Cutcliffe (Henry Charles) & The Art of Trout Fishing in Rapid Streams

The final YouTube installment on the Cutcliffe and Woolley story is below and features some great “sneak peaks” of our single print proof-copy…

You can catch up with Episode 1 here: https://www.discovertenkara.com/wet-flies-devon and Episode 2 here: https://www.discovertenkara.com/devon-wet-fly-2/

Cutcliffe Fly Collection Re-discovered

The rediscovery of Cutcliffe’s flies would not have been possible without our contact with (and great support from) John Shaner (left) and Robert Smith (right) in the picture below.

With each, tagged and numbered fly in the collection (sample in original box below with Roger Woolley’s handwriting and label from his Fly Tying business) it has been possible to photograph each individual specimen and compare it to the tying notes in Cutcliffe’s “Art of trout fishing in rapid streams”. This was only possible through the generous and extensive efforts and time given by John Shaner and his brother Stephen Shaner. Our huge thanks go to them – and everyone who as assisted our crazy investigation.

Re-Constructing missing flies from the Collection

With the fur-dyeing and a lot of other materials sourced, I’ve been able to tie all of the “missing” patterns. As mentioned in the episode, these include some of the ones that Cutcliffe gives particular significance to in his text. They have also allowed me to pull out the features that make a fly more identifiable as one of Henry Charles’s designs. One interesting thing about this is that it is possible to see which elements Woolley’s patterns closely follow – and elements where they differ from the instructions deeper in “The Art of Trout Fishing in Rapid Streams”. The fly below has both “Woolley” elements and “Cutcliffe” elements, for example. Taken together, all the pieces of the puzzle are absolutely invaluable in pushing our understanding forward.

Ordering the Book

While our video explaining the full contents of the book is due out in the next few days, it is possible to jump the queue for a pre-order of the first print run (each copy signed and numbered by us) using the link below:

https://doublebadgers.kartra.com/checkout/Cutcliffe-Pre-Order

Thank you for coming along on this investigation and adventure with us – and now I’ve approved the corrections and updates to the “proof” copy, we’re on to the final straight in publishing our book!

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below.

Paul