Bill Kiene semi-retired
10-19-2017, 07:16 AM
Before World War 2 in the early 1900s people fished with bamboo, wooden or tubular steel fly rods because there were no fiberglass or graphite rods.
Fly lines were mostly made out of silk.
Leaders were made out of 'Catgut'. Actually they were made of silkworm gut because nylon had not yet been invented.
The leaders were one piece with a loop on each end and a loop or two above the bottom.
The flies were mostly unweighted large wet flies that were snelled on short ~12 inch pieces of cat gut with a loop on the end.
There is a special knot that is simple that is used to hitch on these leaders to the fly line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk15F9Dcr2o
In the '60s and '70s people brought in old fly fishing outfits that had all this old system still on them.
I had an old angler describe this to me 50 years ago in a sporting good store that I worked in.
He fished the Truckee River before WW2 when there was tons of fish and not very many anglers due to the poor roads and poor tires on cars.
He said you looped on two or three of these snelled wet flies and merely dabbled them along the edge of the willows just under the surface.
He said it was common to hook two or three fish at a time.
_________________________________________________
Below are three (3) photos:
1) snelled wet flies, 2) gut (silkworm) leaders, 3) leader box with felt inside to soak gut leaders.
**I have some of all these that were given to me over my 50 years in the tackle business.
.
Fly lines were mostly made out of silk.
Leaders were made out of 'Catgut'. Actually they were made of silkworm gut because nylon had not yet been invented.
The leaders were one piece with a loop on each end and a loop or two above the bottom.
The flies were mostly unweighted large wet flies that were snelled on short ~12 inch pieces of cat gut with a loop on the end.
There is a special knot that is simple that is used to hitch on these leaders to the fly line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk15F9Dcr2o
In the '60s and '70s people brought in old fly fishing outfits that had all this old system still on them.
I had an old angler describe this to me 50 years ago in a sporting good store that I worked in.
He fished the Truckee River before WW2 when there was tons of fish and not very many anglers due to the poor roads and poor tires on cars.
He said you looped on two or three of these snelled wet flies and merely dabbled them along the edge of the willows just under the surface.
He said it was common to hook two or three fish at a time.
_________________________________________________
Below are three (3) photos:
1) snelled wet flies, 2) gut (silkworm) leaders, 3) leader box with felt inside to soak gut leaders.
**I have some of all these that were given to me over my 50 years in the tackle business.
.