Conrad Voss Bark - The Dry Fly

Frederic M. Halford, who established his famous dry fly code

It was curious that Halford never mentioned Foster. There may have been many reasons; he was too busy, he hadnt heard of Fosters book, it was not written by Foster but by his sons, they may have exaggerated their fathers theories. It could have been any of these reasons.

Halfords first book, Floating Flies and Flow to Dress Them, was published in 1886, four years after Fosters. It was a remarkable book in every way and rightly praised. It insisted upon a rigid discipline and the closest possible imitation of the natural insect, even to the colour of its eyes. All his flies - there were a hundred dressings - were designed to float, and on the whole they floated better than any previous patterns. They can still be seen in the library of The Flyfishers Club, beautiful little things, and how important were the delicate bodies, made of quill to help flotation.

Halfords relationship with Marryat was, to begin with, that of a pupil to a teacher. He met Marryat by chance in 1879 and was at once aware of Marryats greater knowledge about flies and fishing. Marryat was once described by Edward Grey, later Viscount Grey of Fallodon, as being the best trout fisherman in England. Marryat was a retired Indian Army Officer who spent most of his time fishing the Test. Halford frequently went to him for advice. They became friendly.

In 1880 Halford took rooms at Bossington Mill at the end of the Houghton Club water of the Test, with the intention of studying the river flies and their matching artificials. He asked Marryat to join him and after six years intensive work by them both, Halfords first book was published. He asked Marryat to be co-author as Marryat had in fact done a very large part of their research but Marryat refused. No one knew why he refused and Marryat himself never said. They merely parted and there was no explanation.

They had been together in close company for six years and over such a time they had got to know each other well and it has always seemed to me that Marryat gradually began to dislike Halfords dictatorial attitude to the dry fly. As Waller Hills remarked in his A History of Fishing for Trout:

[Halford] considered that the dry fly had superseded for all time and in all places all other methods of fly fishing and that those who thought otherwise were either ignorant or incompetent.

We know that Marryat did not take that attitude. A fly box of his which I once saw in the library of The Flyfishers Club contained the kind of wet flies that Skues would have used before he tied his nymph patterns. In other words, Marryat liked to fish the dry fly but he was no purist and would fish a wet fly from time to time if conditions demanded it, if the trout were feeding under water on the ascending nymphs.