The Upstream Wet Fly

Provides a history of the development of wet fly fishing, particularly the Scottish and North Country schools and their leading protagonists.

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This fascinating and informative book provides a history of the development of wet fly fishing, particularly the Scottish and North Country schools and their leading protagonists. The Scottish school was led by William C. Stewart, who was the first advocate of fishing and casting upstream. His book, The Art of Trout Fishing More Practically Applied to Clear Water, originally published in 1857, is still one of the most popular and enduring books on the subject. The North Country school was developed principally by Thomas E. Pritt, H.H. Edmonds and N.N. Lee. North Country spiders are still fished extensively and led to the development of flymphs and other soft-hackle patterns. However, the development of wet fly fishing was not restricted to the rivers and streams of the north of England and the Scottish border; G.E.M. Skues was one of the few anglers to appreciate the possible application of North Country fishing methods to southern chalk streams and H.C. Cutcliffe wrote about wet fly fishing on the rivers and streams of the West Country. Discover the history of upstream wet fly fishing in this well-researched, accessible book and learn from the masters of this particular art.