Western fly fishing: Where did it start? From my reading ancient Greece with a short rod with line attatched (no reel) fishing for trout with a fly made from red wool and a feather. Advance to 1600s in Britain Izaack Walton in 1653 published "The Complete Angler" and he quoted from older work by Dame Juliana Berners of fishing with artificial flies. Long rods with fixed lines were the tools for pleasure fishing up to and including the early 1900s though reels were also used by this time. My first fly rod was of split cane 14ft long and the technique was very similar to tenkara, short line held off the water and the fly worked or dibbled on or close the the surface. Now I have a tenkara rod so light it might as well be made of a feather and my catch rate is as good as the Scotish burns I fished with my 14 ft rod. It is all about presentation and water craft, staying hidden from your prey, becoming a part of the environment as every successful predator must. I supose it is epitomised by the expression "What goes around comes around" so if it floats your boat ..............................