Mike
I am glad you changed the title. My dictionary defines Legend as “ A story, or group of stories, presented as history but unlikely to be true” and who ever heard of an angler who would invent or exaggerate tales of their exploits.
I agree with just about everything Sandy has said. Almost all of the well known anglers are or were writers, otherwise we would never have heard of them, and many of the real “Stars” are unknown outside their own area.
Yes Sawyer did take his inspiration from Skues, but it happens in every generation. As one famous scientist once said, “I have only reached this high because I stood on the shoulders of giants”. The good guys reach further, the dumb ones fall off.
Some of the nominees so far I have never even heard of and some I know next to nothing about. Some I have heard of by repute but I haven’t read their books so they haven’t made any direct impact on me, so my personal “Stars” are the ones who have helped me to learn and develop as an angler.
So in no particular order :
Peter (rabbitangler) who volunteered to spent a wet and stormy day at Haddo helping me and several others to raise my casting skills above the abysmal.
Oliver Edwards whose articles in FF&FT have taught me almost everything I know about trout food and a lot about fly tying and river fly fishing for trout. They have not been binned and forgotten Fred, they are still filed away so I can look things up again when I need to.
Bob Wyatt for his book Trout Hunting which made me think more about what I do than any other book on the subject and for his DHE which has caught me more wild trout than any other single pattern in my fly boxes.
Mike Barrio for running the most hospitable trout fishery in this corner of Scotland and for spending countless unpaid hours keeping this web site and forum going. And don’t you try to edit yourself out of this nomination Mike, I will know if you do.
Irvine
PS Mofty, am I missing something? What on this thread has been “moderated” out? ???
