According to Andrew Herd, the British fly fishing historian, Skues: was, without any doubt, one of the greatest trout fishermen that ever lived.

Hammond's, an angling shop in Winchester, introduced Skues to fly fishing and his first attempt was made using an eleven-foot rod, a silk and horsehair line, and a Wickham's Fancy.

After leaving Winchester, Skues spent a year in Jersey with his parents before moving back to London to begin his career as a lawyer with the firm of James Powell.

As a result of that meeting, Halford, seconded by William Senior, editor of The Field, nominated Skues for membership in the Flyfishers' Club of London.

Numerous dry-fly men (including Frederic M. Halford) had observed that traditional winged wet flies represented no known underwater insect and declined to explore the possibilities – a naive decision as it turned out.

Among them were: Seaforth and Soforth, Val Conson, E.O.E., A Limity Dincombe, S.A.S., Simplex Munidishes, Spent Naturalist, W.A.G., B. Hinde, Unspoiled Child, Captain Stoke, A Fluker, Integer Vitae, Caunter Fordham, A Butt, and Current Colonel.

The following passage by Halford epitomises his dogmatic views: Those of us who will not in any circumstances cast except over rising fish are sometimes called ultra purists and those who occasionally will try to tempt a fish in position but not actually rising are termed purists... and I would urge every dry fly fisher to follow the example of these purists and ultra purists.When Skues began promoting upstream nymphing techniques on English chalk streams at the turn of the 20th century, there was immediate tension between those who favoured and followed the Halford school of dry-fly fishing and those who chose to use other techniques.

Indeed, Skues's second work The Way of a Trout with the Fly, which codified the upstream nymphing technique, was not published until 1921, well after Halford's death.

The result was decidedly in favour of Halford's dry-fly techniques to the exclusion of all others, but no one denied the effectiveness of Skues's nymphing methodology.