The story of the Macedonian fly

The oldest known record of fly fishing is found in “De Natura Animalium”, by the Roman author Claudius Aelianus (175-235 A.D.). It is stated that in the Roman Province of Macedonia, between the cities known today as Thessaloniki and Edessa,
there was a river called Astraus where fish fed on flies that looked like something between a bee and a fly, which the natives called “Hippouros”.
If a human hand touched those flies, they fell apart. The fish instinctively knew the flies had already been caught before, so they would not even come near them. To lure the fish, fishermen fastened red wool around a hook, and tied two feathers
with wax paint from under a cock’s wattles to it.

This fly was know in the world as Macedonian fly.
This lure was attached to a line 1.8 meters long, the same length as the fishing rod.

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