Fishing Facts and History

Feathers are the mainstay of the fly tier. The hackles of a dry fly, the wings and tails of most wet, dry, and streamer flies -- all of these use the feathers of birds gathered from dozens of countries and climes. The colors are sometimes subtle, sometimes dazzling. But what I do not see when I run my hands over a Silver Pheasant skin, is the ultraviolet light reflected from the surface - and those reflected wavelengths may be crucial to the effectiveness of the fly I tie.

Feathers in visible light

Feathers with UV in blue

Just as trout are now known to have vision in the Ultraviolet as well as the visible human spectrum, birds are now being examined for both their UV reflecting plumage and their UV vision. For example, an extensive study of forest songbirds discovered that even when the male and female were identical in color in the visible spectrum, their plumage was markedly different when examined for UV reflectance. Unfortunately, the scientific study of UV reflective plumage and its effect on the mating pattern of birds has just begun - we do not yet have access to the UV characteristics of most of the bird species used in fly tying.

Humans see their world through trichromatic vision - visual input is represented by the colors Red, Green, and Blue, and their millions of combinations. For centuries scientists thought that most of the animal world shared a similar ocular capability - either within man's visible color spectrum or in Black and White. With H. Mueller's proof in 1854 that photoreception occurs in the rods and cones of the eye, steps toward a scientific understanding of human and animal vision began. However, it was not until 1959 that physiological research confirmed that the human retina contains three types of cones, each most responsive to a different wavelength of light, with some overlapping response curves.[1] More recently, it was discovered that mature rainbow trout have a fourth cone - for Ultraviolet - providing a vision capability that had been previously detected in smolts but presumed lost as the fish matured.[2]

Baetid

Baetid with pseudo-color for UVA

Ultraviolet light, the non-visible wavelengths below 400 nm, was discovered by Ritter in 1801, but little recognition was given to it in terms of its effect on animal behavior until 1980 (though some research was done on minnows as early as 1924).

I have had the great pleasure to enjoy two creations that are near perfect for the purposes for which they were born - two angling journals that, through a combination of art and information, are a continual delight.

The first is a fly fishing magazine from Italy, unlike any bi-monthly fly fishing journal you may have seen, called "Sedge & Mayfly".

To properly appreciate this publication, I will lead you through it using photos of an issue chosen at random. The photo quality doesn't do justice to the original, but I trust it is sufficient to serve as a temptation for the reader to explore further for himself.

The cover of a typical issue [Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger image.] Note the curious absence of phallic images - large salmonids protruding from the crotches of impeccably coiffed, meticulously dressed fly fishermen.

We hear of the joys of casting cane fly rods, and some even wax poetic about the sound of a silk line slipping through the guides, but many fly fishermen believe that cane rods and silk lines can't cast a long distance. Olaf Borge of Viroqua, Wisconsin (a.k.a., "The Silk Line Pimp") felt it was time to enlighten the new breed of fly fishermen to the tremendous casting abilities of the silk line/cane rod pairing.

Taking advantage of the Cane Rodmakers Gathering at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum, Livingston Manor, NY on September 8th and 9th of this year, Olaf threw out a challenge to the assembled makers and cane enthusiasts to counter the challenge presented by the Cortland Line Co. (see 1st International Rodmakers and Casting Challenge Rules.)

Here were the rules:

Phoenix Silk fly line
Bamboo Rod Maker, casting, Challenge Trophy held
at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum
September 8th and 9th, 2007

Since Silk fly lines were, and often still are, the natural choice of cane rod fishermen; and since the plastic fly line provided for the “1st International Rodmakers and Casting Challenge” is named “SYLK” it would seem appropriate that a counter challenge should be offered by a true silk fly line manufacturer.

That challenge is to cast a true modern oiled-Silk fly line of the same AFTMA weight designation, further, under the same conditions, than the modern plastic “SYLK” line.

The rods used will be the bamboo rods selected for the “International Challenge Finals”. The casters and casting format will be the same as the “International Challenge Finals”.

Casters will use a Phoenix WF 5 silk fly line, with appropriate leader and fly, provided by Phoenix Silk Fly Lines and Olaf Borge.

The Phoenix silk fly line award will be presented to the caster, rod combination that casts the furthest in this endeavor.

And furthermore a Phoenix Silk Fly Line, of the winners choice, will be awarded to the rodmaker and caster combination who casts further than any rod cast with the “SYLK” fly line in this contest.

And now (drumroll) the results of the competition...

I am indebted to Peter D. of www.neoutdoorvoice.com for leading me to this film footage. I remember watching Ted Williams batting in Fenway Park when I was young - a Red Sox/Yankees game. Ted was no longer a "splinter" but, even at 41 he was a great ballplayer. I seem to recall Whitey Ford was pitching and Yogi Berra was catching for the Yankees - I didn't worry about the Red Sox lineup because I was a Yankees fan.

Here is the film. Get your popcorn and enjoy, it's about 28 minutes.

Ted Williams - the real Ted Williams - Fishing for Atlantic Salmon

Fishing if I, a fisher, may protest,
Of pleasures is the sweetest, of sports the best,
Of exercises the most excellent,
Of recreations the most innocent,
But now the sport is marde, and wott ye why?
Fishes decreased, and fishers multiply.

You walk from the yellow glow of one lamp to the next, careful not to stray too far into the smoke. You can feel the room is crowded but the figures hunched at each table are barely discernible. Cries of anguish drift to you through the eddying smoke, the intensity of the sufferer's agony measured by the volume and length of their imprecations. Voices of the damned...for a moment all is quiet, then with the snap of a thread, a low grunt of profanity ripples forth.

It's another Wednesday evening fly tying session of the Andover Fly Fishers, circa 1962...

A wonderful admonition if Mr. Thoreau had been speaking of fly tying -- simplifying, eliminating the profound complexity of some of our established patterns. Take, for example, the fly once universally employed when fishing for Atlantic salmon. Until some enterprising soul had the audacity to replace the feather wing of a full-dress salmon fly, which might sport twenty different types of feathers from exotic fowl, with a simple hairwing of bear or squirrel, it was a given that salmon would only strike the gaudy betrayer.

Below are some salmon flies, hairwing flies from Maritime Canada surrounding a full-dress "Blue Doctor". All of them catch fish,and not just in North America, but in all the streams where Atlantic salmon swim. So, what did it take for the first Maritimer to "dress-down" a salmon fly? Did he sleep that night or toss about, torn by guilt for believing that the noble Salmo salar would roll to such a simple device?