Frederic M. Halford
| Frederic Michael Halford | |
|---|---|
Frederic M. Halford-Detached Badger tying flies
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| Born | Frederic Michael Hyam 13 April 1844 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 5 March 1914 (aged 69) P&O liner Morea at sea on the River Thames |
| Pen name | Detached Badger |
| Occupation | Businessman, angler, author |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Education | University College School |
| Notable works | Floating Flies and How to Dress Them, 1886 |
| Relatives | Samuel Hyam (1813–1891) (father), Phoebe Levy (mother) |
Frederic Michael Halford (13 April 1844 – 5 March 1914), pseudonym Detached Badger, was a wealthy and influential British angler and fly fishing author. Halford is most noted for his development and promotion of the dry fly technique on English chalk streams. He is generally accepted as "The Father of Modern Dry Fly Fishing." John Waller Hills, A History of Fly Fishing for Trout (1921) called Halford "The Historian of the Dry Fly".
In Royal Coachman – The Lore and Legends of Fly Fishing (1999), Paul Schullery describes Halford:
Frederic Halford was born Frederic Michael Hyam into a wealthy Jewish family of German ancestry in 1844 in Birmingham, England. His parents, Samuel and Phoebe Hyam, moved to London when Frederic was 7. Samuel Hyam, and his brothers Lawrence and Benjamin, were very prosperous manufacturers of textiles and clothing in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. In 1875, all the Hyams changed their name to Halford.
At the age of 7, Halford began attending University College School (UCS) in London. When he left UCS in 1860 he went to work in one of the family businesses. Very little is known of his business career except that he retired from business at the age of 45 in 1889 to become a full-time angler. In February 1866, he became an officer in the 36th Middlesex Volunteers for a short period of time, during which he learned how to shoot.
His first experience of fishing was in a small London pond at the age of 6 and as a boy he fished the Serpentine and the Long Pool in Hyde Park. As a teenager, he regularly fished the Thames with conventional tackle for sea trout, bream, and pike. His largest fish was a Brown trout from the Thames that weighed 9.75 pounds (4.42 kg) in 1870.
Halford's first experiences in fly fishing were at the age of 24 in 1868 when, through the generosity of a family friend, he was given a free beat on the River Wandle, a pristine trout stream to the southwest of London.
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