[F. M. Halford / Fly fishing]. William Senior

An Angler's Autobiography by Frederic M. Halford "Detached Badger" of "The field". Author of "Floating Flies and How to Dress Them" "Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice" "Making a Fishery" and "Dry Fly Entomology". The Halford dry-fly series volume 4. With an introduction by William Senior, editor of the "Field".

London, Winton & Co., 1903

1 volume in-8 (22,5 x 15,5 cm) de XXIV-286 pages. 43 planches hors-texte (photos ou héliogravures). Portrait photographique de l'auteur en héliogravure (assis à sa table de montage de mouches).

Cartonnage éditeur pleine percaline fine bleue nuit. Titre doré sur le premier plat et au dos. Quelques légères traces à la reliure qui est en très bon état. Intérieur frais. Quelques rousseurs. Complet.

First printing (édition originale).

English edition. Texte en anglais.

Table of contents : early recollections - coarse fishing - sea fishing - thames trouting - the wandle - salmon fishing - fishing the sunk fly - Houghton - the test and floating flies - dry-fly fishing - the itchen - the end of our Houghton Club - the Kennet and making a fishery - Weimar - the upper test and dry-fly entomology - Winchester and district.

Frederic Michael Halford (13 April 1844 – 5 March 1914), pseudonym Detached Badger, was a wealthy and influential British angler and fly fishing author. Halford is most noted for his development and promotion of the dry fly technique on English chalk streams. He is generally accepted as "The Father of Modern Dry Fly Fishing." John Waller Hills, A History of Fly Fishing for Trout (1921) called Halford "The Historian of the Dry Fly". (source : Wikipédia)

"A fascinating celebration of a lifelong obsession with trout, trout streams and trout-stream insects. An Angler's Autobiography is just that, the story of Halford's love of fishing, from age 6 to 60. The eminent dry-fly practitioner is happy to tell us about his early days paternostering for pike, ledgering for barbel and tightcorking fat lobworms for perch and chub - dastardly Nottingham tactics for coarse fish. He even recalls experimenting with fly-fishing on salt water in the 1860s. But after being smitten by the sight of trout rising to 'upright-winged floating duns,' Halford's passion turns to chalk-stream fishing. Beyond paying tribute to his friendship with Marryat, Halford barely mentions his own theories and accomplishments. Like all good fishing writers, he knows the joy of a fishing life is in the quirky details - his love of cane over greenheart, memories of a black Lab that retrieved hung trout flies, the pleasure of testing new water and of being bested by tough fish. Best of all, Halford's autobiography gives us, in words and photographs, wonderful detail about fishing the Test and the Itchen in their Victorian heyday." (Christopher Camuto, Gray's Sporting Journal, Feb/March 1999).

Il a été fait un tirage à 100 exemplaires de luxe. Celui-ci est sur papier ordinaire (papier vélin satiné).

Cet ouvrage n'a pas été traduit en français.

Bel exemplaire de cet ouvrage autobiographique passionnant sur un homme qui a consacré sa vie à la pêche et plus particulièrement à la pêche à la mouche des salmonidés.