Traditional American Fly Fishing

    Most traditions were handed down from relatives or family friends or circles that we tended to navigate in. Today we have allowed ourselves the freedom to move out of the circles and thus expand our horizons to encompass other traditions and cross cultural innovations regarding fly-fishing and fly tying. It is these new traditional formalities that has opened up our possibilities for meshing new applications on this time honored sporting-art.

    Traditional American fly-fishing is rather complex and diversified when compared to other cultures and it is not well understood. Misconceptions have reached beyond the extent of genuine difference in regional fly designs and fishing styles all the way back to the origins of modern American fly-fishing practices.

    At the beginning of the 20^th century we had American groups that were stanch devotees of British traditions. It is uncomfortable to assume the proper posture to look down your nose at others, however, when you know that others are looking down their nose at you, and while the elitist purism of English angling gentlemen sat well with these American groups, they were more than ready to embrace a homegrown creed. Americans were still provincials worshipping at a foreign shrine and were willing to flaunt their acceptance. Today, for the most part, much of this has gone the way of the dinosaurs. We have evolved into multi-traditionalists due to the diversified fishing conditions in America and we find ourselves fractured into many practices. In some respects the term traditional has become meaningless to many.

    When streamers were developed in the northeastern part of the country there were those who ridiculed those who used them. In fact, there has not been any single form of fly-fishing that has been spared some sort of mockery, whether it's the dry fly purist, the wet fly devotee, the nymph enthusiast or whatever approach that is being used. When brass wire was used on fly bodies and hollow split brass beads were used for the heads on streamers and steelhead flies, those who used them were considered “those awful meat fishermen.” When lead wire was introduced to weight the bodies on flies it was quickly pointed out that a proper approach was to use hooks made from heavier wire, doing otherwise caused the fly to drift unnaturally.

    There has always been an ongoing discussion about what constitutes the proper way to approach this activity we call fly-fishing. More recently when strike indicators were introduced, there were those who considered them as “training wheels” for those who lacked the necessary fishing skills to catch fish the proper way. We have also had a new twist that has gained some favor internationally—beadheads. There have been some strong mixed points of view expressed about this innovation. On the negative side, it is suggested that flies tied in this style are considered cousins to “jigs” and they are not flies at all. And then on the positive side, they are defended by allegations that the added flash of the bead triggers a fish to strike when they would otherwise ignore the fly. It has also been suggested that the beads on nymph patterns suggests natural air bubbles and makes the fly more naturally enticing. Who is qualified to know what the fish think and judge who is right or wrong, only time will tell, until then, to each their own.

    When I started taking fly-fishing more seriously and started looking at it as a business in the early 1960s I was naive enough to absorb and believe most of everything that I could read. And when I would listen to some of the experts of the day I was elated when they allowed me to enter into their unique world. One assertion from both the written and oral sources that rang loud and clear to me was, “Fly-fishing is the fastest-growing form of sports fishing in America.” Here we are today some 50 years later and the American population has grown by more than 100 million, hence, creating an increase in the numbers of fly fishers. There really hasn’t been an increase in the percentage of the overall population who fly fish, even if some ascertain that a movie stimulated a surge. The increase in population has allowed this mini industry to grow and this has been a plus.

    Many of the fly-fishing traditions that we honor today were generated within the fishing tackle industry. For instance, it is not uncommon to hear someone express their desire to use a traditional bamboo fly rod―cane is king. So much of what we enjoy today is a result of the expertise of Hiram Lewis Leonard. After Leonard completed his formal education in Boston he retreated to the backwoods of Maine. Eventually he settled in Bangor and tried his hand at rod building and in 1869 he designed and built his first fishing rod of ash and lancewood. A friend was so impressed with his work that he encouraged him to send it along to a sporting goods house, Bradford and Anthony, in Boston. They were so impressed with his work that they commissioned  him to build four-strip cane rods for them.

    Leonard subsequently adapted the six-strip principle to his cane rods and thus was born the first commercially built six-strip cane rod as we know it today. Word spread quickly and the demand for his rods grew. In 1881 he moved his rod plant to Central Valley, New York, so he could be closer to the rod markets of Philadelphia and New York. Leonard was educated as a engineer and this assisted him in perfecting rod tapers that are still copied and in use today. He was also able to recognize the inadequacies of the fly lines that were available, so he proceeded to create new designs that were compatible with his rods. George Edward McKenzie Skues in England was sent one of Leonard's rods along with a fly line and he was so impressed with it that he wrote several articles that bestowed high praise on his newly acquired casting system.

    There are many stories that can be told of how Americans have developed their own fly-fishing traditions and at the same time contributed to the international community of fly fishers as well.