THE NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FLY FISHING by Conrad Voss Bark & Eric Restall

 

Robert Hale Ltd (second edition, 1999)

 

Bell, Dr H. A. (1888-1974) Although he never wrote a word about fishing and shunned publicity, Dr Bell of Blagdon had the greatest formative influence of any man on the development of reservoir fishing in the first half of this century.

 

Howard Alexander Bell served in the First World War and after his return to civilian life opened a practice in Sussex, but from 1920 onwards he fished Blagdon whenever he could. In 1935 he was able to buy a practice at Wrington, and a few years later opened a surgery at Blagdon village, as close as he could get to his beloved lake.

 

In those days Blagdon was fished with spinners or with traditional sea-trout and low-water salmon flies. Fly fishing was carried out from boats and bank during the evening rise. Daytime fishing with the fly was thought to be of little use. Bell had read Skues and, following his example, used a marrow spoon to spoon out the trout he caught (one of his friends said, ‘He would spoon out his grandmother if he thought there was anything in her’). The stomach contents of the Blagdon trout were a revelation. There was nothing there but small larvae and pupae, among them the pupae of the famous black midge.

 

Bell realized that the natural food of the trout bore no relation at all to the Jock Scotts, the Mallards and the Peter Rosses which were being fished by his friends. He was a good fly dresser and began to tie patterns that imitated and suggested these food insects. Success came at once. Fishing during the day, often in bright sunlight, he would come back with a limit of eight trout, many of which he gave to his patients. His friend, Alick Newsom, described his methods:

 

A typical cast would be a Worm Fly on the tail, a Grenadier on the first dropper, and a Buzzer on the top dropper. The flies were not leaded. They were quite small. He fished from the bank, using a standard 1X gut cast and cast out as far as was comfortable. He made no attempt to go for distance but let the flies sink slowly, waiting for some time, but judging the time so that the tail fly did not get snagged on the bottom. He used the knot at the end of his greased silk line as a bite indicator. When the flies were fully sunk he would gather them in slowly. He had a pear-shaped landing net attached to a cord slung over his shoulder. He liked to fish over sunk ditches and holes and moved slowly along the bank, searching for weed beds. During the Second World War, for example, a German bomb had exploded just off the north shore and he often fished the crater because of the good growth of weed. He was a shy man and liked to fish alone and when he became so successful he hated anyone writing about him.

 

Bell’s reputation grew and was perhaps even increased by his reluctance to have anything written about him. There was a legend that he put a magic oil on his flies, which was why he always caught more than anyone else. Willie Cox of Bristol, who knew Bell well and was influenced by him, said that people would watch him fishing through binoculars to see what he did.

 

Bells’ success in fishing imitative patterns was widely followed, and copies of his flies began to be tied commercially by Veal’s of Old Market Street, Bristol. Gradually the idea of using what one writer in the Fishing Gazette called ‘imitation bait’ began to spread. Many of Bell’s flies are now traditional patterns and include the Blagdon Buzzer, the Grenadier and the Amber Nymph. Some of his patterns are in the museum of the Flyfishers’ Club in London.

Reproduced by kind permission of Adam Fox-Edwards