The flies of The Flyfishers' Club

Ignorance among non-fly-fishers of the value of flies can be a greater problem.

Artificial flies from the Natural History Museum’s Mosely collection were thrown into a skip during a clean-up, but luckily, a club member saved them.

If a collection-oriented entity such as the NHM can discard flies, how many important, irreplaceable flies did the deaths of their owners consign to oblivion?

Why is it important to refer to original flies? While photography excels at capturing detailed images of flies, older methods of reproduction were severely deficient in their ability to render fine details and accurate colours. It’s hard to be certain what many old fly patterns looked like, when written descriptions are the only records available.

Unfortunately, there are no examples of the flies mentioned in The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle (1496) or those of Izaak Walton from the mid-1600s. Angling historians debate their descriptions, but no one knows for sure what they looked like.

Verbal descriptions of flies are often inaccurate. The terms "slim", "sparse" and "heavily dressed" are subjective and lack precision. Colour is particularly hard to describe. Considering the fly-tyer's tendency to "improve" patterns, finding a fly exactly as its creator intended is unlikely. And that’s before commercial tyers alter the pattern, substituting for rare or expensive materials and making it easier and faster to tie. Having the original patterns available enables us to tie flies true to the originals and allows us to see how patterns have developed. If you've only encountered them in books, when you see famous flies "in the flesh", it can be surprising.

Salmon flies tied by Rogan of Donegal were described by Francis Francis as akin "to a piece of jewellery". The late Sir Peter Cresswell lent the Flyfishers’ fine examples of Rogan’s 19th-century work. When you see them in real life, they are astonishing. Their vibrant colours are exquisitely blended and even the finest photography fails to convey their beauty.

A White Wulff tied by Lee Wulff has a lighter dressing than many of the commercial patterns available today. The space left behind the eye reveals Wulff’s use of the Turle knot.

In the same mount is a House and Lot, a dry-fly tied by President Dwight D Eisenhower, an honorary lifetime member of the club. It is a palmered fly, quite unlike the accepted tying of the H&L from the 1950s, which was similar to a Royal Wulff. If "Ike" had told you he was fishing an H&L, you would never have selected a fly that looked anything like his. It just goes to show how unreliable fly names can be.

Fly collections are essential when studying the history and evolution of fly-fishing. The club also holds collections of natural flies in dry and fluid mounts, as well as a comprehensive collection of fly-tying materials. The club’s founders aimed to simplify natural fly identification and future pattern development by correlating natural flies with artificial flies and their materials.

The Drum sequence of flies was incomplete and, in 2009, David commissioned the highly regarded Australian fly-tyer Bob Frandsen to tie replicas of the three missing flies.

The Drum Reservoir allows a glimpse into the fascinating history of fishing for salmon with fully dressed patterns.

George Kelson was instrumental in the development of the fully dressed Atlantic salmon fly.

His 1895 work, The Salmon Fly, became essential reading for fly-tying enthusiasts. It promoted the use of exotic bird plumage in the construction of fully dressed salmon flies.

Megan Boyd was inspired by Pryce-Tannatt’s book and considered it her "Bible". She also read Kelson for guidance on patterns. Megan, born in 1915, moved from England to the Scottish village of Brora at age three. Her father, a water bailiff patrolling the Duke of Sutherland's beats on the River Brora, introduced her to salmon fishing. Another river keeper, Bob Trussler, taught Megan to tie flies. Local anglers praised her work, building a reputation that launched her 65-year career. It’s remarkable that she became one of the world’s finest fly-dressers, given that she tied her flies without artificial light, because her corrugated iron cottage overlooking the North Sea lacked electricity.

In 1971, the Queen awarded her the British Empire Medal. Megan could not attend the presentation because she had no-one to look after her dog. Instead, Prince Charles, a regular customer of Megan's, presented her with the medal when visiting Scotland to fish. Her salmon doubles display a blend of austere beauty and practicality.

Some tyers are represented by a signature fly such as Esmond Drury’s General Practitioner. Created in 1953, and dressed on a double hook, it is the forerunner of so many modern shrimp patterns.

The name is a play on words because golden pheasant feathers are the major constituents of this fly. Drury also designed robust treble hooks, perfect for shrimp imitations.

Blacker was a professional fly-tyer who could charge a guinea for each salmon fly. That's about £150 in today's money. He explained many fly-tying techniques with the aid of detailed colour illustrations.

Blacker salmon flies are exceedingly rare; however, GEM Skues gifted three of Blacker’s trout flies to the club, recommending their inclusion in the club’s 1855 edition of Blacker’s Art of Fly Making.

The Fly Dressing Materials Collection includes a sample of the original Tup's Indispensable mixture, given to Skues by RS Austin, the fly's creator. The striking contrast between this material and the garish fluorescent pink of modern commercial flies underscores the importance of preserving original fly-fishing artefacts. The materials collection has examples of cock hackles used around the time of Halford. Modern fly-tyers who use long, slender genetic hackles may find the broad, spade-like form of these specimens surprising.

William Lunn (1862- 1938) never wrote a book but, based on his lifelong experience as keeper for the Houghton Club, he developed many fly patterns of which the Lunn’s Particular, and the Caperer Sedge are still popular today.

Mr Gilbey, a member of both the Houghton Club and The Flyfishers' Club, said to Lunn, “The trout are too particular to-day.”

Lunn pulled out his new fly, and using it, Mr Gilbey caught three fish.

“Why, what’s this fly?” said Mr Gilbey.

“It’s a Lunn’s particular” came the answer.

Frederick Halford's 1886 book, Floating Flies and How to Dress Them, revolutionized imitative fishing.

It featured flies developed with George Selwyn Marryat, who declined credit as the book’s co-author.

Marryat, one of the most famous anglers never to become a club member, carried his flies in a wallet, known as the Portmanteau, that is now in the Collection. The wallet's many tiny, delicate, winged flies are testimony to his fly-tying skill.