G. E. M. Skues | |
|---|---|
 Photograph by Howard Coster, 1927 | |
| Born | George Edward MacKenzie Skues 13 August 1858 |
| Died | 9 August 1949 (aged 90) |
| Monuments | Commemorative bench north of Winchester, on River Itchen[1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, writer |
| Known for | Nymph fishing |
| Notable work | "The way of a trout with a fly" Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream |
George Edward MacKenzie Skues, usually known as G. E. M. Skues (1858–1949), was a British lawyer, writer and fly fisherman. He invented modern-day nymph fishing. This caused a controversy with the Chalk stream dry fly doctrine developed by Frederic M. Halford. His second book, The Way of a Trout with a Fly (1921) is considered a seminal work on nymph fishing. According to Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing historian, Skues:
was, without any doubt, one of the greatest trout fishermen that ever lived. His achievement was the invention of fly fishing with the nymph, a discovery that put a full stop to half a century of stagnation in wet fly fishing for trout, and formed the bedrock for modern sunk fly fishing. Skues' achievement was not without controversy, and provoked what was perhaps the most bitter dispute in fly fishing history.
— Dr. Andrew Herd[2]
Paul Schullery, the American fly fishing historian, characterises Skues in Skues on Trout as:
...Skues has been described not only as the father of nymph fishing, but as the greatest fly fisher who ever lived. He was also a modest, humorous and warmly accessible writer whose writings never lost sympathy for this his fellow anglers. His self-deprecating and deceptively simple-sounding writings on trout and fly fishing remain among the wisest and most revealing in the sport's enormous literature.
— Paul Schullery, Skues on Trout, 2007[3]
John Goddard in The Essential G. E. M. Skues wrote:
...I still look on Skues with considerable awe as, with out doubt, the greatest thinking fly fisher ever to put pen to paper. In this respect, he was way ahead of Halford as an observant and creative angler
— John Goddard, The Essential G. E. M. Skues, 1998[4]
- ^ Robson, Kenneth (1998). The Essential G. E. M. Skues. London: A & C Black. p. 116. ISBN 155821691X.
- ^ Fly fishing history-G. E. M. Skues
- ^ Skues, George Edward MacKenzie (2007). Schullery, Paul (ed.). Skues on Trout-Observations from and Angler Naturalist. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. pp. x. ISBN 978-0-8117-0358-1.
- ^ Robson, Kenneth (1998). The Essential G. E. M. Skues. London: A & C Black. p. x. ISBN 155821691X.