Читать книгу Fishing Flies - Smalley - Страница 33

None is more killing than an orange body with peacock and bluejay wings and black hackle legs.

Frank Forester (real name Henry William Herbert), Fish and Fishing, 1859.

The best fly [for striped bass] is that with the scarlet ibis and white feathers mixed.

R. B. Roosevelt, Game Fishes of the North, 1862.

But note: these may have been fished in rivers when the striped bass made their spawning runs.

In conclusion, over 100 years ago it was questionable whether it was necessary to have specific fly patterns for saltwater fishing (and black bass fishing), certainly in and around Florida. James Henshall (Camping and Cruising in Florida, 1884) advised that:

Bright feathers are easily procured in Florida from the numerous gayplumaged birds, so that the angler will be at no loss for materials for tying his flies. Two flies I remember as being particularly taking: one with upper wing of white ibis and lower wings of the mottled feather of chuck-will’s-widow, another with top wings of white egret and lower ones of pink curlew [roseate spoonbill].

Not today, they aren’t!