Man has caught fish for food for thousands of years using a variety of fishing equipment such as rods, hooks, nets and spears. Images of men fishing appear in the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics but this was most probably for food rather than pleasure. The Ancient Romans were known to enjoy various sports and it is recorded that they employed the use of artificial flies to catch fish. It is, therefore, highly likely that they enjoyed the sport of fly fishing.
In fly fishing the artificial fly is attached to a fine line and carefully cast into the water. Fish are drawn to the fly and take it into their mouths whereby the hook penetrates the flesh enabling the fish to be worked ashore. Great skill is involved in using the fly fishing rod, line, fly and cast style to fool the fish into thinking it is suitable food or just making it look so interesting that they have to investigate further.
In the United Kingdom fly fishing was mainly enjoyed in Northern England and Scotland. Queen Victoria visited Scotland frequently and, almost single handedly, helped create that nation's tourist industry. Many of the members of 'polite society' partook in many of the sports available in Scotland which included hunting and fishing. Fly fishing was the main method used to catch fine specimens of salmon and trout which was often preserved and displayed proudly in upper class homes across Great Britain.
The 19th century saw something of a boom in fly fishing. Cottage industries worked to supply all of the anglers requirements including hand made rods and reels. Such items were very expensive as it required a certain level of skill and a deep understanding of fly fishing to be able to produce a finely balance rod and reel. So fine was the craftmanship of the period that when such items come up at auction they are enthusiastically fought over by keen anglers of today.
One of the greatest skills of the day was the creation of elaborately designed fly fishing flies. Using such materials as horse hair, feathers and fur, a fly would be crafted to a specific pattern. Some patterns can prove deadly and some of the patterns that proved highly successful at catching fish in the 19th century remain popular to this day.
There are two distinctive types of fly fishing flies, wet flies and dry flies. Wet flies are those types that are allowed to sink into the water. As such flies can often appear, in the eyes of the fish, as small underwater creatures or small fish, they can, if used correctly, be an incredibly effective fly. On the other hand dry flies are those types that are not allowed to sink and remain floating on the surface. Appearing to fish as an insect that has just landed or fallen onto the water, or even looking like an insect emerging from the water, such flies are excellent when used by the hands of a skillful angler who understands how to cast properly.
Over the years the fly fishing industry has gone from strength to strength. The sport is now very popular around the world and there are a number of excellent destinations in Europe and America that are simply amazing places to fish. The famous salmon rivers of Scotland attract anglers in large numbers and Scotland is one of the places which most anglers long to visit for a fly fishing vacation.
When you think about fishing for walleye, fly fishing is probably one of the furthest tactics from your mind. However, you can use sinking lines, streamers, and some conventional techniques like vertical jigging to make walleye fly fishing work for you. Keep in mind, however, that fly tying is an art, and you'll have to learn each pattern one by one before you can put the flies into practice. The first thing to do is learn the basics and build upon that knowledge as you progress in your walleye fishing activities.
There are several types of flies that can be used in walleye fly fishing, including a wet fly, a caddis fly, a mayfly, a nymph, and a streamer. These are the basic types, and when you decide to delve into the art of fly fishing, you'll probably want to stick with these basics for a long time, getting them down before moving on to any other kind of pattern (there are thousands of patterns that you don't even want to think about at this point).
You'll need to learn about appropriate sizes of flies to use before beginning, so compare them to typical baits and lures that you would use for walleye. The equipment you'll need to get started is quite basic. You'll want to have an inexpensive but sturdy vise, a bobbin that rolls smoothly, a set of hackle pliers, scissors, and a bodkin. It is more important when creating your fishing equipment to have quality materials than to have lots of them. However, when you become an expert at creating a tied fly, you can use a cheap feather and still come out with almost equal quality.
To get started, you only need one brown and one black-and-white grizzly feather. You may be able to find a package with half a brown neck and half a grizzly together by companies such as Metz, saving you money and providing you with enough feathers for a starting point. Now it's time to really go shopping. Here are your other basic needs to begin your project: deer, elk, and muskrat hair; a squirrel tail; a hare's mask; a couple of turkey feathers; two packages of marabou feathers, one black, one brown; a spool of black thread; brightly colored chenille; two spools of tinsel, one flat silver and one gold wire; some lead wire; a cake of dubbing wax; and standard-shank hooks in sizes 10 to 20, as well as long-shank hooks in sizes 4 to 10.
With these items, you have everything you need to tie the five basic patterns you should start with for fly fishing.
Both Angus Macleod & Daniel Eggertsen are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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