Artificial bow ties by Stanislaw Morawski 1849

STANISŁAW MORAWSKI'S ARTIFICIAL BOW TIES OF 1849.

Stanislav Moravsky (1802-1853) was a physician. In 1829-1835 he practiced in St. Petersburg, and later moved permanently to the village of Ustronie near Trakai (now in Lithuania). In a letter dated October 27, 1849 to his close friend Helena Szymanowska-Malewska in St. Petersburg, we read, among other things, the following request: „I am a great amateur of fishing with a rod (udit rybu czto nazywajetsia), or fishing à la ligne. For this they use croakers, on which a fly or a worm is planted. Worms are disgusting, while flies go bad. It always occurred to me how they don't come up with croakers that artificially pretend to be a worm or a fly, to fool the poor fish! Neither in Vilnius, nor in Kaunas, nor even in Riga did I get it and I was already persuaded. And then, lo and behold, in the preiskurant Liubavin, who lives on Nevsky in the house of the Catholic church, dealing with agency and commissions, I find a title: Rybolovnyy pribor. There are kriuchki s bow ties for a dozen 1¾. There are kriuchki s filki at 1 as. per dozen; and the filki themselves at 60 kop. per dozen s peresyłkoju. What these fils are I do not know.

Probably successful worms. If there are both critters with successful flies and worms, and the artificial worms themselves to apply, you would have done me a great and great favor if you had bought me this and with the soap dishes and pots that you promised me, sent me. Hair for fishing they certainly do better in our country than there. But that the folding fishing rod itself, that is, the spar of sufficient length, could be obtained for 2½ rubles, as he writes in the preiskirt, I would not regret it either. Already your husband must take it upon himself, because you, out of heat and speed, sometimes skimp on this thing, how much you probably have not even seen how to fish with a rod. The critters of two species would be enough for me after a dozen. Incidentally, if these fillets are worms or pass for fishing on a small river. In addition, the croakers should be as small as possible, because at my place only a tiny fish can be fished this way. A large croaker wouldn't go for it, and the fishing would be a waste. The size of the ones I fish with here is either very little bigger. The price marked at Liubawin's is already together with postage by mail. So yes taking will be cheaper, and this can be plugged into any other postage. It would be very much to my liking for Francis with this errand, because with us there is still a month and a half of time before the rivers freeze over.” In another letter dated November 19, Morawski, impatient with the lack of equipment, wrote: „teach me, Madam, what would happen to my soapbox1 and fish crocks, which I expect from St. Petersburg?”. The shipment must have arrived soon, because in another letter dated December 16 he wrote: „the rod has been received and thanks for it.” One can guess that there were also artificial lures in it. This letter, unknown to researchers of our ancient angling, is one of the most valuable documents for learning about the history of angling - not only in Poland, but in the Baltic region in general. It contains a huge wealth of information despite its short length. The information in the letter deals with two issues - artificial fly fishing and fishing in general. Here I will only deal with information that is closely related to fly fishing.

The letter shows that Morawski was an avid angler who fished mainly in a small river. The size of the hook shown in the letter corresponds to today's #6, which is usually used to catch fish between 15-40 cm (depending on the species). Since Morawski acknowledged that the fish he caught were small, so it must be assumed that they were species with a large mouth, if they could swallow such a large hook, in addition, „carnivorous”. Thus, mainly perch, trout and chub are included. Moravian fished until the river was forged by ice. In late autumn, perch can still be caught, while trout (spawning) and chub (less active) are harder to come by. The bait was natural - a worm (probably an earthworm) or a fly (it's hard to judge what insect is involved here). However, he abhorred these lures. The letter shows that he came up with the idea of artificial bait himself. This is because he did not know either the existing Polish or Russian name of the time. It cannot be ruled out that he could have read about such a lure in French literature, for example, as the phrase „à la ligne” could attest (Morawski knew French well). In such a case, however, one is puzzled by the lack of use of the word mouche (French for „fly”), which Morawski should have encountered. Another important piece of information is the absence of artificial lures in stores in Vilnius, Kaunas and Riga. This, in turn, would confirm the unfamiliarity of artificial mouche in those areas, and perhaps even in a much larger territory in general, as surely merchants in those cities would have known that they were available somewhere. The word „persuaded” emphatically indicates that no one was familiar with such lures. Artificial midges, on the other hand, were available in St. Petersburg! Where did they come from there? The topic is beyond the scope of this article. However, I will mention that my analysis so far rather indicates that fly fishing was brought to St. Petersburg by the English. This is because in St. Petersburg in the 18th and 19th centuries there was a large group of British merchants who, of course, spent their free time on the water. In the first half of the 19th century. 1 The connection between soapbox and fishing, while having a specific fishing context, is probably completely coincidental.
-5- Finland in the town of Imatra, they even built a fishing lodge where they often spent time. The influence of the English is even better documented when it comes to Norway, and the northern parts of Sweden and Finland. I'll also mention that I have not found the word „fiłka” in old Russian language dictionaries. Nor does it appear in Сабанеев's study, the most important Russian work on fishing. Jurek Komar, on the other hand, as a philologist, pointed out to me that perhaps it refers to the Russianized »filè« meaning thread (from the French), lamette, or »fillet« a scroll. In Russian, the foreign-language „l” often turns into an „ł” (cf. phylosof, London, etc.). It is unlikely that this word would have appeared in Old Russian dictionaries, as it is probably a fishing „slang”, or perhaps just a polling of the letter writer. This statement by Jurek allowed me to unravel the problem of ”phila„. Well, in the past, flies were generally made on a hook with a leader and such were on sale. The filka was probably this leader, and there were artificial flies on sale in St. Petersburg.

Literature cited: Morawski S. 1981 From rural solitude. Letters to Helena and Franciszek Malewski. Opr. Z. Sudolski. Warsaw. Сабанеев А.П. 1960 (1st ed. 1875). Жизнь и ловля пресноводных рыб. Киев.

Trout & Hatchery No.24