A HISTORY OF FLYFISHING. By Conrad Voss Bark.

1992 1st edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Ppxvi,194 + 8pp ads. Colour plates of flies, photographs, illustrations, bibliography. Blue boards, spine titled in gilt.

"Man has been fishing for trout and salmon with the fly since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Devising more ingenious methods of doing so, his rods, reels, lines and flies have evolved in fascinating ways. With a delightful blend of wit and erudition, Conrad Voss Bark tells the story of flyfishing, from the Macedonian 'plumes' of old to the hairwing streamers of today. He spotlights the sport's formative protagonists - Juliana Berners, Robert Venables, Isaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Alfred Ronalds, George Kelson, J.C. Mottram, Dr Bell, and many others, using his journalist's skills to appraise the prevailing dogmas, the breakthroughs in tackle and to re-live the great debates and controversies, including the famous Skues-Halford dispute. Throughout, flyfishing is seen against the broader canvas of the changing times in Britain, Ireland and North America. Today there are new forces which are shaping flyfishing history: water pollution, drift netting, over-kill, timeshare, catch-and-release and the explosion of new materials from which tackle and flies are made. Not since Waller-Hills' classic History of Fishing for Trout of 1921, has a broad survey of this fascinating sport been tackled with such individual style and verve." Chapters include: The Macedonian method; Wyngis of the Pertryche; Cromwell's general; Cotton, Walton and Barker; The Ludlow doctor; Points of departure; The arrival of Ronalds; Butterflies for salmon; Springs and origins; The dry fly; Halford; Branche line; Reservoirs of poison; The nymph men; Bell's bugs; The legitimate method; The American influence; Return of the plume; A change of flies; The time of our lives. Appendices include: The Roman plume; The Treatyse; The Venables text; Charles Cotton's flies; Scotcher of Chepstow; Alfred Ronalds; George Pulman and the dry fly; The upstream wet fly; Kelson's salmon flies; The dry and the floating fly; G.E.M. Skues; H.S. Hall and the dry fly; Dr. H. Bell.