Minor tactics of the chalk stream and kindred studies by G. E. M. Skues
"Minor tactics of the chalk stream and kindred studies" by G. E. M. Skues is a treatise on fly-fishing written in the early 20th century. It argues for the intelligent use of wet-fly methods on English chalk streams as a deliberate complement to the established dry-fly tradition. Blending observation, entomology, and fieldcraft, it offers practical tactics, patterns, and scenarios to help trout and grayling anglers widen their options without offending dry-fly ethics.
The opening of this treatise sets out Skues’s purpose: to recover and modernize the wet-fly art for chalk streams, not to displace but to supplement Halfordian dry-fly practice. After a gracious second-edition note, he explains how personal encounters—fish taking waterlogged or sunken flies, bulging trout on nymphs, and early mentors’ accounts—pushed him from orthodoxy toward upstream wet-fly experiments. He describes why trout regularly feed below the surface, outlines the three stages of a rise (nymphs, duns, then sub-surface leftovers), and defends fishing stages one and three with wet or nymphal imitations. He then offers clear guidance on handling bulging fish, reading subtle under-water takes, coping with rough light and wind, and details effective dressings and materials (soft hackles, dubbed bodies, and a handful of key patterns such as Greenwell’s Glory, Tup’s Indispensable, and Rough Olive). Brief case studies show the methods at work in glassy glides, eddies, moonlit currents, and tricky swims, plus notes on nymph imitation and the value of spinner patterns during dun hatches. The section closes with compact observations on hovering and cruising trout, the “porpoise roll,” choosing flies by a trout’s position, and a cautionary anecdote about a famed, uncatchable bank-feeder finally taken by a sedge. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Minor tactics of the chalk stream and kindred studies
Original Publication
London: Adam and Charles Black, 1914.
Credits
Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
