I read with sadness the other day that John Goddard, well known angler and angling author had passed away. A few flies have been named after John, like the Goddards Sedge/caddis patterns. He was a bit of an influence on me in my early attempts at fishing the fly. It’s somewhat coincidental but I found some material on YouTube a few weeks back and was going to post some links on my Media links section but had not got round to it, so this will prompt me.
The Educated Trout
I started fly angling (originally) in my early/mid teens. I was about 14 or 15. By the time I was going on 16 I was very enthusiastic if unsuccesful when on the telly via the popular “World About Us” series at the time, came a documentary ( I think it was in two parts if I recall correctly) called the “Educated Trout“.
This followed John Goddard and Brian Clarke on the Chalkstreams of Southern England as they explored the world of the brown trout and how it perceived our flies. Mostly dry fly fishing, I could only watch gobstruck at these fish coming up to take tiny little dries. I had never tried it as I did not possess a floating line and as I recall wasn’t about to either as they were pretty expensive. I don’t think I had to that point even fished water where you could actually see the fish!
The Book would be Mine
The Trout and the fly first edition, later paperbacks can still be purchased on Amazon
So top of my Xmas wish list that year was the book that spawned the TV program, The Trout and the Fly. I still have it to this day and still enjoy browsing its pages.
If you have never seen this TV series I recommend you do- its a bit 1970’s style in many ways and looks like it was ripped from a VHS tape but its still watchable. Download it and make a proper one shot copy to watch at your leisure. See Embeded links below.
Upside down dries
One of the interesting concepts that came from the book/program was a new style of fly which presented a better profile to the fish based on the hook being upside down. I recall saving up my pocket money and sending off mail order to “Nether Wallop Mill” to buy half a dozen of these. I think I bought two Black Gnats, two Blue Dun’s and two Tups Indespensible’s. I had no idea what I was buying, I think I was just choosing three flies I had read about in books.
I still have one and thought you might like to see it. The hooks as far as I am aware are no longer made they were basically a slightly long shanked dry fly hook with an offset in the shank that assisted the fly in sitting upside down. The pattern was tied on it upside down so it sat hook point up. This is my sole remaining upside down Tups Indespensible.
Upside-Down Tups over 30 years old
Were they successful?
Did they work? Well as far as I can tell they did. Most I lost either up tree’s or on the river bottom along the way however I do recall the first time I was able to get out and give dry fly fishing a go. My Dad had got a fly rod with floating line from me for his Christmas. It was by now my first year working and my Mum had not long since died so I was looking to cheer him up a bit, so for his Christmas I bought him the John Dicksons Carbon Rod, floating line and Hardy LRH lightweight reel I still have to this day. ( I use the reel a lot). He wasn’t much of an angler my Dad but we used to enjoy the odd day out on the Tweed or on a local reservoir. ( still catching nowt most of the time!)
One summer many years ago
Anyway one summer’s evening I recall borrowing my Dads outfit and fishing from the banks of the River Esk in Musselburgh ( my hometown) and at a particularly slow stretch I spotted a fish rise ( an almost unknown occurence). I decided to tie on my Upside Down Tups Indespensible like the one above ( for no other reason than I liked the colour!) and cast it above the fish. I think I was casting pretty much across stream too so it should not have worked! As the fly drifted a yard or two near where I seen the rise there was a splash as it came up and snaffled the fly. I was so shaken I did not know what to do and missed it by a mile but this was the first time I had experienced a dry fly working and it was magic! It was a VERY long time before I finally had my first fish on a dry fly ( partly down to not fishing much in the intervening years). Ideally these days its all I would fish. Got to love dry fly fishing. RIP John Goddard.
The episodes of the Educated Trout are listed below. Enjoy.
