12 PRACTICAL FLY FISHING 



In Egypt, the civilization contemporary with that 

 of the Hebrews, angling was no doubt practiced in 

 remote times. Lake Moeris was constructed for a 

 fishing pond about 1500 B. c. and in later days Plu- 

 tarch tells of the prank played by Cleopatra on Mark 

 Antony. They were fishing together, you will re- 

 member, and Mark had divers go down and fasten big 

 lunkers to his hook, which he pulled up in a matter- 

 of-fact way, as if it were an everyday occurrence with 

 him. Cleopatra detected the fraud, however, and in- 

 vited a number of her friends to come the next day 

 and see what a mighty angler was Mark. Then she 

 had her divers go down and fasten a salted fish to his 

 hook which sort of took the wind out of his sails, so to 

 speak. 



The Greeks were fond of angling, and Homer men- 

 tions the art several times while with the Romans, 

 who understood fly fishing, it amounted to almost a 

 passion and at least one prominent citizen of that great 

 city was ruined financially by spending too much money 

 on elaborate fish ponds. The poet Oppian saved his 

 father from the wrath of the Emperor Severus by 

 writing a book on angling and many other classical 

 writers were interested in the subject. 



Fly Fishing. Although fly fishing was probably 

 practiced much earlier the first mention of it is made 

 by ^lian in his " History of Animals," written about 

 230 A. D. He describes a fly with a purple body and 

 red hackles which was cast with a rod about eight 

 feet long on a line of the same length and trout fisher- 



