I THINK IT MAY be taken as proven and out of hand that the fly-fisher, though invisible, exists in thousands, and multiplies. I shall, therefore, in briefly touching on the literature provided for his special benefit, seek rather to learn what manner of man he is, than what may be the numerical strength of his company. As bearing on the latter question, it is, however, instructive to note that the earliest printed list of angling books—which appeared in Sir Egerton Brydge’s Bibliographica in 1811—consisted of only eighty works; while the Bibliotheca Piscatoria of Westwood and Satchell, published in 1883, registers no less than 12,148 distinct works on, or incidentally dealing with, angling, the fisheries, and fish-culture. In most of these works no mention is made of fly-fishing—indeed, many of them are purely statistical—but a goodly minority deal solely or chiefly with that art. Unfortunately, no later edition of this useful book of reference has since appeared; but in 1884 an event happened which directly influenced the growth and development of fly-fishing, and which will lighten the work of surveying its literature. This was the formation of the Fly-fishers’ Club.

Fishing Gazette.

There were certainly many angling clubs in existence at that time. There are now many more. I am not forgetful of the proverb, “There is no fishing for trout in dry breaches,” but certainly mid-January in this year was not a season to tempt even the hardy angler to leave home. Yet I find in the Fishing Gazette for the thirteenth of that month, reports of meetings during the week then just passed of seventy-nine angling clubs, societies and associations. Many of these record the number and weights of the fish caught, and the prizes awarded to successful members; others, to their credit, honestly confess to a blank; while some few, to their still greater credit, seem to have met for benevolent purposes only. There are also many so-called clubs, which are in reality more in the nature of partnerships or joint undertakings, where several fishermen have associated for the purpose of renting and preserving a fishery too extensive or too expensive for one alone. But with all these the Fly-fishers’ Club, save that its members are all “brothers of the angle,” has nothing in common. It rents no water, it gives no prizes, it encourages no competition. But it does collect statistics, organise meetings, promote the reading of papers, and encourage discussion, not only on technical details of the anglers’ craft, but on the fishery laws, river pollution, fish culture, and subjects of wider interest to mankind at large. It is, however, primarily a social club, having for its objects (to quote the words of its prospectus):—

To bring together gentlemen devoted to fly-fishing generally.
To afford a ready means of communication between those interested in this delightful art.
To provide in the reading-room, in addition to all the usual newspapers, periodicals, &c., catalogues, and books, foreign as well as English, having reference to fishing, particularly to fly-fishing so as to render the club a means of obtaining knowledge about new fishing places and vacancies for rods, and making it a general medium of information on all points relating to the art.”

The library formed in carrying out this last object contains a well-selected collection of the most important works on angling and fish-culture that have yet appeared. I shall have to refer to it again, but would first say a few more words about the Club.

The Club owes its origin to a widespread feeling that there is something in fishing beyond the mere catching of fish, or, as the legend of the Club book-plate tersely puts it, “Piscator non solum piscatur.” This feeling long existed as a vague idea; the late Francis Francis reduced it to words, and the present Editor of the Fishing Gazette impressed it with life. The result was the Fly-fishers’ Club. It consists of over three hundred members, British and foreign, representing the House of Lords, the House of Commons, Art, Science, Literature, Medicine, Diplomacy, the Church, the Army, the Navy, the Bench, the Bar and the legal profession in general, Manufacture, Commerce, and Trade, wholesale and retail. In short, amongst its members are men of every known occupation, and some of no occupation at all. For it must be remembered that while the busy man spares time to kill fish, the idle fishes to kill time: and the one common bond that unites the heterogeneous mass of humanity is the love of fly-fishing.

A learned scholar of Oxford, not unmindful of Horace’s dictum, “Dulce est decipere in loco,” has, in playful mood, composed the following Latin legend as a motto for the club:—

“Bona sors: muscis laus: piscibus mors.”

Which may perhaps be “done into English”:—

“Good luck attend the angler’s wish—
Long life to flies, and death to fish!”

And there is reason in the rhyme, which aptly expresses the hope of every fly-fisher.