The modest magician

Peter Lapsley profiles John Smith, rated by experienced and expert fly fishers who know his work as one of the very best fly dressers in the business.

H&T Caddis: John’s first choice for fish lying hard on the river bed. Fished with an induced take, they can be deadly. The pattern takes its name from the hair and tungsten used in its construction. H & T Caddis Hook: Kamasan B830 size 12-14. Silk: Light brown. Underbody: Lead wire. Head: Gold tungsten bead. Body: Dubbed hare’s mask. Rib: Copper wire.

John Goddard introduced me to John Smith six or seven years ago. Two busy day jobs were leaving me little time for fly-tying but there were several patterns I needed which were not available commercially – those I had designed myself or which had been designed by friends. “Try John Smith,” John G said, “he is the best fly tyer I know, by far.”

This was praise indeed from so experienced and expert a fly fisher and fly tyer. A ‘trial’ order showed John Smith to be a veritable magician. He produced a set of the most immaculately dressed flies I had seen – neat, perfectly proportioned, their shades and colourings precisely matched, and tied with first class materials. They proved remarkably durable, too, one particular nymph taking 14 trout over several days before eventually being ‘stolen’ by a tree.

Since then, John has supplied me with several batches of flies, and I have been just as impressed by their quality and by the quality of those I have seen that he has tied for others. Fascinated, and keen to pick up some tips, I arranged to meet him at his home near Woking in Surrey.

Quiet and self-effacing but with a ready smile and a nice sense of humour, it quickly became clear that beneath his modesty lies an inquisitive and analytical mind, an encyclopaedic knowledge of flies, fly dressing materials and fly-tying techniques, and a designer’s eye for detail and style.

John was born in Woking just after the Second World War and had lived there ever since. His father, a born countryman, always had guns propped up the corner of the room and ferrets in the garden, and he enjoyed fishing and rough shooting whenever the opportunity arose. Although the long hours he worked for a local nursery gave him limited time, they did not prevent him from taking John and John’s older brother, Allen, fishing and introducing them to the countryside at weekends. John soon learnt the best places to find rabbits and birds’ nests, and his mother was always understanding when father and son arrived home late, recognising the ‘one last cast’ syndrome that affects all anglers.

John was educated at Goldsworth School, a short walk from the family home in Woking, particularly enjoying the mathematics and technical drawing which were to form the basis of his career. On leaving school, he took a five-year technical engineering apprenticeship in the aircraft industry, with Vickers Armstrong, later to become British Aerospace. With day release at the local technical college and then at Kingston polytechnic, he gained a Full Technical Certificate in Product Design.

The British aircraft industry was flourishing, and John was both fortunate and proud to be able to work as a design engineer on many different types of aircraft, including Concorde. Having continued in similar employment with two other companies, but with the industry becoming increasingly turbulent, he was eventually made redundant in 2003. Thereafter, and with a keen interest in gardening, he worked part-time producing plant labels for the Royal Horticultural Society at their nearby Wisley Gardens before eventually retiring in March 2007 – just in time for the opening of the trout fishing season.

Fishing seems to be in his blood, for he cannot remember a time when it did not feature large in his life. As a youngster, he was always excited when his father took him to the local Hoe Stream to see how many minnows they could catch in a large jam jar on a piece of string. He recalls his first rod as probably being better suited to boat fishing at sea, but it still caught him his fair share of minnows and gudgeon.

Allen used to take him fishing, too, at Triggs Lock on the nearby river Wey, for many years John’s favourite fishing spot and one that still evokes happy memories. Chub and roach were their main quarry and the river gave generously of both.

When John was about ten and Allen gave him his first fixed-spool reel for Christmas, he really thought he had arrived as an angler. Armed with Bernard Venables’ Mr Crabtree..., his fishing and fishing tackle improved steadily. As a teenager, he became involved in match angling with both the Guildford and the Send angling clubs. Meeting other match anglers at a time when information and advice were exchanged freely greatly increased his proficiency. As he progressed, he began to win growing numbers of angling competitions, including the Guildford AC Open on a flooded river Wey against respected opposition.

John’s first fishing hero was Dick Walker, and he would wait eagerly for the arrival of the Angling Times each week to read Dick’s article, hoping to be able to deploy its lessons in his own expeditions. At that time, Dick held the British carp record, and John well remembers making a special trip to the aquarium at London Zoo to see the fish, ‘Clarissa’, and marvelling at its size.
This was in the late 1950s and early ‘60s when there was still a strict closed season for coarse fishing. Three months seemed a very long time to a keen angler and, in his late teens, John began to fill the void with trout fishing, a branch of angling that was to take over his life completely. His interest in fly dressing began at the same time, the selection of flies included with his first fly fishing outfit being the only ones he has ever bought.

Having always been interested in arts and crafts, fly dressing came as a natural addition to John’s angling. He read all the literature he could find on the subject, John Veniard’s books being the mainstays of his quest for information.

Joining The Flydressers’ Guild, meeting like-minded fellow anglers and listening to guest speakers who willingly shared their expertise all helped to improve John’s fly tying immeasurably. With constant practice, he eventually found the confidence to enter fly dressing competitions, soon winning those sponsored by national game angling magazines and by the Guild itself.

The nearest affordable fly fishing on an apprentice’s meagre wages was at Waggoners Wells near Hindhead. Wearing his waders and with his rod strapped across his back, he travelled the 20 miles each way on his motorcycle.

Tom Ivens’ Still Water Fly-Fishing, proved an important source of information as he explored this new world, and he fished Tom’s Black & Peacock Spider with considerable success for several seasons.
With the closure of Waggoners Wells as a trout fishery, John joined the Peper Harow Fly Fishers Club with its stillwater and river fishing on the upper Wey, which had good Mayfly hatches, provided him with a valuable introduction to fly fishing on running water. Later, he joined the RMA Sandhurst fly fishing club and a membership stillwater at Clandon in Surrey.

Bygone age
As his interest in fly fishing developed, John became aware of and learnt much from John Goddard’s books, Trout Fly Recognition and Trout Flies of Stillwater, Brian Clarke’s The Pursuit of Stillwater Trout and later, their co-authored work The Trout and the Fly. Later, he was to discover GEM Skues’ writings which became firm favourites, chiefly because Skues had so enquiring a mind, always producing new ideas and dressings, and because his descriptive narratives so swiftly transport one to the idyllic riverside of a bygone age.

John’s angling forays have never taken him very far from home, his fishing needs and his equally important appreciation and enjoyment of the countryside all being met by his local waters. Recently, he has been fortunate to be able to fish on the Itchen, and a 2lb grayling, taken last year on a Poly May Dun during a late Mayfly hatch at the start of the grayling season, will long remain etched into his memory.
John joined The Flydressers’ Guild early on. In the late 1970s or early ‘80s, John Goddard wrote to all Guild members living in Surrey, suggesting the formation of a Surrey Branch. John joined it, met John Goddard, and counts himself fortunate that that friendship, formed over 25 years ago, thrives to this day. He is quick to acknowledge John G not just as a good friend but as an inspirational fly fisher whose enthusiastic quest for improvements in fly design can be very infectious.

• Read the rest of Peter's article – which includes gadgests and tips from John Smith's repertoire – in the October 2008 issue of FF&FT.