From Derbyshire roots to Cheltenham
Ogden on Fly Tying (1879) he wrote that both he and his father spent
“seventy years’ practice on the rivers Wye, Derwent, Lathkill, and Dove, Derbyshire”
and that these waters “test the eye as to size and colour in dressing the artificial fly far more than other streams.”
This grounding made him an exacting observer of trout and fly alike.
The Derbyshire Wye and floating flies
Ogden’s great innovation was the deliberate use of floating flies on rivers where sunk flies had been the norm.
In his own words:
“These observations were the cause of my introducing floating flies…
many dozens of wary fish have I taken in this way.
After a few years I found the fish on most streams getting more cunning,
and found my floating flies were the only ones to be depended on for making a basket.
It certainly is the most scientific, and affords more sport, than any other method of fishing.”— Ogden on Fly Tying, 1879
He demonstrated these “floaters” on the Derbyshire Wye in the 1860s, sometimes to ridicule from local anglers.
In one Bakewell episode, he recalled onlookers laughing at his “butterfly things” — only for him to hook trout immediately when the drake was on the water.
Such episodes helped establish the Wye as one of the first dry-fly-only rivers in Britain.
Ogden’s Fancy
Beyond his floating drakes, Ogden left us the enduring pattern Ogden’s Fancy.
Though simple, it captures the heart of his approach: suggestive rather than literal, slim and lively rather than over-dressed.
It remains a working fly for trout and grayling, valued for its ability to be many things at once — spinner, drowned dun, attractor.
Ogden himself stressed proportion and colour. He noted that even “the very least colour, only discerned by the magnifying glass, should make so much difference.”
That insight lives on in Ogden’s Fancy, which glows with ambiguity yet convinces fish across rivers to this day.
His legacy in dry-fly history
Later histories often credit Halford and Marryat with codifying the dry fly on the chalkstreams.
But Ogden’s experiments on the Derbyshire rivers came earlier and laid essential groundwork.
His insistence on floaters, his practical instructions for dressing upright-winged flies, and his success on the Wye put him at the very heart of this transition.
Ogden’s lesson is timeless: fish respond to suggestion, presentation, and proportion more than rigid rules.
His book, written in plain instruction for working anglers, still teaches us that innovation is born on the water, not in doctrine.
Takeaways for today’s angler
- Be pragmatic. Ogden adapted to wary fish by floating flies when sunk ones failed.
- Respect proportion. He urged anglers to observe size and subtle colour carefully.
- Back patterns with presentation. His floaters worked because he fished them deliberately upstream to rising fish.
- Value heritage flies. Carrying an Ogden’s Fancy today is casting with history in hand.
