G. E. M. Skues

• Skues, G. E. M. (1950). Silk, Fur and Feather, The Trout-Fly Dressers Year. London: Fishing Gazette.
• Skues, G. E. M. (1951). Itchen Memories. London: Herbert Jenkins.

G. E. M. Skues's first book, Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream, was published in 1910. In it, Skues carefully explored nymph fishing methodology during an era when the dry-fly school of Halford's was preeminent. He wrote the classic The Way of a Trout with the Fly in 1921. Numerous dry-fly men (including Frederic M. Halford) had observed that traditional winged wet flies represented no known underwater insect and declined to explore the possibilities – a naive decision as it turned out. Skues, on the other hand, was the first fisherman to make the point that the bulging rises which marked the first stage of the rise were caused by fish taking emerging nymphs – nymphs that could be imitated if new patterns and a new method were developed. He pointed out that it was only later that fish began to take adults, and that on occasion the fish were so full with nymphs that the rise was insignificant. Skues made the point that fishing wet flies or nymphs to fish didn't spoil dry fly fishing when adults were on the water and his most crucial discovery was that nymphing trout had to be struck, and that the timing of the strike depended on very subtle observation.

During his life, Skues used a variety of pseudonyms, especially for contributions to the sporting press. Among them were: Seaforth and Soforth, Val Conson, E.O.E., A Limity Dincombe, S.A.S., Simplex Munidishes, Spent Naturalist, W.A.G., B. Hinde, Unspoiled Child, Captain Stoke, A Fluker, Integer Vitae, Caunter Fordham, A Butt, and Current Colonel.[5]

Halford, along with Marryatt, perfected upstream dry-fly fishing in late 19th-century England and treated other forms of fly presentation, such as wet flies and nymphs on English chalk streams, with disdain. By the early 20th century, the Halford dry-fly doctrine had become cultish and to some extent dogmatic. The following passage by Halford epitomises his dogmatic views:

Those of us who will not in any circumstances cast except over rising fish are sometimes called ultra purists and those who occasionally will try to tempt a fish in position but not actually rising are termed purists... and I would urge every dry fly fisher to follow the example of these purists and ultra purists.

— From A History of Flyfishing, Bark, 1992[7]

When Skues began promoting upstream nymphing techniques on English chalk streams at the turn of the 20th century, there was immediate tension between those who favoured and followed the Halford school of dry-fly fishing and those who chose to use other techniques. There is no evidence that there was ever any personal animosity between the two anglers, only verbal wrangling in the sporting press about the pros and cons of the two techniques. Indeed, Skues's second work The Way of a Trout with the Fly, which codified the upstream nymphing technique, was not published until 1921, well after Halford's death.

The debates continued into the 1930s. The Halfordian school claimed that upstream nymphing, although effective, was unethical and bad for the chalk streams, even to the point of banning the use of nymph on some fisheries, while Skues's proponents claimed that the dogmatic dry-fly approach limited opportunities when nymphing was a more appropriate technique. A culmination of sorts took place in February 1938 at the Flyfishers' Club when the so-called "Nymph Debate" took place. Skues was present to defend nymphing techniques, while many others, chiefly Sir Joseph Ball, defended the Halfordian doctrine. The result was decidedly in favour of Halford's dry-fly techniques to the exclusion of all others, but no one denied the effectiveness of Skues's nymphing methodology. The debate helped cement both Halford's and Skues's seminal roles in the development of modern-day fly fishing.[8]