Resource for inspiration and education In Dry Fly Fishing
The Floating Fly is a website dedicated to promoting the fine art of Dry fly fishing with special emphasis on techniques used by master dry fly fishers from around the globe. A site that is dedicated to those who seek the skills and art of pursuing fish with flies that float. The Floating fly has made a non exhaustive list of the best dry fly anglers that are out there worldwide. Each one is a major influence in the field of dry fly fishing with their own unique style in their particular country.
I first picked up a fly rod in Edinburgh in 1974 at the tender age of 12. My first memory of fly fishing was on the River Tweed at Stobo on family picnics and the Water of Leith at Curry and Balerno. Family holidays in those days were Granton on Spey where the magnificent Spey was on hand next to the cottage we rented. Most trips were thoroughly enjoyed yet mainly unsuccessful (except for plenty of salmon parr!)- in part not helped by my 9’ level leader of 2lb Racine Tortue! My two biggest fish were a 1lb grayling from Stobo and a 0.75lb brown trout from the Spey- both to me were monsters and both fell to a dry Greenwell’s Glory. In those early days I tied my own flies using the tools and materials from a No1A Veniards Fly Tying Outfit! We moved in 1978 to the trout-river desert of Buckinghamshire when I was 16; school and university got in the way and it wasn’t until I moved to Leeds in 1991 that I picked up a fly rod again.
Since then the passion has never diminished (my wife says I have got worse!) for wild brown trout on dry fly. I have always concentrated on spotting feeding fish and casting to them, rather than fishing the water. On some days I will barely make a cast and the rivers I tend to frequent have lowish populations of large trout. I often do more walking than fishing!
My trout fixation has taken me abroad to Poland, Iceland, Russia and New Zealand. At home I fish mainly in Yorkshire and Cumbria with occasional trips to Scotland in the spring. I have a small number of very good friends who I enjoy fishing with, but also enjoy the solitude and indulgence of my own company on a river bank.
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This quiet sport still takes us to beautiful places and allows us to connect with nature. Trout hunting with a fly rod challenges us to physically and mentally enter a world where sophisticated prey holds the advantage. To become absorbed into the complexities of this gentle endeavor is the total escape.
Rene' Harrop
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