Chalkstream Tales
Of Walton, Halford, Skues & Sawyer
The hallowed chalkstreams of the United Kingdom cannot be neglected in any fly fishing publication. Apparently there are only 200 chalkstreams on earth with 85% in the UK. That’s 170. We’ll only touch on three: the Hampshire Avon, The River Itchen and the Test, all in southern England, as we uncover a few of the flyfishing illuminati who trapsed their riverbanks in years past.
You already knew that English chalkstreams are the birthplace of modern fly fishing, right?
Well, back in the day, 1642 to be precise, an army dude called Robert Venables wrapped some hackle tips onto hooks, floated them on the surface – albeit briefly as this was long before Loon – and thus made it into angling history books (and onto Substack).
Walton – Author & Angler
“The Compleat Angler” written in 1653 by Izaak Walton celebrated early techniques, mainly of those Walton fished with, rather than his own innovations. It was obviously a reasonable earner, as he managed to get out five editions over 25 years; one of which graces my angling library.
The English chalkstreams were progressively domesticated, channeled for flour mills, banks raised to hold back floodwaters; their twisting riverside boundaries fought over, fortified, fenced and farmed.
The chalkstreamers, even two hundred years later, were still challenged with getting dry flies to float. Somewhat surprising, given the propensity of deer hair in these parts.
[As an aside, future angling history will document that the birthplace of Clark Reid’s popular Clarks Cicada was New Zealand but that’s a whole other story. I’m just capturing it here for posterity.]
Anyway, I digress. Back to the chalkstream tales after a fly through of one section of the River Test.