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Die ersten Fliegenfischer waren die Makedonier

Fliegenfischen ist eine beliebte Art des Fischens mit der Angel die auch als Königsdisziplin in der Fischerei angesehen wird.


Die erste schriftliche Überlieferung über diese spezielle Art des Angelns -in der ein Fliegen- oder Insektenimitat als Köder verwendet wird- finden wir vor über zweitausend Jahren von dem römischem Schriftsteller Claudius Aelianus.

Er beschrieb wie Fische in Makedonien mit Haselnussruten, Pferdehaarleinen und künstlichen Fliegen gefangen wurden. Das ist somit der erste schriftliche Nachweis der Fliegenfischerei überhaupt.

Claudius Aelianus beschrieb auch wie man versuchte ein bestimmtes Insekt zu imitieren "Sie befestigten rote Wolle an einen Haken und dazu zwei Federn eines Hahns. Die Rute ist 6 Fuß lang und die Leine ist gleich lang."


Origin Of Fly Fishing


Fly fishing goes all the way back to around 200 AD. The first reference to it was written by Aelian who was born around 170 AD. Early in his life he knew nothing of the sea. In his early writing "On The Nature Of Animals" he writes about a certain way of catching fish supposedly invented by the Macedonians. A particular fish that runs through the Astraeus River in Macedonia happens to feed on flies that are peculiar to that region

These flies are not found anywhere else. The natives of the land called this species of fly Hippouros. These flies seek their food over the river and are never very far away from the fish in the river below. Because of this it is relatively easy for the fish to jump out of the water, catching the flies in their mouths and eating them. 

It is from seeing this that the Macedonian's got the idea to use these flies to catch the fish. However, because it is unclean for their people to touch this species of fly they had to develop a way to catch the fish without actually handling the flies. So what they did was fasten red wool around a hook. They then fixed onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles. The rod they used was six feet long and the line was also the same length. 

They then threw the line in the direction of the flies. The fish seeing this line which is disguised to look like the fly think they are going to have a nice meal and instead are caught by the fisherman's trap. Fly fishing was developed. It should be pointed out that according to accounts of what the fly looked like and what the actual "bait" looked like it would seem that the Macedonians didn't try to imitate the fly exactly, as the fly color was yellow and the bait color was red. Some speculation is that the fly changed color when near water but this was never proven. 

For those interested, the story above was taken from Radcliffe's "Fishing From The Earliest Times," which was published in 1921. This version of the story is the one most often printed with no credit given to the original author. Radcliffe himself states that he adapted this translation from "Lambert's Angling Literature in England" first published in 1881. Prior to this there was a Latin translation which was printed in 1558. This printing however wasn't discovered until 1834.

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