Starting this week, I'm inaugurating a new feature for the T&S. I'm calling it Historical Fly Fishing Media Thursday (HFFMT). [Note: This feature is now going to be called simply Historical Fly Fishing Media, and come out whenever I feel like it] Each thursday I will share some image or other tidbit illuminating the way we fished in days goon by.
In trolling through old images I keep coming upon what seems like an oddly impractical bit of fishing paraphernalia, the top hat. It seems that gentlemen in the 1830s and 40s the better class of fly fisherman strolled along the riverside in col top hats.
In trolling through old images I keep coming upon what seems like an oddly impractical bit of fishing paraphernalia, the top hat. It seems that gentlemen in the 1830s and 40s the better class of fly fisherman strolled along the riverside in col top hats.
I came upon this print (actually a page from a book) in an antique store. I especially enjoy the brightly colored coats and the white top hat.
Fly Fishing in Darenth circa 1834 from Fishing and Shooting-Buxton (1902)
Trout Anglers circa 1820 from Fishing and Shooting-Buxton (1902)
Personally, I think the top hat should be limited to formal occasions and magic acts. If nothing else, It presents a large surface to the wind and I can't imagine that the guy in the third picture above netting the trout didn't loose his hat to the river. Which is why I always fish in the much more practical bowler.
Frontpiece, Portrait of George M. Kelson, The Salmon Fly', 1895
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