Published in ordinary to her majesty the queen 1892 by Richard Bentley and son.
Rod and River, or Fly Fishing for Salmon Trout and Grayling.


I was recently given a fantastic book, by Paul, numptyone, thanks Paul, very generous of you.
It is a first edition, dated 1892, and it has been a very interesting read.
What has surprised me more than anything is how, in many regards so little has changed in over 120 years.
He talks of fish stocks being depleted, pollution from industry and very similar techniques used to catch his quarry.
In parts he describes his tackle in great detail, rods of cane or green heart of course, and an 11ft single handed rod being the shortest he would recommend for trout fishing.
Some of the prices for these rods and reels are so ridiculous to us now, £2 12s 6d being a top price for a hand made cane rod.
A top notch silk line for around £1 and lesser ones for 12s6d.
He talks of sending for a carriage to take him to the river, horse drawn of course.
I have already quoted one of his paragraphs in the Eden thread, where he believes brown trout of a certain size are extremely bad for a river, and should be taken when possible to allow the smaller fish to grow on.
I am not sure if this book is easy to obtain, I would imagine not, but I wondered if anyone would like to read certain bits of it via me on here.
I can't think there would be a copyright issue after all this time, and I am sure many of you would find it very interesting.
If enough want me to, I will gladly type up a few pages now and again, I am sure you will be as delighted with it as I was.
I would dearly love to see this fine fellows face, if he were able to pick up a modern 3oz Sage rod and plastic line, and all the other wonderful things we just take for granted these days.

Cheers Steven.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Just goes to show trout really haven't changed that much in that past few millenia. I've recently been reading maunsells vade mecum and lots of it could have been written yesterday. Maybe not the bit about checking your cows for a weather report before you leave the house (even though it does work). Jon

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http://www.fishleven.co.uk/
http://www.edenangling.co.uk/

Interested the comparisons from years gone by.
Steven you should consider scanning parts of the books and asking admin if the will post them as PDF's. Would save you a lot of typing.

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Eddie
"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."
Voltaire

Here you go Steven, it's available as a free download:

Internet Archive Search: Rod and River, or Fly Fishing for Salmon Trout and Grayling

Pete

Sorry lads, been watching the footie.
Thanks for that Pete, enigma has also sent me a download, it would save me a lot of typing that's for sure.
I will have a flick through the book,and see if I can find the most interesting bits for you to go to.
Saying that, I found it all interesting, if you are into cane and silk and yesteryear, it's a great read.
S.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Cheers Pete, now on my Kindle. Saved you a bit of typing Steven, thanks for the offer..

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Eddie
"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."
Voltaire

It'll be on my kindle as well shortly, cheers Pete, and Brian.
Worth a read lads. Anymore nice old books out there on these download things,? last one was "Where the Bright Waters Meet", Plunkett Greene, admin put it up.
Enjoyed that as well.
S.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

I inherited that book from my father Jon, fabulous read.
S.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.