Are modern fly fishermen re...

with the tremendous advantage of a fly reel, allowing him to permit the fish to run, but his terminal tackle was actually little better. In 1942 the NAACC Standard minimum strength for 4x (drawn gut or synthetic) tippet material was .625 lb test; a nylon 4x tippet today would test 6 lbs. (Orvis Super Strong) or more. Imagine then the skill required of the angler that could boast of landing a 5 pound trout in fast water on a 4x gut tippet.

Yet it was not uncommon in the late gut/early nylon era for a fisherman to do just that. I still have a book full of nylon leaders, knotted and knotless, from the early 1960's. Even then, a nylon leader with 4x tippet, from the best manufacturer, was hovering at the 2 lb test mark. I confess to using some of these still -- but only after cutting them back a bit and re-building the tip with modern nylon.

So, what was involved in landing a trout of substance in fast water with a tippet that might pop from a single jump or headshake? Patience. You play the fish gently, working always from below if possible, pulling him out of line with the current so that he was working against the current, not with it. Wearing him down slowly, perhaps before he even recognizes a threat. This meant, of course, that you never landed a "green" fish. Not until the fish was wallowing on its side in the shallows did you attempt to net him. Then you dispatched him quickly with the handle of your knife or a priest.

"What", you scream, "killing a great fish like that?" Well, you began killing him when he took your fly. The longer you played him, the more lactic acid accumulated in his tissues, the greater the likelihood of death by acidosis, despite attempts to revive him. You may berate the anglers of yore for their bloody-handed ways, but they knew that to catch a fish was to kill a fish.

© Reed F. Curry 2006