Salt Water FlyFishing

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Fly fishing is one of the oldest forms of fishing on the planet. The first record of this fishing type was written in the second century AD and since then has been adopted by fans from all over the globe. It started out as primarily a fresh water sport, popular primarily in the rivers and lakes of the United Kingdom. The British were especially enamored with flyfishing and it wasn’t long before it became the sport of choice for the British upper class. Members of the upper crust elite were fond of forming exclusive fly fishing clubs and going on fly fishing expeditions. These clubs favored the traditional methods of fly fishing and frowned upon changing them.

The Americans (who also loved to fly fish) had an entirely different view of fly fishing. In America, fly fishing was a sport members of any class could enjoy. Also unlike the British, Americans were fond of experimenting with the sport and had a large hand in developing flyfishing into the sport it is today.

Though fly fishing is often thought of as a fresh water sport, especially any by anyone who watched A River Runs Through It, salt water flyfishing is also very popular. Salt water flyfishing has been around just as long as the fresh water variety, but it didn’t appear in the history annals until 1840 when an article about the sport was published in the Encyclopedia of Rural Sports. 1911 A.W. Dimmock wrote a book called “The Book of the Tarpon” about salt water flyfishing. He was an advocate of the sport and “The Book of the Tarpon” was so widely received that many people credit him with entire generations of people becoming enamored with salt water flyfishing.

When going salt water flyfishing, your targets will generally be the tarpon, the snapper, the bonefish and the striped bass. The most elusive of these targets is the bonefish and because of this elusiveness, catching one is often seen as a sign of your salt water flyfishing prowess. The most popular tale of a bonefish capture comes from 1939 when Captain Bill Smith apparently tied a hunk of Islamadora chicken onto a fly and then used it as bonefish bait.

In the last thirty years or so of the twentieth century, salt water flyfishing jumped in terms of industry popularity. Fly tying has had to become much more innovative and the flies must be designed to withstand a great deal of adverse conditions. Salt water flyfishing is, after all, a much harsher experience than fresh water flyfishing. At the end of the 1970s somebody designed a baitfish pattern called the Crazy Charlie that quickly became very popular. Since its invention, salt water flyfishing has grown exponentially in terms of its popularity.

Salt water flyfishing enthusiasts claim that any fish can be caught by the fly fishing method and have sought to prove it. There are a great number of articles and books on the subject and more are being produced every day.