With the end of the holidays, the return of cold night in the North of France, the rain, you can’t help to look at the canals and think about the Dutch polders and think that it’s time to prepare for pike season. Which means raising and looting on the Xmas boxes and the drawers of my daughter desk, to get a handful of bright and shiny stuff to tie up on a mighty 5\/0 hook like a chicken on the spit. Tying pike streamers is a rather coarse affair, refreshingly bordering on the brutal when one had his share of sweats on H20 CDCs. Of course, it doesn’t mean there’s no subtlety involved, quite the contrary. And a surprising historical depth.<\/p>\n
B\u0159etislav Ka\u0161par<\/a> found, in a translation of ancient texts, a description of Bavarian flies, used in the 16th century to catch pike. And from a couple of sketchy indications and a lot of interpretative choices, he produced a very nice paper on GlobalFlyFisher<\/a> and four videos. It’s long and somewhat loose, miles from McPhail, Weilenmann, Tightlines and the likes, but the project is quite fascinating. We plan to go whipping around Tegernsee Bavarians on 9wt bamboo, wearing medieval frocks.<\/p>\n