Waddington Shanks - History and Evolution

Background

Salmon fishing in the early 1800’s was done exclusively using blind-eyed hooks where the cast (of plaited horsehair or gut) was whipped onto the shank of the hook and later would have been attached with a with a gut loop that had been dressed as part of the fly. In or around 1845 steel-eyed hooks made their debut and to the annoyance of many in his book Practice of Angling O’Gorman clearly states his intense dislike of “the newly invented hook . . . with an eye in the shank.  It is another Scotch invention, and its usefulness may be placed on a par with the newly invented method of breeding salmon. Any fly tied on a hook of this description must be clumsy.” Trout hooks with a ringed-eye first came onto the market much later around 1875, their invention being attributed to H. S Hall.

Early Salmon hooks were huge by today’s standards with size 3/0 to 10/0 being used for fishing in a strong and gusty wind; Since they were fished at the bottom, the weight of a good salmon iron was useful in getting the fly down to the fish so to speak however, as Gorman stated when taken by a Salmon large hooks are indeed clumsy and prone to being levered out of the fishes mouth.

The first tube fly has been attributed to British author and angler Alexander Wanless, whom in his book The Angler And The Thread Line shares for the first time his tube fly patterns and their use. Wanless was an avid spin-fishing angler but wanted to bring the superior properties of the fly into his own style of fishing. To do so he devised a pattern that could be fished using a thread (spinning) line. He outlined various other fly innovations in his book Thread Line Salmon Fly all with one thing in common they could all be tied using smaller hooks so would not work as levers when salmon took them, improving his catch rate.

Tube Flies and Waddington Shanks are related insofar as both evolved from the introduction of eyed hooks and the mass production of small treble hooks.

 

Waddington Shanks

British angler Richard Waddington (b.1910 – d.1999) first conceived the idea of what we now call Waddington Shanks in the 1940s. It should be mentioned that Waddington was no ordinary angler and not merely a fly dresser – he was possibly the most eminent salmon fisherman of the twentieth century.  He challenged contemporary thinking and related available material to fishing method and practice of the day.  His study of salmon biology, life-cycle and migration led him to rethink the techniques of the day to achieve more successful results.

His intelligent interpretation of fish physiology have changed our approach to modern salmon fishing and his theories are at the very heart of our fishing techniques today.

In his book Salmon Fishing, A New Philosophy published in 1947, he wrote;

"My ideal salmon fly, however, is quite revolutionary. The shank will remain a steel bar - though were it not for the weight I should prefer something pliable like a heavy nylon strand. This will be linked with a plain loop to a small triangle. The fly will not be dressed in the normal way. The body will be the same but the wing will disappear to be replaced by plenty of hackle dressed all round the fly so that whichever way it is turned it will have the same appearance.

I surmise that this fly will look more natural in the water; that the small triangle is less obvious than a large hook and that once the fish is hooked it will give a better hold. The link in the shank will obviate much of the strain and movement in the hook."

Waddington conceived his shank concept as a solution to the challenges that he had identified to catching more Atlantic Salmon in Scotland.  At the time he was fishing standard salmon flies made on 8/0 hooks and observed that the patterns he was fishing were in effect imitations of fish and felt that large salmon irons were not helping with the illusion so experimented with “The Rational Fly” tied on to cut down blind-eyed shanks with gut loops and small triangles (treble hooks).  Fishing the Scottish Dee with these prototypes he increased his catch rate significantly thereby proving his thesis of the combination of reduced profile dressings with smaller trebles.

 

No doubt Albert Partridge became interested when both ghillies and their customers were waxing lyrically in the press about their increased bag of Salmon on the new style of fishing!

Early production was a single shank and only later on manufactured by with double wire shank construction we fish today.  Today Shanks have found favor once more with modifications that Richard Waddington would have approved for the tying of Intruder Patterns when targeting Atlantic and Pacific Salmon, Steelhead and a wide variety of Predator and Sea species.

 

The Shank was designed such that the front end was heavier than the tail end (trailing hook) so the fly swam horizontally like a fish. The detachable treble hook represented the tail of the fish and the original dressings on the shank were constructed with long hackles to reach the hook giving the fly a torpedo like shape, the body of the dressing being just like any other salmon fly.

Waddington’s theory about the shank design overcame the problems of leverage experienced when using large single hooks, which caused som many problems in the 1940’s. Shortening the length of the shank decreased the leverage on the Waddington.

The treble hooks could also be replaced easily because of the construction of the tail end of the shank; opening up the loop replacing the treble and closing the loop. The shanks having a fine diameter would also allow the flies to sink more quickly and also slim bodied flies to be created.

Partridge got involved in the manufacture of Waddington Shanks in the 1960’s, producing them by hand on a bowing machine initially, in time these were produced on an automated bowing machine and these days on CNC Machines ensuring that they are all the same size and shape and configuration.

The resurgence of shanks and the rise and rise of Intruder patterns in North America has fuelled a series of immitators on the market and a number of developments at Partridge of Redditch, first in 2013 with the introduction of Intruder Shanks, where the trailing eye is oriented vertically so that it can be used to mount double and single hooks (rather than the original treble) and most recently a straight-eyed version designed specifically with predator fishing in mind - Predator Shanks are for those looking for articulation when they are linked together.

 

 

Inch	Metric	Treble Hook Size	Salmon Single Equivalent
2 ⅜ in	55 mm	2 to 4	6/0 to 5/0
1 ¾ in	45 mm	4 to 6	4/0 to 3/0
1 ⅜ in	35 mm	6 to 8	1/0 to 1
1 in	25 mm	8 to 10	2 to 4
¾ in	20 mm	10 to 14	6 to 8
⅝ in	15 mm	12 to 16	8 to 10
⅜ in	10 mm	18 to 20	12 to 14

 

 

 

Sources:

1.   O’Gorman – Practice of Angling, 1845

2.   Alexander Wanless - The Angler And The Thread Line, 1932

3.   Eric Taverner – Salmon Fishing, 1945

4.   Richard Waddington - Salmon Fishing, A New Philosophy, 1947

5.   Richard Waddington - Salmon Fishing, Philosophy and Practice 1959

Richard Waddington – Waddington on Salmon Fishing, 1991