George Edward MacKenzie Skues
Encyclopedia
George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues (1858 – 1949), was a British
lawyer, author and fly fisherman
most noted for the invention of modern-day nymph fishing and the controversy it caused with the Chalk stream
dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford
. His second book, The Way of a Trout with the Fly
(1921) is considered a seminal work on nymph fishing methodology. According to Dr Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing
historian, Skues:
Paul Schullery, the American fly fishing historian, characterizes Skues in Skues on Trout as:
John Goddard in The Essential G. E. M. Skues wrote:
. His mother's maiden name was Margaret Ayre. At the age of 3, his parents returned to Britain
en route to work in India
. He was left with and raised by his paternal grandparents in Aberdeen, Scotland, Langford
and Wrington
in Somerset
. In 1872 he won a scholarship to Winchester
, and left the school in 1877. It was at Winchester that Skues was introduced to fly fishing when, in 1874, he bought some hooks
in Hammond's to catch minnow
s. Hammond's, an angling shop in Winchester, introduced Skues to fly fishing and his first attempt was made using an eleven-foot rod, a silk and horsehair line, and a Wickham's Fancy.
After leaving Winchester, Skues spent a year in Jersey
with his parents before moving back to London to begin his career as a lawyer with the firm of James Powell. In 1895, Skues became a partner in the firm of Powell, Skues and Graham Smith, a position he held until 1940.
Skues's chalk-stream career began in 1887 with a invitation from a client to fish the Abbots Barton fishery on the Itchen
. There he met and befriended Francis Francis, angling author (A Book on Angling
) and angling editor for The Field
, and started studying and writing about trout fishing in English chalk streams. His first article in the angling press appeared the following year under his pseudonym "Val Conson".
and that, along with his association with Francis Francis, was when he began his empirical exploration of upstream fishing with both dry flies and nymphs.
Skues obtained Halford's gospel-like Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice in 1889 and had the pleasure of fishing for a week with Halford himself on the Itchen in 1891. As a result of that meeting, Halford, seconded by William Senior, editor of The Field, nominated Skues for membership in the Flyfishers' Club
of London. He joined the prestigious club in 1893.
, was published in 1910. In it, Skues carefully explored nymph fishing methodology during an era when the dry-fly school of Halford's was preeminent. He wrote the classic The Way of a Trout with the Fly
in 1921. Numerous dry-fly men (including Frederic M. Halford
) had observed that traditional winged wet flies represented no known underwater insect and declined to explore the possibilities - a naive decision as it turned out. Skues, on the other hand, was the first fisherman to make the point that the bulging rises which marked the first stage of the rise were caused by fish taking emerging nymphs - nymphs that could be imitated if new patterns and a new method were developed. He pointed out that it was only later that fish began to take adults, and that on occasion the fish were so full with nymphs that the rise was insignificant. Skues made the point that fishing wet flies or nymphs to fish didn’t spoil dry fly fishing when adults were on the water and his most crucial discovery was that nymphing trout had to be struck, and that the timing of the strike depended on very subtle observation.
When Skues began promoting upstream nymphing techniques on English chalk streams at the turn of the 20th century, there was immediate tension between those who favoured and followed the Halford school of dry-fly fishing and those who chose to use other techniques. There is no evidence that there was ever any personal animosity between the two anglers, only verbal wrangling in the sporting press about the pros and cons of the two techniques. Indeed, Skues's second work The Way of a Trout with the Fly
, which codified the upstream nymphing technique, was not published until 1921, well after Halford's death.
The debates continued into the 1930s. The Halfordian school claimed that upstream nymphing, although effective, was unethical and bad for the chalk streams, even to the point of banning the use of nymph on some fisheries, while Skues's proponents claimed that the dogmatic dry-fly approach limited opportunities when nymphing was a more appropriate technique. A culmination of sorts took place in February 1938 at the Flyfishers' Club
when the so-called "Nymph Debate" took place. Skues was present to defend nymphing techniques, while many others, chiefly Sir Joseph Ball, defended the Halfordian doctrine. The result was decidedly in favour of Halford's dry-fly techniques to the exclusion of all others, but no one denied the effectiveness of Skues's nymphing methodology. The debate helped cement both Halford's and Skues's seminal roles in the development of modern-day fly fishing.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
lawyer, author and fly fisherman
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
most noted for the invention of modern-day nymph fishing and the controversy it caused with the Chalk stream
Chalk stream
Chalk streams have characteristics which set them apart from watercourses associated with other rock types.Aside from those with an interest in the geological and ecological disciplines, the term chalk stream is most widely used among a small group of fly fishermen ,...
dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford
Frederic M. Halford
Frederic Michael Halford , pseudonym Detached Badger, was a wealthy and influential British angler and fly fishing author. Halford is most noted for his development and promotion of the dry fly technique on English chalk streams...
. His second book, The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G.E.M. Skues published in London in 1921...
(1921) is considered a seminal work on nymph fishing methodology. According to Dr Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
historian, Skues:
Paul Schullery, the American fly fishing historian, characterizes Skues in Skues on Trout as:
John Goddard in The Essential G. E. M. Skues wrote:
Early life
Skues was born on 13 August 1858 in St. Johns, Newfoundland and was the eldest child of William MacKenzie Skues, at the time surgeon to the Newfoundland CompaniesReid Newfoundland Company
The Reid Newfoundland Company was incorporated in September 1901 and was the operator of the Newfoundland Railway across the island from 1901 to 1923. For a time it was the largest landowner in the country. The company was founded by Sir Robert Gillespie Reid of Scotland, a businessman who had...
. His mother's maiden name was Margaret Ayre. At the age of 3, his parents returned to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
en route to work in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He was left with and raised by his paternal grandparents in Aberdeen, Scotland, Langford
Lower Langford
Lower Langford is a village within the civil parish of Churchill in the unitary authority of North Somerset, England. It is located on the western edge of the Mendip Hills about east of Weston-super-Mare. It was a village built around estate of Sidney Hill who was the original inhabitant of the...
and Wrington
Wrington
Wrington is a village and civil parish in North Somerset, England. It lies in the valley of the Congresbury Yeo river about east of Weston-super-Mare and south-east of Yatton. It is both a civil parish, with a population of 2,896, and an ecclesiastical parish...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. In 1872 he won a scholarship to Winchester
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, and left the school in 1877. It was at Winchester that Skues was introduced to fly fishing when, in 1874, he bought some hooks
Fish hook
A fish hook is a device for catching fish either by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been employed for centuries by fishermen to catch fresh and saltwater fish. In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools...
in Hammond's to catch minnow
Minnow
Minnow is a general term used to refer to small freshwater and saltwater fish, especially those used as bait fish or for fishing bait. More specifically, it refers to small freshwater fish of the carp family.-True minnows:...
s. Hammond's, an angling shop in Winchester, introduced Skues to fly fishing and his first attempt was made using an eleven-foot rod, a silk and horsehair line, and a Wickham's Fancy.
After leaving Winchester, Skues spent a year in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
with his parents before moving back to London to begin his career as a lawyer with the firm of James Powell. In 1895, Skues became a partner in the firm of Powell, Skues and Graham Smith, a position he held until 1940.
Skues's chalk-stream career began in 1887 with a invitation from a client to fish the Abbots Barton fishery on the Itchen
River Itchen, Hampshire
The River Itchen is a river in Hampshire, England. It flows from mid-Hampshire to join with Southampton Water below the Itchen Bridge in the city of Southampton. The river has a total length of , and is noted as one of England's - if not one of the World's - premier chalk streams for fly fishing,...
. There he met and befriended Francis Francis, angling author (A Book on Angling
A Book on Angling
A Book on Angling - Being a complete treatise on the art of angling in every branch is a work of angling literature with significant fly fishing content written by Francis Francis, angling editor to The Field and published in London in 1867 by Longmans, Green and Company.-Synopsis:A Book on Angling...
) and angling editor for The Field
The Field (magazine)
The Field is the world's oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853.The famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication...
, and started studying and writing about trout fishing in English chalk streams. His first article in the angling press appeared the following year under his pseudonym "Val Conson".
Chalk stream experiences
Skues was to fish the Itchen every season until 1938. Until 1917, it was as a guest of his client, Irwin Cox. From 1917 to 1938, he was part of a syndicate with rights to the Barton Abbey fishery. In 1887 he acquired a copy of Halford's Floating Flies and How to Dress ThemFloating Flies and How to Dress Them
Floating Flies and How to Dress Them - A Treatise on the Most Modern Methods of Dressing Artificial Flies for Trout and Grayling with Full Illustrated Directions and Containing Ninety Hand-Coloured Engravings of the Most Killing Patterns Together with a Few Hints to Dry-Fly Fishermen is a fly...
and that, along with his association with Francis Francis, was when he began his empirical exploration of upstream fishing with both dry flies and nymphs.
Skues obtained Halford's gospel-like Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice in 1889 and had the pleasure of fishing for a week with Halford himself on the Itchen in 1891. As a result of that meeting, Halford, seconded by William Senior, editor of The Field, nominated Skues for membership in the Flyfishers' Club
Flyfishers' Club
The Flyfishers' Club is a gentlemen's club in London which was founded in 1884 for enthusiasts of flyfishing. In 1894, the club had more than three hundred members, while in 1984 this number had risen to between eight and nine hundred.-History:...
of London. He joined the prestigious club in 1893.
Posthumous works by other editors
G. E. M. Skues's first book, Minor Tactics of the Chalk StreamMinor Tactics of the Chalk Stream
Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream and Kindred Studies is a fly fishing book written by G.E.M. Skues published in London in 1910. Minor Tactics was Skues first book and set the stage for his ascendancy as the inventor of nymph fishing for trout....
, was published in 1910. In it, Skues carefully explored nymph fishing methodology during an era when the dry-fly school of Halford's was preeminent. He wrote the classic The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G.E.M. Skues published in London in 1921...
in 1921. Numerous dry-fly men (including Frederic M. Halford
Frederic M. Halford
Frederic Michael Halford , pseudonym Detached Badger, was a wealthy and influential British angler and fly fishing author. Halford is most noted for his development and promotion of the dry fly technique on English chalk streams...
) had observed that traditional winged wet flies represented no known underwater insect and declined to explore the possibilities - a naive decision as it turned out. Skues, on the other hand, was the first fisherman to make the point that the bulging rises which marked the first stage of the rise were caused by fish taking emerging nymphs - nymphs that could be imitated if new patterns and a new method were developed. He pointed out that it was only later that fish began to take adults, and that on occasion the fish were so full with nymphs that the rise was insignificant. Skues made the point that fishing wet flies or nymphs to fish didn’t spoil dry fly fishing when adults were on the water and his most crucial discovery was that nymphing trout had to be struck, and that the timing of the strike depended on very subtle observation.
Pseudonyms
During his life, Skues used a variety of pseudonyms, especially for contributions to the sporting press. Among them were: Seaforth and Soforth, Val Conson, E.O.E., A Limity Dincombe, S.A.S., Simplex Munidishes, Spent Naturalist, W.A.G., B. Hinde, Unspoiled Child, Captain Stoke, A Fluker, Integer Vitae, Caunter Fordham, A Butt, and Current Colonel.Halford vs Skues, dry fly vs nymph
Halford, along with Marryatt, perfected upstream dry-fly fishing in late 19th-century England and treated other forms of fly presentation, such as wet flies and nymphs on English chalk streams, with disdain. By the early 20th century, the Halford dry-fly doctrine had become cultish and to some extent dogmatic. The following passage by Halford epitomizes his dogmatic views:When Skues began promoting upstream nymphing techniques on English chalk streams at the turn of the 20th century, there was immediate tension between those who favoured and followed the Halford school of dry-fly fishing and those who chose to use other techniques. There is no evidence that there was ever any personal animosity between the two anglers, only verbal wrangling in the sporting press about the pros and cons of the two techniques. Indeed, Skues's second work The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly
The Way of a Trout with the Fly and Some Further Studies in Minor Tactics is a fly fishing book written by G.E.M. Skues published in London in 1921...
, which codified the upstream nymphing technique, was not published until 1921, well after Halford's death.
The debates continued into the 1930s. The Halfordian school claimed that upstream nymphing, although effective, was unethical and bad for the chalk streams, even to the point of banning the use of nymph on some fisheries, while Skues's proponents claimed that the dogmatic dry-fly approach limited opportunities when nymphing was a more appropriate technique. A culmination of sorts took place in February 1938 at the Flyfishers' Club
Flyfishers' Club
The Flyfishers' Club is a gentlemen's club in London which was founded in 1884 for enthusiasts of flyfishing. In 1894, the club had more than three hundred members, while in 1984 this number had risen to between eight and nine hundred.-History:...
when the so-called "Nymph Debate" took place. Skues was present to defend nymphing techniques, while many others, chiefly Sir Joseph Ball, defended the Halfordian doctrine. The result was decidedly in favour of Halford's dry-fly techniques to the exclusion of all others, but no one denied the effectiveness of Skues's nymphing methodology. The debate helped cement both Halford's and Skues's seminal roles in the development of modern-day fly fishing.