Cornwall Bridge

Lee Wulff -- the father and liberator of American Flyfishing. Upon his death in 1991, Charles Kuralt, the host of CBS’s This Sunday Morning said “Lee Wulff was to fly fishing what Einstein was to physics”.

November 28, 1992
Housatonic River, Cornwall Bridge
Same pool and stretch above pool. Pool name must be Furnace Brook Pool. Cold day, 42 – 45 degrees F. Water temperature near same. Fished bead head nymph. Might have had a strike – couldn’t really tell. At noon a couple of large trout rose for a splashy take. Must have been snatching nymphs before surface. Noted hatch – dark olive Baetis. Tried to fish a dry to a riser but water was difficult. Very high. Might be my last fly fishing til spring. I can’t imagine having to sit through another winter with no fly fishing. The winter fishing despite articles in Field & Stream and Fly-fisherman is nearly impossible. I’d imagine you’d need to put a nymph on a fish’s eyeball before it would strike. I may try one winter outing maybe with an experienced winter angler. Wouldn’t mind winter steelhead fishing on west coast. I hope March comes quickly.

This is the first time in the journal I used the Latin nomenclature (Baetis) to describe a fly. This is a sign that I’ve become more than just a flyfisherman; I’d begun to think like an entomologist to better understand the chief prey of my prey. Looking at what a fish eats is a progression in the sport of fly fishing. I was becoming entrenched in the romance of the sport. Its hold on me was motivating me to begin to study it in the way that a student of sculpture goes to Italy to learn from the masters of carving marble, the aspiring chef journies to Paris to study at Cordon Bleu or the aspriring Presidential candidate studies hard or has his parents arrange to gain acceptance to Yale or Harvard.

In this entry I reveal two aspects of my further jouney – the study of entomology and the stating of my intention to move out to the west coast. If you ever go to a psychologist or listen to a motivational speaker, the one thing they will always point out is that intention is the key to success. By stating your intention, you then put some emotion behind it, take action and make it happen. You are convincing yourself by sheer dedicated concentration on an idea that command of the Universe is possible through sheer will alone. The neat trick is that for a brief moment you truly believe it to be your plan – a plan of your design and it is at that moment where the grand illusion becomes so tantalizingly real that you cease to be an individual, your are at one with the grand design. It is in these moments that you experience the true ignorance of bliss.

Any fly fisherman that has read about the sport is likely familiar with its modern and ancient seminal figures – Lee Wulff and Izaak Walton. The former is the creator of a much used fly called the Royal Wulff and the star of many fishing films of the 1950s and 60s, and the popularizer of dozens of tactics used to catch trout. Tthe latter is the author of the definitive book on fishing The Compleat Angler written over 400 years ago.

As much a work of philosophical discourse and moral philosophy as a book about angling, The Compleat Angler is a mystical work that reflects the time in which it was written. Walton wrote about catching both trout and salmon on the fly, as well as sea run brown trout. One can only imagine the type of fly angling equipment that was used in the 1600’s of England. Long willowy rods made of hazel with brass fittings and reels along with fine silk lines and brass hooks tied with feathers and heavy thread. Some equipment today seems almost unsporting in comparison.

Here is a biographical account written by Dr. Andrew N. Herd -- Walton is best known as author of The Compleat Angler (1653), one of the three most published books in English literature (the other two are the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare). The Compleat Angler has run to more than 300 editions.
We know little of Walton's early life, but he born in a village near Stafford where his father was an innkeeper. Isaac's father died when he was only four and his mother remarried. Walton was apprenticed to a London ironmonger, and soon bought a small shop of his own. He married Rachel Floud in 1618, his ex-wife being a descendent of Archbishop Cranmer. She had seven children, but none lived beyond infancy and she died in 1640. Seven years later, Walton married Anne Ken, half-sister of Thomas Ken, who subsequently became Bishop of Bath and Wells. Anne bore him three children and their marraige seems to have been a very happy one. Walton's surviving son grew up to become canon of Salisbury Cathedral and his daughter married Dr. William Hawkins, who became canon of Winchester Cathedral. Walton was successful in business and became a member of the Ironmongers' Company. He published a number of biographies, in addition to The Compleat Angler, and his writing gave him access to a wide circle of literary and society friends, including the vicar of St. Dunstan's Church, John Donne.

The Civil War was a trying time for Walton and in 1642 he left London for Staffordshire. He was a staunch royalist, and remained so despite Cromwell's victory. In 1651, while he was writing his great work, he briefly hid one of Charles II's rings for a friend, an episode which could have lost Walton his life. After the war finished, Walton decided not to go back to his business and devoted the rest of his life to literature, fishing and his friends. He moved to Norington Farm near Stockbridge in Hampshire, which would have given him a good opportunity to fish the chalk streams. His second ex-wife died in 1662 and was buried in Worcester Cathedral. By now, Walton was great friends with Doctor George Morley (who subsequently became Bishop of Worcester) a friendship which is believed to date back to a period when Morley had to take refuge with Walton during the Civil War. Morley never forgot this favour and he offered Walton accomodation in the bishop's palace at Winchester, and Walton stayed there, or at the other epicopal residence at Farnham Castle, for the remainder of his days, making brief excursions to Norington Farm so that he could go fishing.

He became a close friend of Charles Cotton, and the two fished together for many years on a number of rivers including the Dove. Walton invited Cotton to write a chapter on fly fishing for the fifth edition of The Compleat Angler and Cotton completed the task in only ten days. At first glance the two seem to have been rather improbable companions; the deeply religious Walton and the Rabelaisian Cotton's characters having little point of contact other than their mutual interest in fishing, but don't forget that Cotton was a great raconteur, poet and a fabulous dinner companion, which would have suited the older man well, given his reputation for spending long evenings drinking and eating with a literary circle that included the great John Donne.
Walton is buried in the Prior Silkstead Chapel at Winchester Cathedral. This is his epitaph :
Here resteth the Body of
Mr. ISAAC WALTON
Who dyed the 15th day of December
1683
Alas he's gone before
Gone to return no more!
Our panting Breasts aspire
After their aged Sire,
Whose well spent life did last,
Full ninety years and past
But now he hath begun
That which will ne're be done
Crown'd with eternall blysse:
We wish our souls with his.
Votis modestis sic flerunt liberi
Izaak Walton -- Born August 9th 1593, died Dec 15th 1683

The Compleat Angler like the works of Plato, St.Augustine, Chaucer, or Shakespeare requires effort and a willingness to transport yourself back to a time when people rarely ventured more than 20 miles from where they lived. The relative simplicity of 17th century life allowed the gentry time to go fishing all day and to deconstruct the songs of milkmaids and farmhands --looking for primitive historical significance in the quaint folk customs of their serfs.

I can imagine the moment when Izaak Walton, a businessman and rising member of the bourgeoisie decided – I am going to write a book about fishing to impress upon my friends the nobility of it ways.” It probably occurred on one of those days when the fishing was good and his increasing skills led him to believe he had knowledge to share. I’ll bet he wrote down his intention to write a book on the art of angling -- though I can’t find reference to it, I’m sure it went something like: “Spent the day fishing today with Cotton and Morely, while both seem to relish the time outdoors their inabilities in the art of angling are noteworthy – a long epistle on the art of angling including references to their favored philosophical arguments and bon mots might be just thing to educate these poor misguided blokes.”

With any goal you’d like to achieve – one of the first things you need to do is to write it down.