: Blue silk.
Wings: Feathers from back of hooded crow.
Head: Red silk.
Body: Yellow and red silk [twisted, as for the first fly for May?].
Wings: Ptarmigan.
Head: ‘Dark’.
When Gesner wrote his fly patterns, the Treatyse flies were in their pomp in England. It is clear that Gesner was unaware of the Treatyse flies, and that authors in England, up to and beyond Izaak Walton, were oblivious of Gesner’s work.
ITALY’S VALSESIAN FLIES
The Sesia River flows from the Piedmont Alps