Fly Fishing for Beginners - HISTORY AND INTRODUCTION TO FLY FISHING Review
More than 2,000 years ago, fishermen noticed insects that were eaten by the fish near the water's surface. They fashioned rough imitations of those insects on primitive hooks and began catching fish. That was the beginning of a sport. A perfect mix of Romance and Sports – thy name is Fly Fishing.
The imitation of insects has evolved from the primitive work of 16th century practitioners in Western Europe to the sophisticated methods of America's modern masters. They call it fly-tying. Known to be one of the oldest forms of sport fishing, Fly-Fishing is thrilling and captivating even when the fish aren’t obliging!
The long and distinguished history of angling began with Aelian's comments on the sport in 200 A.D. In his De Natura Animalium, a method of fishing he witnessed in Macedonia is described: “They fasten red (crimson red) wool round a hook, and fix on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in color are like wax.” Some historians consider this passage to be one of the earliest references to fly-fishing.
Fly-fishing has fueled the imagination of artists and illustrators who have produced an incredible array of artifacts, literature and related art. Several important works includes an original watercolor by Winslow Homer (along with his personal fishing gear), a serene oil painting by Thomas Aquinas Daly entitled “A Meadow Landscape at Twilight,” and a painting by the late Ogden Pleissner, one of America's finest sporting artists.
Fly-fishing has produced a greater body of literature surrounding itself than any other sport. The most famous angling work of all—Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, from 1653, the Victorian era produced an explosion in fly fishing press, works of the late F.M. Halford who insisted that floating flies be fished only in the upstream direction.
