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| Founded | 1884; 141 years ago (1884) |
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| Type | Gentlemen's club |
| Location |
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Patron | King Charles III |
President | Alastair Collett |
| Website | flyfishersclub |
TheFlyfishers' Club is agentlemen's club inLondon, England, which was founded in 1884 for enthusiasts offlyfishing.[1] In 1894, the club had more than three hundred members, while in 1984, this number had risen to between eight and nine hundred members.[2][3]
The club's library has been described as one of the finest of its kind inEurope;[3] it has a collection of around three thousand works on the subject of fishing, including works such as the successfulFloating Flies and How to Dress Them andDry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice by F.M. Halford, one of the club's co-founders.[2] Many well-known writers on angling are members, and have contributed signed copies of their publications to the library.
According to Basil Field, the founding president, the original prospectus described the club's purposes as follows:
The club publishes a long-standing magazine, theFlyfishers' Journal; writers includedG. E. M. Skues, who has been described as "one of the greatesttrout fishermen that ever lived."[5][6][7] Skues dedicated his 1921 book,The Way of a Trout with the Fly to The Flyfishers' Club "in gratitude for many happy hours and some priceless friends".[8] In 1938, a debate was held at the club on Skues's controversial theories about the use ofnymphs in fly-fishing, which led him to publishNymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout.[6]
The club also has a museum of fishingmemorabilia which holds arod used byDavid Garrick and a case offlies reputed to have belonged toIzaak Walton.[9] Other items include a rod box originally exhibited inThe Great Exhibition atThe Crystal Palace in 1851 and apirn (used as an alternative to afishing reel) which belonged to the "Ettrick Sheppherd"James Hogg.[10][11]
In the autumn of 2024, a vote of the membership was taken to open up membership in the club to women; this passed with a 75% majority.[12]
The Flyfishers’ has had a number of homes. It had no permanent home of its own for the first four years of its existence, but opened its first rooms of its own in the Arundel Hotel in 1888, then moved to No. 8 Haymarket in 1889 and remained there until 1907, when it moved toSwallow Street, Piccadilly. It stayed there until destroyed inThe Blitz in 1941. Since then it has leased premises in several other London clubs. Today, the Club leases rooms in theSavile Club, 69 Brook Street in central London.
Its current patron isKing Charles III.
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