A Bit of Old Yorkshire

I had a bit of a tidy up today and going through my book case I came across the first proper Grayling Book that was ever bought for me which was “The Grayling Angler” by John Roberts, first published in 1982, with the acclaimed Arthur Oglesby writing the forward for him.

 John a born & bred Yorkshireman wrote about all these wonderful places where he often caught lovely Grayling around Yorkshire and I now have the privilege to call some of these places my back yard, with probably one of the greatest Grayling Flies, The Sturdy’s Fancy being created by Tom Sturdy the West Tanfield Club’s first river-keeper on the Ure not 8 miles from my home, one of the first flies I ever learned to tie from John's book.

 John was an author I followed with great delight in my days stuck abroad in the British Army of the Rhine, and I always looked out for his publications and snapped them up as & when I could. 

It wasn’t until finally settling in our current house that I had the privilege to talk to John and to make him some trotting floats in exchange for some of his wisdom and fly patterns which I have now gone on with and caught some lovely Yorkshire Grayling, non more so than with his fly called the Supa Pupa which takes centre stage in my Grayling fly box. 

John has always promised me he will sign the many books I now have belonging to him & I've often thought as I pass his home in Fulford what he is penning next, I suppose I will have to wait & see.