A History of Fly Fishing for Trout

John Waller Hills

The oldest known written record of fly fishing for trout is Aelian's account, written in 200 AD, of Macedonians catching trout with artificial flies tied with red wool and feathers the color of wax. John Waller Hills mentions it, but spills very little ink discussing it. He writes that it is "interesting rather than important and for this reason. It had no influence on subsequent development: it stands by itself and was unknown until a modern writer quoted it as a curiosity."

It may be true that Aelian's writings were unknown and thus had no influence on subsequent books and manuscripts, but I strongly suspect there was a direct (and many an indirect) line from the flies and techniques of Macedonia in 200 AD to those of England in 1496 when The Treatysse of Fishing with an Angle was published.

A History of fly Fishing for Trout should be viewed as a WRITTEN history of fly fishing for trout, as it is a thorough look at the various writings on fly fishing for trout from the Treatysse onwards. If you are at all interested in how we got to where we are, you will enjoy this book.

Philip Allan & Co, London 1921
Scholar Select reproduction, printed by Andesite Press
Hardcover, 244 pages
9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.

As new condition.

Contents

CHAPTER I - Sporting Literature in France and England

CHAPTER II - The Treatyse of Fishing With an Angle

CHAPTER III - From  the Treatyse to the Compleat Angler

CHAPTER IV - Early Fly Fishing in France

CHAPTER V - Charles Cotton and His Contemporaries

CHAPTER VI - From Cotton to Stewart

CHAPTER VII- Stewart and the Upstream School

CHAPTER VIII - The Dry Fly

CHAPTER IX - The Evolution of the Trout Fly

CHAPTER X - The Evolution of the Trout Fly (cont.)

CHAPTER XI- The Literature of Fly Fishing

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

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