Fly Fishing: A Book of Words

by C.B. McCully

Fly-fishing has one of the longest recorded histories of any pastime, and one of the most extensive literatures. Within that written history is a unique and well-developed lexicon, consisting not only of words concerned with fish (grilse, kelt, mort) and fishing techniques (dapping, dibbling, trolling), but also of terms which reflect the way fly-fishermen have spoken and thought about the discoveries and landscapes inherited by rod and line. Included here, therefore, are words about lakes, lochs and rivers, about flies and fly-life, and about technical controversies and inventions. there is also generous illustrative quotation from the pastime's magnificent literature, from the fifteenth century 'Treatise of Fishing with an Angle' to Walton, Cotton, Venables, Nobbes, Davy, Stewart, Grey, Halford, Skues and others, down to the present day. Important and unusual dialect words, and phrases which have passed from specialist use into wider currency, are also represented. The emphasis throughout is on the relationship between fly-fishing's language and fly-fishing's history. From 'ant' to 'wet-fly', from 'action' to 'whitling', this lexicon offers many curiosities and many rewards.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1992