William Clouston Stewart

[Traditionalist]

Stewart only used wet flies. At the time, the wet fly was the standard. His book "The Practical Angler" was published in 1857. When he was 24 years old. The book remained in print for 117 years, and has been reprinted innumerable times since. Not very much is known about Stewart. Some say he was a lawyer, some say a tea-merchant. This picture is purportedly of Stewart and his mentor James Baillie on a fishing trip; but I can not vouch for its authenticity;



Stewart died in 1872 aged 39, after an acute 8 day illness, (unable to decipher cause of death on death notice).

Quite a number of people e-mail me about this stuff The pamphlet often referred to is basically a bitter attack by Stewart on Cholmondely-Pennell, who was his friend up to the point where Pennell plagiarised his book, and "told a few whoppers" ! .

Pennell makes reference to this in the prefatory notes to his book "Fishing", ( basically a repeat of "The Modern Practical Angler" as far as Pennell´s contribution is concerned) which I quote in full here;

QUOTE

PROBABLY few persons who visited the late International Fisheries Exhibition in South Kensington could fail to have been struck by the multiplicity, and, to the uninitiated, complexity of the engines and appliances used in the capture of fish. The observation applies even more to the ' angler ' a generic term that I have a special objection to, by the way, but let us say to the fisherman who uses a rod than to the ' fisherman ' proper, whose weapons are net and hand-line, and who 'occupies his business in great waters.'

In consequence of the growing artfulness of man or of fish, or both, angling has come to be nearly as wide a field for the specialist as doctoring. Each different branch has its own professors, practitioners, and students ; and its gospel as preached by apostles, differing often widely from one another, and perhaps eventually breaking away altogether from old tradition and founding a cult of their own. Thus the late Mr. W. C. Stewart, a lawyer of Edinburgh and a ' famous fisher ' of the North, may probably be called the apostle of up-stream fly-fishing, as contrasted with the time-honoured plan of fishing ' down : ' fishing, that is, with the flies below rather than above the angler's stand-point Not that I mean to assert that Mr. Stewart was by any means the first to preach the new doctrine, still less the first to practise it, but that he was the first to ' formularise ' it, to give it consistency and shape, and to bring it prominently
before the angling world. .

And even then and it is a good illustration of the 'specialism' referred to his book was (statedly) confined to one branch of one kind of angling for one species of fish : * The Art of Trout Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water.' It might have been added ' and in streams and rivers north of the Tweed,' for I believe there is not a word in the book about the rivers or lakes of England, Ireland, or Wales, or how to catch trout in them. I say this in no disparagement of the author or his capital book, but only to illustrate the complexity and ' elaborateness ' at which the art of angling has arrived. So far from disparaging, it is probable, on the contrary^ that if all writers on fishing had the modesty to confine themselves, as Mr. Stewart did, to subjects they were really personally acquainted with, the gentle art would not be afflicted with a literature containing a greater amount of undiluted bosh to say nothing of downright 'cribbing' than probably any printed matter of equal bulk in existence. We want a few more ' Gilbert Whites of Selborne' amongst our angling authors. . .

Poor Stewart ! he was a fine fisherman and a right good companion, and pleasant days we fly-fished side by side, with another famous angler (and politician), alas ! no more the Johnson of Scotland, as he was well called I mean Alex. Russel, Editor of the Scotsman, and author of the book of 'The Salmon/ He and Stewart were two of the finest fishermen that it has ever been my lot to know, and I loved them both well for like and difference,' as Mrs. Browning puts it, though Stewart was very wroth with me afterwards and devoted a whole pamphlet to my annihilation, pugnacious ' moss-trooping Scot ' as he was. ... No reason that, how-ever, why I should not write his epitaph in the Field when he died . . .

I'd give the lands of Deloraine

Stout Musgrave were alive again ! . . .

But, some one asks ' Why do you not practise what you preach ? You eulogise monographs, and you write books yourself which embrace every variety of angling and " fishey lore " from bait-breeding to salmon- catching.'

Dear critic (forgive the adjective when perhaps you are in the very act of sharpening your ' scalping-knife '), I do nothing of the sort ; and though it is true I have 'graduated ' in most kinds of fishing, from sticklebacks upwards, there are many subjects germane to angling, such as fish-rearing both of Salmonidce and ' coarse ' fish fish-acclimatisation, and several special departments of angling itself, where I have need to learn rather than to pretend to teach. Consequently I have thought myself fortunate to be able to secure for these pages the very kind assistance of the eminent and scientific gentlemen who write in regard to such special subjects with equal felicitousness and authority. Thus the volumes of the Badminton Library confided to me by the Editor and publishers will not lose either in completeness or trustworthiness by my shortcomings.

Frankly, however, this is not the only reason why I have sought the able co-operation of Major John P. Traherne, Mr. Henry R. Francis, Mr. H. S. Hall, and Mr. Frederic M. Halford, in dealing with the theory and practice of artificial fly-fishing. One reason is that I hold opinions on these subjects which if not 'revolutionary,' may certainly be called in some sense ' radical,' and which have not as yet found general acceptance.

Whether the said opinions are right or wrong matters not. If I had seen any sufficient reason to alter them at any rate in regard to their main outlines I should have unhesitatingly avowed it long ago, for I look upon a man who says that he never changes his mind as a fool, or else as sacrificing truth to ' consistency ; ' but whatever my theories, and whatever may be their ultimate fate, I had, of course, no right or desire to air my hobbies in the pages of the Badminton Library ; and I am sure that my readers will, in any case, be the gainers by the substitution of the admirable essays alluded to, written as they are by fly-fishers of long and successful experience and in every sense entitled to be regarded as masters of the craft.

For the rest, it has been my aim to make these volumes as practical as possible ; and if the exigencies of this role have involved a certain amount of space being devoted to more or less technical matters which, however necessary and important, are, perhaps, less attractive to the general angling public than to the enthusiastic student I hope the other part of the programme laid down by the Editor has not been overlooked, and that the following pages will be found to be sufficiently diversified with the lighter matters and incidents of sport to redeem them from being hopelessly ' dull reading.'

H. CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL.

October 1885.

UNQUOTE


Pennell makes especial note of the fact that Stewart was an Edinburgh lawyer, and as they were originally friends and fished together, he would know. Other references to Stewart being a tea-merchant are apparently incorrect. He certainly came from a well-to-do family though, and they may have been tea-merchants.

Pennell also wrote an epitaph for Stewart in "The Field", but I don´t have a full copy of this, just a fragment, which is not verified. Somebody somewhere must have a copy though.. There are archives of The Field, but I have no access to these. I am too far away from the British Library and other sources now.

The language used in these exchanges was extremely strong and insulting for the time. The editor of the "The Field" refused to publish any more exchanges on the matter, and as a result of this, Stewart published the pamphlet.

I sympathise with Stewart, as it could not have been nice to have his friend plagiarise his book in such a manner, and at the same time refute his ideas in such a silly way. I wonder if they imagined that people would still be reading their angry exchanges one hundred and thirty six years later? Oddly enough, both are immortal as a result of the various tackle that still bears their names. Every British fly angler has heard of the Black Pennell, ( which Pennell  did not invent!) and various other things. Among general anglers, Stewart is immortal for the worm tackle which still bears his name, and he did invent it!

TL
MC

[Traditionalist]

 1. The Black Spider: From a small feather of the cock Starling, dressed with brown silk.

 

   This fly is dressed by wrapping the body of the fly with brown silk, tying the hackle in at the shoulder by the base of the feather. Next pull the silk and the hackle up together above the hook and twist the feather with the silk. Next palmer the hackle and thread together toward the bend of the hook until the feather runs out. Carefully bring the thread back up the shank of the hook and tie it off at the head. This is perhaps the best fly of all and it can be used confidently all season in many sizes. It represents almost anything and the trout love it.
   

   Thread: Brown silk. A fly dressed with purple silk can also be a real killer, especially when Iron Blues are on.

    Hackle: Starling back feather wound with silk through the first 1/3 of the fly

   (The second fly above has been fully palmered with a starling hackle MC)

This fly was given to Stewart ( William Clouston Stewart.  "The Practical Angler"  by James Baillie, a very skilled professional angler of the time.


   2. The Red Spider.



    Borders fly that works very well mid season for trout on the river. The original used Landrail for the hackle. A few   substitutes are available but I have found the lightly barred rusty red feather from the lesser coverts of a blue jay  wing is an excellent alternative.
   

    Thread: Well waxed Yellow silk

    Body: Silk as above

    Hackle: Rusty red barred feather from a Jay wing ( Original used Landrail).

   (Red barred hen hackle used here MC)

   3. The Dun Spider.




   This should be made of the small soft dun or ash colored feather, taken from the outside of the wing of the dotterel. This bird is unfortunately very scarce, but a small feather may be taken from the inside of the starling wing, which will make an excellent substitute.
    Thread: well waxed yellow silk
    Body: silk as above
   Hackle: Dotterel, or under-wing of Starling as substitute.
   (Here the fly has been dressed with a blue dun hen hackle MC)



Greenwell Spider dressed Stewart style. ( This is my own dressing, very successful).



To dress this, run your well waxed primrose silk down the hook, tie in a length of fine gold wire.  Run your silk back to the eye. Catch in your prepared hackle by the butt. Palmer the hackle a third of the way down the body, let it hang in hackle pliers. Rib up the body and through the hackle with the gold wire right up to the head. Tie down, break off the wire by "jiggling" it back and forth. Whip finish.

Although people often say Stewart only used spiders, this is not true, he also used winged flies and gave three in his book:

Stewart's Winged Flies.

1.

Wing. - Woodcock.
Hackle. - A single turn of a red hackle or a landrail feather.
Body. - Yellow tying silk. For fishing dark-coloured waters, this fly maybe dressed with a scarlet silk.

2.

Wing. - Corn-bunting or chaffinch. A woodcock wing may also be put to the same body, but should be made of the small light-coloured feather taken from the inside of the wing.
Body. - Hare-lug.

3.

Wing. - Same as pattern No. 2.
Hackle. - A single turn of soft black hen-hackle, or a small feather taken from the shoulder of the starling, dressed with dark coloured silk.


The hook sizes given for the above patterns was 12 to 15 Bartleet's of Redditch.


These are the colour plates from the special folder "Flybook" insert in the rear pocket of the 1907 "Centenary edition", of "The Practical Angler" by W.C. Stewart  It seems these are little known. The flies for the plates were dressed by Mr.P.D.Malloch, of Perth.