The Complete Angler

[flyfish]

More for the purest of trout anglers,

 

The Complete Angler is a film by James Prosek (artist/writer), Fritz Mitchell (producer/editor) and Peter Franchella (cinematographer). It documents Prosek's travels as he walks in the footsteps of the 17th century English writer, Izaak Walton—"research" for his senior thesis at Yale. The film focuses on Walton's book, The Compleat Angler, a book that many have heard of but few have actually read.

 

I did try reading this book many years ago, but never finished it. It did add to the understanding of the pleasures of the trout and fly fishing from other books by G.M Skews, Halford and Francis Francis. and creators of the Nymph and the dry fly.

 

The film is at :-

 

The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653, but Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse; 6 verses were quoted from John Dennys's 1613 work Secrets of Angling. It was dedicated to John Offley, his most honored friend. There was a second edition in 1655, a third in 1661 (identical with that of 1664), a fourth in 1668 and a fifth in 1676. In this last edition the thirteen chapters of the original have grown to twenty-one, and a second part was added by his friend and brother angler Charles Cotton, who took up Venator where Walton had left him and completed his instruction in fly fishing and the making of flies.

 

Clear skies and rising trout

Roy...

[DennisS]

Roy thank your for the info. I am actually looking for a copy of the last edition of that book. Not a new edition but an older edition. I've seen some in the $350 range in average condition.

 

Thank you for the history lesson

 

Tight Lines Always

Dennis S