Born Dec 8th 1835, died 1920

elson was one of fly fishing's more controversial characters. His father was a doctor, a keen salmon fisherman, and the inventor of numerous flies. George Kelson was an extraordinary man, once summed up by his son with the observation, "If people behaved that way nowadays they would be locked up!" He was a fine athlete, shot, swimmer and raconteur. He captained the Kent XI for some years and also won medals as a steeplechaser. His great love was fishing, and in between trips on which he caught at least 3,000 salmon, he entered and won several casting tournaments and served as the angling editor of Land and Water. He was easily distinguished on the bank by the bowler hat that he invariably wore.

Kelson came to prominence in 1883, following his appearance on a judging panel at the Great Exhibition, a display of flies that he tied, and correspondence that followed in the Fishing Gazette. Following that he wrote for the Fishing Gazette, before breaking away to edit Land and Water. He published a very successful series of cards showing salmon flies, the series running from 1886 to 1902 (now much sought after, even single cards are scarce, let alone the complete series.)

Kelson was also famous for the design of Farlow's 'Patent Lever' reel, which was equipped with a drag mechanism that is comparable in efficiency with modern disc drags. The patent lever was eclipsed by the Hardy Perfect, which had a removable spool.

In 1895 he published a monumental work, The Salmon Fly. The publication of the book stirred up old resentments between Kelson and Marston, the editor of the Fishing Gazette, with Marston pointing out that Kelson had claimed many fly patterns as his own when they were the invention of others. The Durham Ranger is a good example of Kelson's carelessness - he credits the fly to Wright, when it was actually invented by Mr. W. Scruton. In the end the dispute between Marston and Kelson shattered Kelson's credibility.