Fly Fishing, The Ancient Pastime

Fly fishing is one of the oldest methods of angling.  Claudius Aelianus (circa A.D. 170-230) described the brown trout  as  "the fish with the  speckled skin"  in the third century.  He also wrote about  Macedonian  anglers fly fishing  with dry flies.  "In the river Tecinus in the north of Italy there is a fish called thymalus (the arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus),  about eighteen inches long, and in appearance something between a bass and a grey mullet.  ...[the grayling] cannot be caught with a baited hook, either with pig's fat or winged ant, shell fish, or fish gut, or snail's tendon, the ony successful bait being the mosquito... but which is the only delight for the grayling, and does capture him."   Since it would be unpractical if not impossible to hook a mosquito for bait then he would have to be referring to a dry fly.

Aelianus also described some of the fly tyer's materials of that time: "horeshair of black, white, chestnut and light gray color: of dyed colors light blue and purple are preferred; and all others are said to be worthless.  Wild boar's bristles are also used and rosin: plenty of bronze and lead: string and feathers, black, white and variegated.  Anglers also require crimson and purple wools ...a well trimmed light rod and a rod of cornel wood." 

Ancient fly lines were sophisticated for their day.  Lines were made of finely twisted horse hair and in colors to match different situations.  Plutarch (circa A.D. 80) noted that the hair from stallions was preferred because of it's strength and length.  Geldings were mediocre and mares were avoided because their urine weakened the tail hair.  This same advice was reiterated forteen hundred years later in Dame Juliana Berners' book A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle.

One does not need to know the long history of fly fishing to enjoy the sport.  But realizing that someone two thousand years ago was standing in a river waving a stick just like you really adds a new appreciation of this time honored pastime.