Old River Wharfe (Yorkshire)wet flies Many years ago I was given some fragments of a trout fisherman's notebook which is well over a hundred years old. To see these try the following links fragment 1--- fragment 2 --- fragment 3 --- fragment 4 ---

Names of the flies are in the left hand columns. Part of the dressing for the March Brown in fragment 1 is not very clear it reads - down from fox's ear. The reference to moorgame I take to mean grouse

I have a feeling that the dressings are a lot older than 100 years. Look at the spelling of herl as harle . Dark bloe fly in fragment 2 which may be an old way of spelling bloa as in poult bloa. In the dressing for Stone midge in fragment 2 Ash coloured silk is written as Ash col d , which seems an antique way of abbreviating a word. I recollect that two of the flies at least were used in the 1960s i.e. Brown owl and Partridge (with the orange body).

None of the flies are winged and any reference to wings in the dressings refers to where the feather for the hackle comes from.

As the text is not easy to read I have included a printed version of the dressings and pictures of all the flies. Click to see

The trout flies for the River Wharfe are, or were,(haven't fished there for years) very sparsely dressed and the rule was not more than two turns of the hackle although the feather could be could be on the long side.