History of Fly Fishing, Part 2

The Inevitable and Inimitable: Sir Izaac Walton
(Aug.9,1593-Dec.15,1683)

“As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.”

It is almost impossible to have a discussion about fly fishing (or angling in general) without the venerable head of Sir Izaac Walton popping up. His wonderful book on fishing, The Compleat Angler, is one of the classics of English Literature. Indeed, it is one of the top three best sellers of all time, preceded only by the Bible and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare .

The History of Sir Izaac Walton in a Nutshell:

Walton was born in a village near Stafford, England. His father died when he was very young and his mother soon remarried. He was apprenticed to an ironmonger and eventually opened his own shop in London. He married, had seven children, none of whom survived past infancy and then his wife died in 1640. Talk about bad luck.

Seven years later he remarried, and had three more children all of whom survived this time. Fortune finally began to smile on Walton as his business became a success and he joined the Ironmongers Company, in addition to publishing several biographies as well as The Compleat Angler. His writing also opened the doors to English society and literati and he often corresponded with the likes of metaphysical poet John Donne and writer/scientist Sir Francis Bacon.

Walton wrote and lived in the turbulent time of English civil war when Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers were upsetting the royalist apple cart by ousting Charles I and instituting parliamentary power. In spite of ‘the Lord Protector's' rise, Walton remained a staunch royalist and risked his life to help others who also supported the crown. It was at this time that Walton left London and moved to Staffordshire.

I suppose fishing for Walton was both a relaxing and escapist diversion during these difficult times. After the civil war was over, Walton moved to Norington Farm near Stockbridge in Hampshire where he quit his business and devoted his time to writing and fishing the many chalk streams of the rolling countryside. Eventually, in 1660, a year after Cromwell's death, the throne was restored to Charles II and once more all was right in Izaac Walton's world.

Charles Cotton:

It was here that Walton also met Charles Cotton who contributed the final section on fly fishing to The Compleat Angler. Two men could not have been more different. While Izaac Walton was a deeply religious, principled, and stoic self-made man, Cotton was carefree, handsome, aristocratic and well educated – “a delightful dinner companion – prized for his wit and conversation”. But he also had an expensive life style and after inheriting property and wealth he squandered it on his many excesses.

But it was Cotton who was the true fly fisherman. He grew up and eventually inherited Beresford estate near the Dove River, where he learnt to fly fish. Cotton certainly fished with Izaak Walton a great deal in later years, and built a fishing house on the banks of the Dove, the work being undertaken in 1674 (the hut still stands, despite rumours to the contrary). Cotton and Walton's initials were carved into a stone set above the door, below the inscription piscatoribus sacrum . At Walton's request, Cotton wrote his celebrated second part of the Compleat Angler   two years after the completion of the fishing house. The work was the first detailed treatise on fly fishing, appearing in the fifth edition of the Compleat Angler , and has on the title page the same monogram as the one set above the door of the fishing house itself. In Cotton's addition to the book, he describes some fifty different fly patterns and the time of year to best fish them.

For more fly fishing history see www.flyfishinghistory.com