Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

AvidumCHAPTER IXTHE FIRST MENTION OF A FLYThe first mention of fishing with a fly occurs apparently inMartial's lines, " Namque quis nescit, vorata decipi|scarum musca ? " which have been translated :" Who has not seen the scarus rise,Decoyed, and killed by fraudful flies ?" ^These lines are of surpassing interest. In them we maypossess the very first mention of a fishing fly, whether naturalor artificial, in all the records written or depicted of the wholeworld.If the reference be to an artificial fly, it certainly antedatesby some two centuries the passage of ^Elian (XV. i), which hashitherto been universally acclaimed the first mention of sucha fly. If on the other hand the reference be to a natural fly, itantedates by the same period of time the firstmention of thenatural fly, or rather winged insect {kmvwxI^), to be found alsoin ^lian (XIV. 22).And here, pray, observe the cold calm of the classical commentator! This passage, which, as I have said, may be thevery first historical document testifying to the use of the fly, thevery first tiny beginning ofthe immense literature consecratedto the fly, the very first starting point in the fly fisher's journeyof sore travail to farther knowledge, this passage so pregnantof possibilities and so provocative of comment, has never, Ibelieve, been suggested by any editor as possibly the locusclassicus of fly fishing, far prior to the generally adopted passageof ^lian.Even if we make great allowance for the wrath of the1 Ep., V. 18, 7 f.J52