New Images, New Faces

SALMON!The word conjures up I have had the great pleasure of intro-

some of the most romantic im- ducingv a number of new writerslfriends agery in the world of . As to our readers during the last two years. a cold-water anadromous fish, the Now I am pleased and excited to be able is equally at home in to introduce The American Fly Fisher's the vast reaches of two great new editor, Margot Page. oceans-the Atlantic and Pacific-and in You all know Margot. She has served thousands of freshwater rivers the world the Museum as a CODYL, and associate ed- over. Its amazing life cycle has intrigued, itor for this journal, and, of course, as the enticed, and captivated anglers and foundingu editor of the Museum's bian- naturalists alike from the time of Pliny nual newsletter, the Greenheart Gazette. (first century A.D.) up to the present. To Margot holds an M.A. in English, has a celebrate the world of the salmon and background in magazine and book pub- herald our forthcoming special exhibi- lishing (the latter with Nick Lyons Books tion, "The World of the Salmon," co- in New York City), and has published s~onsoredbv the Fed- freelance articles and essays about eration and scheduled to open June 7 in and other matters. She is, in every way, our Manchester galleries, we are devoting talented, energetic, and totally dedicated the Spring 1991 American Fly Fisher to to her craft. Simply put, Margot will be a the salmon. superb editor, and she has put together an In this issue, we are pleased to offer you exciting issue for her premier effort. the erudition of Tim Brown. reel scholar Some of you who wait for the arrival of and author of our recently published this quarterly magazine with bated breath book A Treasury ofReels, whose article on may have had your patience somewhat antique salmon reels features a near- tested over the past year or two. The Mu- dozen classic American and British reels seum has undergone such expansion in so that span a century of salmon fishing. We many areas that it has been difficult to also are very proud to introduce three ensure the timely publication of The writers new to the ranks of American Fly American Fly Fisher. In the interests of Fisher contributors. Robert F. Tones. na- scheduling, and with the addition of our tionally known writer and stalwart MU- new editor, we have decided to eliminate seum supporter, reviews a unique recent what would have been the last issue of donation to the Museum: home movies 1990 (Winter, Volume 16, Number 4) and of salmon fishing excursions-complete will be moving right into the production with horse-powered houseboats-on the of (Spring, Volume 17, Number I), with Patapedia River in the 1930s. the determined goal to fulfill our quarter- We also welcome Trey Combs, whose ly obligation to you. writing you have seen in many of the And so it is with mixedfeelings of re- sporting. magazines, to our journal. He gret, joy, and relief that I end my tour as debuts with an intriguing article on the caretaker editor of this fine journal. In the evolution of steelhead flies and the in- future I will be devoting myself almost tegration of Eastern fly-tying tradition solely to administering and developing and Western innovation. Don Catalfimo our growing museum. Perhaps now I can makes his first appearance with an over- find the time to finish up a few articles view of the great salmon books over the that have, out of necessity, been put on years. And we are also proud to offer you hold. There is one piece in particular excerpts from "The Salmon Portfolio," about in the Himalayas in produced by the government of Canada the days of the British Raj I'd love to in 1974 to focus world attention on sal- work on . . . . mon conservation. All good wishes. D.S.J. . American R M useum of The hericama Fly Fisher Journal of The American Museum of Fly Fishing Preserving a Rich Heritage SPRING 1991 VOLUME 17 NUMBER 1 for Future Generations TRUSTEES Foster Bam Ian D. Mackay Classic Salmon Books ...... 2 William Barrett Bob Mitchell Paul Bofinger Wallace J. Murray 111 Don Catalfimo Lewis M. Borden 111 Wayne Nordberg Robert R. Buckmaster Leigh H. Perkins 4 Donn H. Byme, Sr. Romi Perkins The Salmon Portfolio ...... Roy D. Chapin, Jr. Allan R. Phipps Canadian Department of and Oceans Calvin P. Cole 0. Miles Pollard Peter Corbin Susan A. Popkin Charles R. Eichel Dr. Ivan Schloff A Profile of Roderick Haig-Brown ...... 9 G. Dick Finlay Paul Schullery W. Michael Fitzgerald Frederic A. Sharf Joe Pisarro Arthur T. Frey Stephen Sloan Larry Gilsdorf Wallace Stenhouse, Jr. Gardner L. Grant Arthur Stern Atlantic Salmon Dressings in Steelhead Fly Fishing ... lo William Herrick Dr. Ralf Stinson Trey Combs Curtis Hill Forrest Straight Dr. Arthur Kaemmer John Swan Robert J. Kahn James Taylor Another Planet: The Old Days On the Patapedia ..... Woods King 111 Ralph J. Tingle 14 Martin D. Kline James W. Van Loan Robert F. Jones Mel Kreiger Sam Van Ness Richard F. Kress Dickson L. Whitney David B. Ledlie Earl S. Worsham Atlantic Salmon Reels of the Past ...... 18 Edward G. Zern Jim Brown OFFICERS Chairman of the Board Gallery ...... 22 Leigh H. Perkins President Foster Barn Off the Shelf: The Pacific Slope ...... 23 Vice Presidents Charles Hallock William Herrick, Arthur Stern Treasurer Museum News ...... 25 Wayne Nordberg Secretary Wallace Murray I11 Contributors ...... 28 Assistant Secretary/Clerk Charles R. Eichel ON THE COVER: STAFF Hand-colored copper engraving of Atlantic salmon fiom Sir William Executive Director Jardine's The Naturalist's Library (Edinburgh, 1833-1843). From The Sal- Donald S. Johnson ExecutiveAssistant mon Portfolio, produced by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Virginia Hulett Oceans in 1974, a copy of which was donated to the Museum by trustee Curator/DevelopmentAssistant James S. Taylor. Alanna D. Fisher Research/Publicity Joe A. Pisarro The American Fly Fisher Editor 7'he American Fly Fisher is published four times a year by the Museum at P.O. Box 42, Manchester,Vermont 05254. Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and faU. Margot Page Membership dues include the cost of a one-year subscription ($20) and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Art Director Membership rates are listed in the back of each issue. All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and materials intended for Randall R. Perkins publication in the journal should be sent to the Museum. The Museum and journal are not responsible for unsolicited ConsultingEditor manuscripts, drawings, photographs, materials, or memorabilia. The Museum cannot accept responsibility for statements Donald S. Johnson and interpretations that are wholly the author's. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless postage is provided. Copy Editor Contributions to The American Fly Fisher are to be considered gratuitous and the property of the Museum unless other- Sarah May Clarkson wise requested by the contributor. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstacts and America: History and Life. Copyright 0 1991,the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont Contributing Writer 05254. Original material appearing may not be reprinted without prior permission. Second Class Joe A. Pisarro Permit postage paid at Manchester, Vermont 05254 and additional offices (USPS 057410). Offset Preparation and Printing The American Fly Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) Lane Press, Burlington, Vermont POSTMASTER:Send address changes to The American Fly Fisher, P.O. Box 42,Manchester, Vermont 05254.

TAFF SPRING 1991 1 Classic Salmon Books

by Don Catalfimo

IN 1965, ARNOLD GINGRICH, in green pictorial buckram, and embellished was published by the Atlantic Salmon 1 writing "Literature of Angling" with photogravure illustrations, a map, Federation in 1975 in a limited edition of / for McClane's Standard Fishing etchings, portraits, heliogravure designs 1,000 copies. Composed of selections Encyclopedia, stated that a defini- and wood cuts. The copy described in the from the Atlantic Salmon Journal from tive angling bibliography would reference source Angling Books of the 1954 through 1974, the subjects include exceed 5,000 volumes in the Eng- Americas by Henry P. Bruns featured history, natural history, flies and tackle, lishRl language alone, and add over 50,000 hand-colored flies. An extremely scarce salmon lore, and salmon readings. The more if titles on ichthyology were in- book in its first edition, Colonel Siege1 of binding is exceptional and the volume is cluded. Given the publishing boom in Anglers and Shooters Press issued a slip-cased. Of all the available salmon fishing books over the last quarter cen- beautiful reprint of 250 copies in 1973. books, this comes as close to a one- tury and the doubling of scientific know- The Phair book was issued in an edi- volume library as a reader could hope for. ledge about every ten years, that estimated tion of 950, which was a significant print- It is only a short cast from a discussion number today must be astounding. ing for a Derrydale book. Additionally, a of limited editions to one of privately The subject of the Atlantic salmon has deluxe limited edition of forty was issued printed books. Some of the best writing always been one of special consideration that included a second volume featuring" about salmon, the places they are found, in terms both of angling and of literature. twelve mounts, each containing a salmon and the people who fish for them, can be Aside from some of the special fly fishing flv and samvles of the materials from found here. Most deserve the title "labor volumes containing mounts of flies and dhich it wasLmade,truly a rare jewel for of love." materials, no other aspect of fly fishing anvI flvI fisher or fine book lover. Because of unusual circumstances, two seems to have inspired its authors to such One limited edition deserves special volumes among those privately printed heights of prose, poetry,private printings, comment. not onlv because its editor had tend to stand out from their brethren. The limited editions, and examples of the such an influence on salmon fishing, but first, Salmon Fishing on Cain River, New book binder's best art. because he was also a spokesman for con- Brunswick by Lee Sturges (Chicago: R. F. For sheer lavish production, two titles, servation and a good friend to the Atlan- Seymour,iyg), was limited to fifty copies. The Ristigouche and Its Salmon Fishingby tic Salmon Federation and the American Apparently, after Sturges picked up his Dean Sage (Edinburgh, 1888) and Atlantic Museum of Fly Fishing. Additionally, the books from the printer and returned Salmon Fishing by Charles Phair (Der- scope of this work is so well chosen and home, his house burned down that night rydale, 1937), contend for top place. The uniquely broad enough as to stand as a and he was only able to save a few copies. Sage book was limited to 105 copies of one-volume reference. The Atlantic Sal- Some speculation exists as to exactly how which fifty were for sale. It was bound in mon Treasury, edited by Joseph D. Bates, many of the books perished; sporting

2 TAFF SPRING 1991 Opposite: Illustration by A. B. Frost from Kelson not only formalized the art of ments with low water by his friend, D. G. "Salmon Angling on the Restigouche" by the married wing, full-dress salmon fly, F. Rudd, titled Greased Line Fishing (1933) Dean Sage, Scribner's Magazine, May 1888. his list of patterns for most of the flies by "Jock Scott," Rudds' nom de plume, extant at the time became a standard by changed all that forever. Today, fifty- which all other lists were compared. The seven years later, salmon fishers, West book dealer Judith Bowman has docu- commerce of the British empire at its Vic- Coast steelheaders, and those of the Great mented twelve, via their presentations by torian best gave tyers access to exotic Lakes tributaries are finding Wood has a the author. Interestingly, during October many of the patterns called for, lot to teach them. Low-water patterns, of 1990, six of the existing copies were however dear in price. small flies and floating line, mended to close enough for a reunion. In addition to If Kelson gave us patterns, T. E. Pryce- control speed, are no longer a novelty. a copy in the archives of The American Tannatt's How to Dress Salmon Flies (1914) Salmon Fishing the Greased Line on Dee, Museum of Fly Fishing, aNew York dealer gave us one of the best fly-tying manuals Don, and Earn by F. Hill (1948) is icing on offered four for sale, and a copy was auc- ever written. Other stylists were influen- the cake. tioned in Massachusetts. tial by this time, so though the beauty of The foundation volume of taking sal- And, for angling bibliophiles who may the full-dress fly was preserved, Pryce- mon on dry flies is generally conceded to also be Baker Street regulars, one title Tannatt's readers were assured that it was be written by George LaBranche, with his presents a mystery of truly Holmesian not treasonous to simplify some of the The Salmon and the Dry Fly (1924). Ed- proportions. Although mentioned in more heavily dressed patterns and that ward R. Hewitt related some of his ex- some bibliographies and literature, while periences in Secrets of the Salmon (1922), researching this article the author could but LaBranche's book is the cornerstone. find no evidence that a book called Sal- The aforementioned Salmon on the Dry mon Fishingon the Restigouche, attributed Fly by M. Wertheim completes a delight- to W. S. Kies and dated 1938, has ever been ful trio. seen. There is speculation that the title Rounding out this group of epochal may refer to a periodical article, rather angling breakthroughs is TheAtlanticSal- than a book. Any readers who can shed mon by Lee Wulff (1958, revised 1983).His light on this problem are encouraged to pioneering use of light tackle for salmon do so. and the development of hitched or rif- Other noteworthy titles in the category fling flies were truly innovative break- of privately printed books include Sal- throughs. The more ordinary angler owes mon Fishing on the Grand Cascapedia by him a debt of thanks for debunking many E. W. Davis (~goq),loo copies (first print- of the myths associated with the sport. ing with 120 pages, and a second printing Clearly, salmon fishing isn't the same as of loo, same year with added material on fishing in terms of method or ex- fly patterns, 143 pages); Recollectionsby A. pectation, but reading Wulff makes it Lansing (igog), 300 copies; The Ballad of easier for the initiate to give salmon a try. Myra Gray by A. A. Fowler (1927), 250 A few volumes have carved unique copies; Salmon on the Dry Fly by M. Wer- niches for themselves. The Salmon Rivers theim (i927), 500 copies; and In Pursuit of of Iceland by R. N. Stewart (1950) appears Salar by A. W. Bissell(1966), loo copies. to be one of few full-length books on that We should not leave this topic without geographic mecca. The Fishes of New paying homage to that doyen of the England by W. C. Kendall(1935) is a spe- Grand Cascapedia, Frank Gray Griswold. cial natural history of our northeast He captures so well the heyday of private with beautiful color salmon plates water, full-dress flies, and premium tack- Illustration from "Salmon Fishing" featured in Volume 11. The Atlantic Sal- le. His titles include The Cascapedia Club by Henry P. Wellsfrom Harper's New mon, A Vanishing Species? (1968) and Sal- (1920); Observations on a Salmon River Monthly Magazine, July 1886. mon, The World's Most Harassed Fish (1921); Some Fish and Some Fishing (1921); (1980) by Anthony Netboy are powerful Fish Facts and Fancies (1926);Big and Little indictments of the ecological havoc that Fishes (1927); A Salmon River (1928); substitution for already scarce or en- has been wreaked on this fish. Salar (1929); Salmon Score of F. dangered feathers was acceptable. Salmon of the World by Ernest Gray Griswold 1920-29 (1930); The Life Although it does not outdo Pryce-Tan- Schweibert (1970) and The Salmon by R. History of the Atlantic and Pacific Salmon natt, Fly Tyingfor Salmon by Eric Taverner Haig-Brown (1974) with their accom- of Canada (with R. D. Hume, 1930); and (1939),excerpted from his mammoth 1931 panying suites of color prints reach new Memoirs of a Salmon (1931). Lonsdale Library edition, contains a fine heights of salmon art. The Art of the At- has long stood as the summary of salmon fly evolution and lantic Salmon Fly by Joseph D. Bates epitome of the fly dressers' art and as art color plates that are a welcome addition (1987) and The Art of the Classic Salmon forms themselves. Three volumes are to anytyer's library. Fly by Ken Sawada (1989) detail the his- noteworthy. The Salmon Fly by George For the salmon angler, the sunk fly tory and glory of the salmon fly with Kelson (1895 and 1979) has held the dis- across and down reigned supreme from some of the most eye-popping photog- tinction of being called "bible" since its the time of "Treatyse of Fishing with an raphy ever. publication. Although scooped by J. H. Angle" (1496). Later in the season with Books like these (and this list is by no Hale in 1892, Kelson's sumptuous volume low, warm water and dour fish, anglers means exhaustive) make it easier to un- and his previous writings unequivocally tied flies and grumbled into their pints. derstand why salar, the leaper, is called secured the title for himself. The publication of A. H. E. Wood's experi- king of the freshwater . -

TAFF SPRING 1991 3 The Salmon

.-...... -- .

Hand-colored copper engraving drawn by J. Stewart, c. 1844fiom Oliver Goldsmith's A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (London, 1873).

THEEXTRAORDINARY "Salmon Portfolio" from which this feature was as- sembled was created by the government of Canada to celebrate the history of the salmon and focus world attention on . Approximately 1,500 copies were presented to heads of government attending the International Law of the Seas Conference in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1974. "The Salmon Portfolio" is dedicated by Canada to the salmon of the Pacific and Atlantic, and to those countries and people seeking to protect them. It was donated to the American Museum of Fly Fishing in 1988 by trustee James S. Taylor of Santa Barbara, California. Featuring a limited edition of Roderick Haig-Brown's book The Salmon, and notable art prints by contemporary Canadian artists Bill Reid, David Denbigh, and Rudi Kovach, the oversize portfolio (17 inches by 22 inches) also showcases handsome reproductions of antique chromolithographs by Reverend Houghton, from his book British Fresh-water Fishes (1879), one of the finest Victorian colored-plate publications, as well as the hand-colored copper engravings of J. Stewart (c. 1840) and Sir William Jardine (1833-1843). The

4 TAFF SPRING 1991 I Portfolio

portfolio and limited edition book are an admirable example of a govern- ment's interest in and commitment to an important natural, cultural, and historical resource. We are proud to house "The Salmon Portfolio" and are grateful to James Taylor for his generous donation. Reprinted by permission of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"The Salmon," a - screen print by Bill Reid, well-known Canadian gold and silversmith, printmaker, wood carver, and argillite sculptor.

THE LEGACY

OFALL THE LIVING CREATURES who shared the world with the early men of the Northwest Coast, the most important to them were the five species of salmon, who every year came home from the sea to provide the main food for the long winter months. Their arrival was greeted with great ceremony, and they were welcomed as the honored guests they were, and suitably thanked for their sacrifice. Such important creatures naturally figured in many of the legends which explained the arrival of man on earth and the beginnings of the great families. In some cases, the salmon were the most important figures in these dramas, and were used as heraldic crests of the men and women whose origins they helped to explain. One of the myths tells of a boy, found in the belly of a huge spring salmon, who was adopted by the chief of a village and raised as his heir. Later he was to return to his home village, that of the Spring Salmon people, and there marry the beautiful and powerful Woman of the Sea, and eventually return with her and her magic to his adopted home, to found the family which thereafter used the salmon as their crest. In Bill Reid's design, above, the salmon is shown with the image of the young man inside it, as it was told in the old story. Even today, many of the native people of the West Coast make their living from the rich salmon harvest, and in many villages the salmon is still preserved by smoking to form a valued and important part of their food supply.

TAFF SPRING 1991 5 Chrornolitkograpkfiom Reverend Houghton's British Fresh-water Fishes (Edifiburgk, 1873).

THE ATLANTIC SALMON

THE ATLANTIC SALMON once swarmed in the rivers of the Northeast of America and the Northwest of Europe. From New York, every suitable river to Labrador welcomed the returning salmon, while identical scenes were repeated from Portugal to the north of Scandinavia. As late as the 1860s, there was a massive Indian salmon fishery in Lake Ontario, almost a thousand miles further inland than the southern limits of today's range. In Europe, salmon of the Rhine graced the tables of the Roman emperors, and in the Middle Ages, workers were guaranteed not to be forced to eat salmon more than one day per week. Today, the salmon are disappearing from rivers which once welcomed "the leaper" by the millions. Belatedly, the countries whose streams produce the salmon stocks are trying desperately to preserve the essential spawning beds. By rehabilitating streams now devoid of salmon, the original range is being slowly reestablished. The life cycle of the Atlantic salmon is as complex as it is unique. Born in , passing through estuaries and coastal zones to the pastures of the sea, back to the river of birth, the Atlantic salmon must be protected and managed in all three areas. To ignore any link in its chain of life is to condemn the Atlantic salmon to the same fate as all other over-exploited species.

6 TAFF SPRING 1991 Hand-colored copper engraving by Sir William Jardinefiom The Naturalist's Library (Edinburgh, 1833-1843).

THE CYCLE

THELOWER RIVER in British Columbia is one of a kind among the rivers of the world, unique for the sheer volume of a single species that it propagates. This is one of earth's special life cradles. A place like the tropical rain forest, and certain areas of ocean, in which the pilot light seems to burn more tenaciously. The human visitor is aware of something different in the air. A message comes from the river of the detached indifference of nature to man. The importance of homo sapiens is small amidst the immensity of presence of the dominant species. Some call the Adams River, "the world's richest 500 acres." Probably they do not exaggerate: it has been estimated that at any one time, a million fish, weighing on an average five pounds each, are in the river. At spawning time each year the desperate pageant of destruction and renewal is celebrated. Tribe after tribe of salmon swim up the river fighting desperately for a spawning place. Regardless of the success or undoing of its mission, it is the end of the journey for each; the arriving salmon will die. Much new life is extinguished at its very beginning. Even though the female will try to protect the nest, fresh incoming waves of fish may sweep it away. For well over a month the riverbed gravel is pounded until the destroyed spawn are as thick in the river as sand and gravel itself. Yet from this chemistry of collision another generation somehow emerges and grows to replay the drama at a future time.

TAFF SPRING 1991 Roderick Haig-Brown in his library, 1976.

Fall Defined

To soME P E o PLE, the thought that the salmon, all Pacific salmon of all species, die very soon after spawning is a depressing one. They see in it only decay and waste, a sort of pathetic frustration of life. This is a natural view, but it does not question deeply enough; the end of the salmon is not death and corruption, but only fall, the autumn of their cycle. They come to the spawning gravels in all their brilliant colors-reds, browns, greens, gray and black and golden. Like the autumn leaves above them, they have their time of fierce glory. Then the frosts and the rains and the winds come. The leaves become torn and sodden and dulled and in their time they fall, covering the ground, drifting with the stream currents, piling against the rocks and shallows. But within the trees life is still strong and self-renewing. As the winds stir and drift the dying leaves, so the waters drift and stir the dying salmon against the gray-brown gravels of the stream beds. But under those gravels life is strong and secret and protected in the buried eggs, the real life of the race. Fungus grows on the emptied bodies, as it grows among the fallen leaves; they collect in the eddies and strand on the gravel bars and the bacteria of change work in them to make a new fertility. In spring life will burst from the gravel as it bursts again from the trees, into the massive yield of the new cycle. Death is seldom more fleeting or more fertile than this.

(From 's Fall by Roderick Haig-Brown, 1964. Reprinted by permission of Valerie Haig-Brown.)

8 TAFF SPRING 1991 A Profile Roderick Haig-Brown

by Joe A. Pisarro

ARNOLDGINGRICH ONCE RECALLED a lunch with Alfred A. convinced him that this was where he wanted to make his home Knopf during which he was attempting to persuade the pub- and it remained his home for the rest of his life. There, he and lisher to bring out a trade edition of the privately printed, his wife Ann raised their family and there he wrote most of his limited edition of The Gordon Garland. To bolster his case, books, along with numerous articles and essays. It was largely Gingrich handed Knopf a list of some thirty-three of the day's through those writings, lectures, speeches, and his indomitable leading angling writers who had contributed to The Gordon passion for the environment and its resources that he did so Garland, brought out to commemorate the fiftieth anniver- much to raise the consciousness of so many people and spur sary of the death of Theodore Gordon. Knopf, no sportsman, them into effective conservation activity. Single minded as he was about the environment and its studied the list and handed it back to Gingrich, remarking, protection, his interests were wide and varied. During World "I've no doubt that to you fishers every last one of these people War 11, he served in the Canadian army, rising to the rank of is a household name, but I've never heard of any of 'em, except major. In turn, he was a magistrate and then a judge of the of course, Haig-Brown." Provincial Court of British Columbia. In 1952, he was awarded Of course. Except Haig-Brown. an honorary LLB. by the University of British Columbia, and Haig-Brown's place in the larger world of literature is from 1969 to 1972, he was Chancellor of the University of beyond question. It was Gingrich, too, who characterized Haig- Victoria. Brown as "fly-fishing's ambassador to the world of belles let- Two years after his death in 1976 the area along the banks of tres." He then added, "Not in every generation, nor even in the Adams River, one of the mighty Fraser's most important every century, does fly-fishing enjoy the services of a writer sockeye spawning tributaries, was dedicated to Roderick Haig- whose work is universally negotiable as literature, quite apart Brown in honor of his lifelong devotion to the salmon and his from the happenstance that its subject is angling. But our time enormous contribution to the restoration and conservation of is lucky in this respect, because we have one in Haig-Brown." those stocks and their streams. By the time of his death in 1976, Haig-Brown had published Though he loved all rivers- "water in its loveliest formn-he twenty-five books. His first, published while he was still in his called them, his most beloved remained the Campbell, just as native England in 1931, was Silver, the life story of an Atlantic the Pacific salmon would remain his most favored among the salmon in the British Isles. His love of salmon, both the Atlantic finny silver warriors. This he expressed in a paean to them: and Pacific varieties, continued throughout his lifetime. Probably no individual did more to raise the alarm on behalf of the preservation and restoration of salmon stocks than did PACIFIC SALMON he. In his last six years, he was a dedicated, active member of the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission. River-born fugitives, red muscled under sheathing silver In 1974, a magnificent portfolio was presented to each Alive with lights of ocean's changing colors; delegate of the International Law of the Seas Conference at The range of deeps and distances through wild salt years Caracas, Venezuela. Included was a limited-edition copy of The Salmon, in which Haig-Brown described Pacific and Atlantic Has gathered the sea's plenty into your pe$ection. salmon resources, examined their cultural legacy, and presented the need to maintain the resources on national and Fullness is the long return from dark depths international levels. Rendering toll of itself to the searching nets Born in Sussex, England, in 1908, Haig-Brown first visited Surging on to strife on brilliant gravel shallows North America in 1926 and returned in 1932 to settle in British That opened long ago behind the failing ice. Columbia. A busy and varied life followed. By the age of twenty-four, he had worked as a logger, trapper, cougar hunter, In violence over the gravel, under the burn of fall, tourist guide, and boxer. And all the while, he worked at his Fullness spends itself; thrusting forth new life writing. To nurse in the stream'sjlow. The old life, His first view of the Campbell River in British Columbia Used utterly, yields itselfamong the river rocks of home.

TAFF SPRING 1991 9 CONTEMPORARY STEELHEAD SPEY FLIES Top row: Gray Heron, Orange Heron by Syd Glasso. Brown Heron, Orange Heron by Pat Crane. Second row: Purple Spey, Gray Heron, Claret Spey, Gray Heron (reduced) by Steve Gobin. Third row: Orange Heron #I, Orange Heron #2, Silver Streak, Gold Streak by Joe Howell. Fourth row: Black Skagit Spey, Orange Skagit Spey, Yellow Skagit Spey, White Skagit Spey by John Farrar. Fifih row: Boulder Creek, Car Body, Dark Daze, Dragon's Tooth by Mike Kinney.

10 TAFF SPRING 1991 Photograph by Paul Boyer I I Atlantic Salmon Dressings Steelhead Fly ~ishing

by Trey Combs

NINETEENTH-CENTURYAtlantic of bright, showy steelhead bucktails be- became an early favorite of Grey's. salmon dressings came to steel- came a distinctly American art form and Not all the steelhead flies being sold heading embodying the most symbolized the sport of steelhead fly fish- were imported. Commercial was aristocratic of all angling heri- ing. In these many dressings, Atlantic sal- always something of a cottage industry, tages. Slips of feathers from a mon flies survived mostly as trace ele- often a sideline occupation that attracted dozen different exotic birds were ments. women who could work from their crafted into a single salmon fly that was Two men in particular, Sam Wells and homes. Overhead was minimal, the flies an attractor of fish and a metaphor for Joe Wharton, strongly influenced the readily marketed through local sporting peerage, propriety, and mystique. A Jock early development of steelhead flies. goods stores. Scott or a Thunder and Lightning spoke Wells' shop at 315 F Street in Eureka, The Bunnell sisters, Ardath and Irene, to us, grounded us, gave our sport a California, serviced fly fishermen bound grew up in Goldendale, Washington, and necessary infusion of soul. We traded on for the Eel River, certainly the first learned their craft from Wharton and this association, and our steelhead flies, American river where summer-run steel- Wells. They ran a mail-order business, always the product of plebeian enterprise, head were routinely pursued with a fly. Oregon Waters Fly Company, from became more than graceless confections. His own Wells Special, John BennS Rail- Portland, Oregon, and called their Married strips of dyed goose, silk tags, bird, and Sumner Carson's Royal Coach- product "Water Call 'Scotch tied' Flies." ostrich butts, heads of peacock herl, and man were locally popular steelhead dress- These flies reflected the fashion of the golden crests embellished steel- ings. Beginning in 1922, Wells had these 193os, as steelhead flies became hairwings, head ties, bastard creations that neverthe- and other steelhead patterns tied for him a bucktail wing vastly out of proportion less required a thorough knowledge of fly in Ireland. "Imported flies" meant to the body, three or four times the length tying. A British gilly would have con- British, and that mattered greatly to West of the hook. Anglers found the dressings sidered them coarse as he noted parts Coast anglers taking their first tentative extremely unstable, a characteristic which missing from the classic originals, but the steps toward sorting out steelhead with a led to the use of double hooks, especially flies gladdened our untutored frontier fly. According to Wells' letterhead, he on the Rogue. Among the fifteen "steel- anglers and filled them with confidence. could advance the angler's needs with head" patterns the Bunnell sisters listed in A steelhead fly is nothing if it can't do that. "Hardy Reels, Scotch Tapered Lines and their catalog were the Durham Ranger The earliest "fly shops" were hardware Leaders, English , and Many High and Jock Scott as simplified - stores that sold fishing and hunting licen- Class Necessities." wings, and a hairwing Silver Doctor-all ses. At a back counter beneath elk heads Joe Wharton's store changed from Victorian salmon flies. and stuffed salmon, one could purchase hardware to sporting goods, and by the Glen Evans, Inc., a tackle and lure anything from deer rifles to snelled trout 1930s his location at 104 South Sixth manufacturer in Caldwell, Idaho, was the flies imported from Ireland and Scotland. Street in Grants Pass, Oregon, was a largest commercial tyer in the West In the larger sizes, these wet flies were landmark. He helped outfit Zane Grey for through the 1940s and 1950s. John Joy among the first steelhead patterns, the an expedition down the Rogue in 1926, worked for Evans and had invented the , Black Gnat, Professor, and Grey had urged him to begin stock- sewing machine "vise," a trundle opera- and Red Ibis, for example. Steelhead flies ing English and Scottish fly tackle. The tion in which the hook spun around and would come to have red tails and white famous writer told about his Rogue ad- could be dressed in seconds. Eventually, wings and, as often as not, cheeks of ventures in Tales of Freshwater Fishing over one hundred women tied flies for jungle cock. When they came to be con- (Harper and Brothers, 1928) and Whar- Evans on these machines, including Joy's structed of bucktail and chenille, these ton became a celebrity. He took to calling daughter, Audrey. simple trout flies were easily converted. himself the "Sage of the Rogue," and Audrey Joy left Idaho in 1945 to find The elaborate Atlantic salmon patterns wrote extravagantly about its steelhead. work in Portland, Oregon. At the time, were not. For more than thirty years Wharton's "#I Special" became the Rogue Polly Rosborough was quitting his job as beginning in the 193os, the proliferation River Special, and his and Red a in the sporting goods section of

TAFF SPRING 1991 11 Among thefifteen "steelhead" patterns listed in the 1930s adver- H~nker- Plan wlny Slralhenri ~ly plclu tising brochurefi.om the Bunnell A very 4lrrtiy heavily dressed fly especlnlly tied on extra ilout t d c hollow poml lmporled hools sisters' Oregon Waters Fly Com- slandard Scotch and Americn~paitems pany, Portland, for their "Water Call Flies," were featherwings Durham Ranger and Jock Scott, and a hairwing Silver Doctor- all Victorian salmonj7ies.

Siondmd and spenol pntieins

Meier and Frank, a Portland department store, and the job became available to Joy. ol lag ai shmt ?'reamer zn bucktoil, polnr 01 squirrel For more than twenty years, she tied at her 'ipsciaf patterns sewing machine-an estimated 300,000 flies, and her little booth became a shrine. Flies- ~,n~~~hio 5 jock SCO~~ S a?mrd w'l* -i IF 'iockk or bucklall streamers or lta* inr-fled o. She is best remembered for refining the uprr~k!-1-9- ii IT aoci:4 @eil farmed 'iy Bodtes li~rs!quo1 !: s.li Rogue River Special and Juicy Bug to =ken e ~l-~e-- yor~Ringed or I d e hook, Fnnnr pqev*. feo'iler or ha~ror cornbtnat~orlea!her and hat- streon more compact, double hook dressings. ers Many weems tungle cock trzm Perhaps the most influential of the sporting goods dealers was Shoff's Tackle Bistia~flpBass. Salmon and Steelhaad Paflerns in Kent, Washington. Though little known outside of Puget Sound, Clarence Shoff wholesaled flies and fly-tying materials to many other businesses, in- cluding Sam Wells, Joe Wharton, and C. Jim Pray. By the 1930s) Zane Grey was RI. OI*,,d* K2.g rlungquu;, ordering flies directly from Shoff. In a handwritten letter dated April 7, 1935, Grey wrote: I rec'd the 6 dozen flies and they sure are helped to sink it, but this made it even less swell. I confess that collecting flies is a pas- cherished fly patterns, home grown and sion with me. But some of them I use. Tie winged with bucktail or polar bear. Jim stable, and not uncommonly, the fly me a dozen Gold Demon Bucktails for the Pray's Optics and Thor, the Umpqua Spe- passed through a hard swing upside size hook enclosed. Also, one dozen each of cial and Skunk from the North Umpqua, down. Hair Coachman in 10-8-6-4 and the size I Ken McLeod's Skykomish Sunrise and Anglers sought to fish these flies well enclose. Put in a little more bucktail. Purple Peril, Enos Bradner's Brad's Brat, sunk because of their general conviction that the fly needed to be carried to the This last request is interesting. At the and Clarence Shoff's Polar Shrimp were standards that would soon beget hun- steelhead, that it was less effective-or not time, Washington steelhead fly-fishers effective at all-when working in the were tying their flies on larger hooks and dreds of similar patterns. The steelhead bucktail was something surface film. Gradually, our perceptions along sparser lines. Grey, still operating changed. from a Californialsouthern Oregon of a one-dimensional approach. It was usually fished on a sinking line, common- Twenty years ago, steelhead fly fishing frame of reference. wanted flies with began a tremendous growth which cor- longer streamer-style wings and tied on ly a shooting head system by the 1960s,the fly was typically weighted for summer responded to a truly remarkable renais- regular-length hooks. sance in steelhead fly tying. For inspira- Zane Grey's next letter to Shoff, dated fishing, and heavily weighted for winter rivers. Hook size ran to 6s, qs, and 2s in tion, tyers returned to their spiritual May 22, 1935, illustrates the West Coast roots, to the Atlantic salmon flies of both angler's ambivalence about Atlantic sal- regular length, with turned down eye. Its typical symmetry was a fairly long hackle the past and the present. They dusted off mon dressings that persisted in steelhead- Greased Line Fishing by Jock Scott (pub- ing. tail, a wing that came to the end of the tail, and hackle that reached just to the point lished in England in 1933), studied it care- One dozen each of numbers 6,4,2,01, size of the hook. Overdressed by today's fully, and tied low-water flies that func- hooks, Jock Scott pattern only with gold standards, it did not penetrate strong cur- tioned as beautifully as theywere formed. body (not gilt) with red streamer running rents well on a floating or slow sinking silk Since the 193os, hairwing Atlantic sal- out from the body. line, and was likely to plane across the mon flies, particularly those from New By the 194os, steelheading had its own surface on its side. Weighting the fly Brunswick's Miramichi, had been slowly

12 TAFF SPRING 1991 Joe Wharton was a strong influ- ence on the early development of steelhead flies. His store's location on Sixth Street in Grants Pass, Oregon, became a landmark and he became something of a celebrity him- self in the salmon world of the 1920s and 1930S, ou$tting Zane Grey, writing "extravagantly " about steelhead, and calling himself "Sage of the Rogue."

replacing the classic full-dressed Atlantic intentional drag on a downstream swing outstanding Spey fly dressers than any salmon patterns. Harry Smith's Black and "skated" in a manner impossible to other area of the world. Bear series, John 's lovely full- achieve with Wulffs and Steelhead Bees. We had gleaned so much from Atlantic collared patterns, and Roy Angus It, too, could be given a "hitch" and made salmon anglers that by the 197os, our Thompson's now famous Rat series (RAT nearly unsinkable. heads were filled with many new ap- for his initials), were examples of highly These developments in Canada ig- proaches to tying and fishing steelhead original Atlantic salmon ties using bear, nored Scottish Spey flies, an omission flies. New materials and traditional ma- squirrel tail, and fox, but not bucktail. At resolved by Syd Glasso of Forks, Wash- terials, dyed in exciting hot colors, were the same time, complicated married- ington, with Spey flies that are still among appearing, challenging the imagination wing dressings were dressed down- the most beautiful in steelheading. So, still further. Using Atlantic salmon dress- "reducedn-and, when possible, simply unlike many of the other patterns from ings for their graceful proportions and tied with wings of hair. These and other England that passed through Atlantic better swimming characteristics, anglers dressings were given a "Portland hitch," Canada and then on to the West Coast, began the cross-pollination that has two overhand knots secured behind the Spey fly design went directly from the created a generation of steelhead flies at head so that the leader came from the British Isles to the North Pacific rain once new and classic. - throat of the fly, forcing the fly into the forests. Syd inspired an army of dis- (01991 by Trey Combs. Adapted from the surface film where it caused a visible and ciplined, studious followers, and I think forthcoming book Steelhead Fly Fishing: The erratic wake. By the 196os, a spun deer the Northwest-including British Co- Great Rivers by permission of Lyons & Bur- hair dry fly, the Bomber, was fished under lumbia-has a larger number of truly ford, Publishers, New York.) Steelhead as Pacific Salmon IN 1989, the American Fisheries Society's North Atlantic population which -led Dolly Varden char, and the Committee on Names of Fishes an- directly to the Atlantic salmon and the found in the Soviet Union's Kamchatka nounced that the trout species naturally brown trout, and a Pacific population. peninsula. He named the rainbow Salmo indigenous to western North America The Pacific group split again about ten mykiss, the species a transliteration of the and the northern Pacific Ocean drain- million years ago, one group becoming Russian. Investigators have now clearly ages, the rainbow, cutthroat, golden, western trout, the other Pacific salmon. established that S. mykiss and S. gairdneri Apache, Mexican golden, and Gila would Because taxonomists seek evolutionary are identical. When the generic name was no longer have the generic name of relationships upon which to base their changed to , the species Salmo. Henceforth, these species would classifications, the decision to place name mykiss was retained, because it be classed as Oncorhynchus, the genera of western trout with Pacific salmon was predated gairdneri and thus had priority. Pacific salmon. The Atlantic salmon and logical. Other lines of comparative scien- The steelhead of western North Amer- brown trout remained Salmo. My steel- tific investigation such as chromosome ica ascend cold water rivers from Cook head, Salmo gairdneri, a name fixed in counts, DNA, and electrophoretic analysis Inlet off Anchorage, Alaska, to the Big Sur Northwest history, became the incompre- of proteins support the findings of the coast south of San Francisco. Their range hensible and largely unpronounceable paleoicthyologists. Outward habits and once extended south to rivers in Baja Oncorhynchus mykiss. general appearance aside, the trout of California del Norte. Loss of Mexican They based their decision on a more western North America and eastern Rus- and southern California steelhead was complete discovery and interpretation of sia have more physical characteristics in due to the partial-to-complete loss of fossil records. The common ancestor of common with Pacific salmon than with their spawning rivers to a myriad of ur- today's trout and salmon lived some Atlantic trout and salmon. ban and rural uses. T.C. twenty million years ago. A major In 1792, Johann Walbaum described (From Steelhead Fly Fishing: The Great Rivers branching split this family into a five species of North Pacific salmon, the by Trey Combs.)

TAFF SPRING 1991 13 In the early i93os, thefishing on the Patapedia was "stupendous." Albert Berol recalls they caught morefish than they knew what to do with, salting them down in barrels for theirguides to eat in the winter. Another Planet: The Old Days on the Patapedia by Robert E Jones

Living testimony to a world long before roads were constructed along it, and MEMORYIN SOME CASES has a wicked gone is contained in the rare foot- at an era of leisure and privilege where way of playing false with the past, editing age of a VtIS tape donated to the the family's (and their guides') transporta- out the bad parts and preserving only the American Museum of Fly Fishing tion was a comfortable houseboat pulled good. Anglers are more prone to this form in 1990 by Albert Berol of Bedford upstream by a team of draft horses, who of retrospective enhancement than most, Hills, New York. Composed of clips staunchly navigated through the breast- as in "You should have been here last edited from his family? home movies that high, boulder-studded water, not on paths year." But were the rivers of yore really were photographed on salmon trips on the alongside the river. We are even witness to that much better in an objective sense-as Patapedia and Restigouche Rivers, near the the somewhatstartlingsight of thepowerfiul full of big, strong, readily-taken fish as old border of Quebec and New Brunswick, horses in harness dragging the hitched anglers' memories insist? Canada, in the1930s, the moving images on canoes upstream, the family calmly Judging by the evidence on a videotape film provide a breathtaking record of time to the great salmon rolling around them. recently donated to the Museum, of sal- and place, unlike the sometimes static We asked the noted writer (and Museum mon fishing more than half a century ago evidence of the printed page. friend) Robert E Jones to view the videotape in the Canadian Maritimes, you'd better The videotape gives us a fascinating look and give us a sense of this unique window believe it. at a splendid, productive salmon river in time. M.P. In the early 193os, Edwin M. Berolz-

14 TAFF SPRING 1991 Top: The "Silver Grey" houseboat, built on a coal scow, offered a combined living/ dining room, a bunk room with four berths, a kitchen in the rear, and a roof sundeck that doubled as luggage/supply area. It was towed upriver by a team of horses, and guided downriver by a long rudder and by guides standing aft with poles to keep itfrom being broken up by large boulders. Below: "You needed good horses for that job," Berol tells us. The draft horses worked as a team, deftly supervised by teamster Jack Murray. Standing onboard a separate scow for their downstream drift, they were quieted by nosebags of feed.

by their entourage, head guide Guy Wyers, his brothers Lal and Jack, cousin Harvey Wyers, cook Tom Lake and-of all things- a teamster, named Jack Mur- ray. The teamster was necessary because of the draft horses, which pulled the houseboat on which the "sports" trav- eled, along with their luggage and canoes, down the Restigouche to the Million Dol- lar Pool and then up the swift, narrow Patapedia to one after another of four campsites. Judging by the film record, Berolz- heimer's wife, Myra, was a confident angler, an authoritative woman who favored cloches, long-skirted jackets, riding breeches, and elegant knee-high boots for informal wear. His daughter, Margot, then probably in her twenties, was dark-haired, slim, and a bit shy, per- haps in the minxish way of young women in that period. In the two passages of the film devoted to her, showing" her swim- heimer and Otto von Kienbusch leased a on the Patapedia, transferred in 1988 to ming in fast fifty-degree water and then fifty-mile stretch of the Patapedia River- magnetic videotape by his son Albert, paddling or poling a canoe in a quiet a tributary of the famed Restigouche- opens a window on a forgotten angling backwater for her father's proud cine- alternating months on the water each wonderland of bright water, big woods, matic album. with her "guide stretched out June and July, the height of the salmon strong men, capable women, and pristine at leisure in the bow, puffing a cigarette, run. Their predecessor on the lease had salmon whose long-gone leaps at the end Margot appears far pluckier than most of been none other than Edward Ringwood of a lacquered silk line can still bring tears the "feisty" young ladies of this feminized Hewitt, the crusty nabob of the Never- to the eyes. era. Berolzheimer's son- who has mini- sink, who along with Preston Jennings Berolzheimer brought his family with malized his name to E. Albert Berol and Ray Bergman was one of the most him on their annual salmon outings, nowadays and who provides a poignant influential fly fishermen of the era. For- driving up throughMaine from New York "voice-over" narration of the tape in a tunately for posterity Berolzheimer had City, crossing the border into New Bruns- New York accent as -gravellv as the Pat- been bitten by the home-movie bug and wick at Van BurenISt. Leonard, thence apedia in spate- was then probably in his could ply his primitive Bell & Howell as north to Kedgwick, New Brunswick, late twenties or early thirties, a tall, strong, effectively as he could his Leonard rods. where the river of that name joined the cocksure youth who often slept on the The footage he shot ofthose halcyon days Little Restigouche. There they were met sandbars in a pup tent (rather than in the

TAFF SPRING 1991 15 "Athletic and wiry" head guide Guy Wyers and teamster Jack Murrayfighting ofithe rocks going downriver, which re- quired swift reflexes and brute strength. The most dangerous time of the year was late July when the river was low and the rocks more exposed. Their duties some- times required them to lever large rocks out of the way of the scow.

four-bunk bedroom of the houseboat) flipping a fourteen-ounce, fifteen-foot Technically, the most surprising thing and pitched in with the guides shifting German-silver-ferruled Leonard split- is that these reels of ancient film, which rocks out of the channel for the boat's bamboo rod as familiarly as if it were a play for nearly an hour, have held up so passage in shoal waters. wire egg-white whisk; Albert battling well over all these years. Edwin Berolz- Indeed, Albert's narration is as valuable back-to-back salmon (the largest he heimer must have had a natural's eye for as the film itself. It is informative-telling caught, he tells us, was thirty-sixpounds); composition and tone, as well as high- us among other things that the house- two guides straining to shoulder a pole quality film. Many of the scenes, looking boat, "The Silver Gray," was built on the from which hang eight salmon, all of a up or downriver, into or away from the hull of an old Campbellton, New Bruns- size to make one weep. Albert regrets kill- natural light, pulsate vividly with the glit- wick, coal scow; naming the luxury sal- ing so many fish in those easy days, but ter of bright, moving water or the slow mon camps the Berolzheimers drifted apologizes by saying that those caught moving shadows of the forest highlighted past on the Restigouche en route down- early on the trip were salted down so that in one instance by the scuttling flight of a stream to the ~ata~edia;gauging the the guides could eat them during the family of -probably mergansers- speed of the smaller river at five m.p.h.; winter (the later fish, caught in the last surprised by "The Silver Gray" around a and lauding the horsework necessary in day or two of the trip, were taken to sudden bend. The heavily-wooded banks combatting the water in the long, up- Matapedia, packed in snow and shipped of the Patapedia dusk and shiver in the river pullias well as humorous. During home for the Berolzheimers' own delec- timeless wind, throwing off subtle, shift- Margot's canoeing sequence, he com- tation). ing coruscations of light and shadow that ments in deadpan: "He [the guide] has At one point in the tape, Edwin's would do credit to a Monet or a Cezanne.

more guts than I would, knowing the brother Alfred-"He was mostlv, a gunu "You get a little flavor of life on the talents of the boatman. But she did pretty man," our narrator explains- drops by river," Albert muses during one of these well, only upset the canoe two or three the houseboat for a visit and manages" to idyllic passages. "It was usually pretty times." And of their chef, the only tie into a glistening, broad-sided salmon cool. The weather was beautiful. At night "Frenchman" in the party, he notes, "Tom that he subdues in short order, upon it was quite cool-nothing to stop it com- was a pretty fair cook-he could open which the guide gaffs the fish and finishes ing down from the North Pole." But he cans well, and it was difficult to tell his it with five crisp blows of a makeshift doesn't softpedal the black flies, which coffee from his tea." "priestn-a hunk of driftwood from the came out in force at dusk. A few scenes Ah, the old humor! river. It all looks so easy. show Myra Berolzheimer, clad like a Mar- But it is the salmon that make this film "We used gaffs in those days, not nets," tian in headnet and long gloves, casting memorable. Albert tells us that, during Albert savs., , "and I do not like it." He the dry fly in the gloaming, hip-deep in the early 1930s at least, they averaged pauses for a moment then adds: "It's rushing water. "No matter how many twenty-two pounds ("which in this day much cleaner to net them. " times I lookat these pictures," Albert says and age is fantastic"), and that his father, And at times he seems to doubt the quietly, "the more thrill I get out of them whenever he'd had enough of pulling evidence of his own eyes as to the size of . . . . Edwin got it all-he didn't miss a them, had no problem in traveling up or the fish. "Of course," he cautions, "you trick." down the river with his movie camera and know that any salmon you catch weighs Fish rise with sudden, heart-stopping recording one or another of the party more, after a few hours or days, than when swirls in a quiet evening pool. A few large fighting big fish. We see wife Myra casting you catch it. That's the psychological are dancing in the twilight-a from a canoe, with La1 Wyers in the stern, truth. Not factual." spinner fall? You can see the long shapes

16 TAFF SPRING 1991 Top: When the houseboat beached at a camping site, the horses towed the canoes upstream for salmon fishing, saving the guides from having to pole canoes up the rapid-flowing river. They waded halfthe time, and fished from canoes the rest.

Below: Albert Berol, the son of Edwin Berolzheimer, dressed in a parka to ward off the evening chill. He says about his fatherjfilms, "Considering how long ago they were taken, they're really beautiful. Edwin got everything in there. . . he didn't miss a trick."

can almost smell its pungent, nostalgic, coal-tar reek), stagged whipcord trousers, and "high-top" lace-up boots reaching nearly to the knee with heavy wool stock- ings folded down over the uppers. In the marvelous fish-fighting sequences they hover quietly behind the grim-faced anglers, gaffs winking bright at the ready, perhaps muttering a few low words of advice or encouragement. And when the gaff strikes home, it never misses. "Believe me," Albert Berol says in con- clusion, his gritty voice heavy with sup- pressed emotion, "if you didn't have a group of men who knew that river-going downriver and upriver, and angling and gaffing and all about this sport-you'd be in real trouble. They were real pros. Espe- cially Guy.. .. Hard work, that business." Houseboats like "The Silver Gray" no longer ply the Patapedia or the kesti- gouche. Highways and helicopters have rendered them and their draft-horse of salmon cruising, slow and ghostly in were a natural part of themn-or else propulsion obsolete. Most guides now- the thickening gloom, truculent as they fighting off the boulders that threatened adays prefer the outboard motor to the swirl to smash the fallen naturals. "Isn't to gut "The Silver Gray" during fast, tur- push pole. The once-empty empyrean that a beautiful picture?" our narrator bulent downstream runs in the thirty- over the rivers-empty but for the flight asks at one point. It is the lower river at foot houseboat. of the raven or the flash of the king- dusk. "Might as well be on another They are tall, wiry, weathered-looking fisher-is now regularly streaked with the planet." men, these guides, stoic of countenance, contrails of Montreal-bound jetliners But Albert Berol, from the vantage possessed of a natural dignity and the bellowing in from London. Salmon rods point of his old age, reserves his greatest poise of strong bodies, dark-faced from are far shorter and lighter than Edwin respect for the family's skilled, hard- exposure to sun and wind, perhaps a bit Berolzheimer's old Leonards, and so are working guide crew. Scene after scene dour in a manner befitting their Scots the salmon. But then again, an angler shows them lining their heavy, cedar- heritage-canvas-shirted men puffing doesn't have to fight as many of them each ribbed, canvas-hulled canoes up snarling pipes, wearing battered fedoras or Aussie- day-there are far fewer fish in the rivers. rapids at a brisk wallung pace, the steel- -style bush hats with one side of the brim An hour spent with this wonderful film shod poles whirling like parade-ground pinned up, the clothing and men both will show just how much we have lost. batons in their sure hands-"Those poles stained with old-fashioned fly dope (you "Another planet" indeed. e Atlantic Salmon Reels of the Past

Text by Jim Brown Photographs by Bob O'Shaughnessy

IT HAS FREQUENTLY BEEN SAID i that the sole purpose of a reel is to store line. This may be true in some kinds of fishing, but it is distinctly not the case for Atlantic -1 salmon fishing. The Atlantic sal- mon is strong and qui;kenough to empty a fly line and backing from a reel in a single rush. Most salmon fishermen have experienced something like this, and it is the chief reason why there is such a demand for the high-performance sal- mon reels by modern reelmakers like Early Spike-mount Reel. British, Bogdan, Fin-nor, and Seamaster. Such c. 1810; 2%"~2%"; 10% oz. reels are more than line storage contain- ers; they possess excellent drags, operate smoothly and durably, and are efficiently through a hole in the rod butt. The reel is designed. then fastened by a wing nut that threads G. C. Furman Salmon or Salt- Of course the salmon reel is not a up the spike until the reel is firmly in water Reel. American, c. 1826; modern invention; it has been made and place. Very little is known of the origin of 3"x 1%"; 16 02. used for more than three hundred years, the spike-mount reel. Although it appears and ideas about what constitutes a top- to be a design of substantial age, it is also quality reel have varied considerably over listed in some British tackle catalogs as This refers to the owner, Grover Coe this time. The American Museum of Fly late as the 1880s where it is referred to as Furman (1793-1856?), a merchant from Fishing is fortunate to possess a large col- an "Irish pattern." New York City and uncle to William Fur- lection of Atlantic salmon reels that in- Can you imagine the angler who used man (1819-i893), the pioneering fish cul- cludes some of the finest British and this reel in 1810? He was possibly on leave turist. The Furman reel shows some American designs of the past. The follow- from the Napoleonic Wars, and worked surprisingly advanced details for its age: a ing selection, arranged chronologically the fly on a favorite salmon pool with a unique dovetailed sliding oil cap on the and covering the period of 1810 to 1905, is long rod and horsehair line. back of the reel as well as a slightly serpen- only a small sampling, but it suggests an The first salmon reels were British- tine counterbalanced handle. It is pos- evolution of the Atlantic salmon reel made, but by the early nineteenth century sible that the handle is part of the later from its primitive beginnings to the in- American tacklemakersbegan to develop rebuild, but even so, it is an extremely creasingly sophisticated and sometimes reels of their own. At this time, the multi- early appearance for this feature. The ad- elegant products of the more recent past. plying reel was losing favor in Britain, and vantage of a counterbalanced handle is Probably the oldest reel in the Mu- it was picked up and revitalized by that it helps promote even pivot wear and seum's collection is a British spike-mount American reelmakers, especially those in in a casting reel it helps to continue reel by an unknown maker. This reel is New York and Kentucky. It was most like- spool momentum, making for longer, believed to be nearly two hundred years ly some New York reelsmith who built the smoother casts. old and has been tentatively dated to circa G.C. Furman Salmon or Saltwater reel, a Another American reel of early vintage 1810. It is a single-action reel (i.e., one turn large and sturdy brass double multiplier. and unusual design is the single-action of the handle causes one turn of the The maker is unknown, but the reel is New York Ball-handle Reel. This reel, spool) and is made of brass with an iron engraved "G .C. Furman made 1826 which also features a ring-clamp rod at- spike fitting. This spike is built to fit Rebuilt 1838." tachment, is believed to date to circa 1840.

18 TAFF SPRING 1991 Folding Crank Fly Reel. British, c. 1845; 3%'' x 1%"; 14 02.

joyed considerable popularity for a time. There were several variations but this J, C, conroy& co. Ball-handle Reel. early example of circa 1845 is fairly il- jveW york, c. 31/8x z,,; 18 oz. lustrative. The crank is hinged so that the New York Ball-handle Reel, single handle can fold into a recess on the frontplate rim for flat storage. To use the grasped by the hand above the reel, or the action. American, c. 1840; 2%" x fingers of the hand below the reel were 2%"; 11% 02. reel, the handle is hinged back into posi- tion and tightened into place by a knurled pressed against the line running off the thumbscrew. This sounds like a terrific spool (usually the latter). Both techniques As the name suggests, this style of reel idea, and it doubtless served a purpose, produced painful finger burns to any probably originated in New York and but one can't help but think that the last angler trying to slow a strong fish too typically is fitted with a counterbalanced thing a fisherman wants is a reel handle early in its run! For this reason it is com- handle having a ball-shaped counter- that decides to misbehave at the wrong mon to see many of these early reels fitted weight. What is unusual about this par- time. Apparently others reached the same with leather thumb pads. ticular reel is that it is not a multiplier but conclusion, for this type of reel is no In response to the tendency of crank- a single-action. This is significant because longer made. handle reels to foul the line, tackle makers the handle is not offset; rather it is central- The New York Ball-handle reels men- in Britain began to produce a new type of ly mounted and therefore less likely to be tioned earlier continued to be made and reel during the 1860s called the revolving- in the way for fly fishing. Secondly, it is used into the 1880s. One of the pre- plate reel. In this pattern, the handle knob not customary for New York Ball-handle dominant manufacturers of this style was is fastened to an outer winding plate reels to be fitted with anything but a con- the Conroy Firm. In large sizes this reel which revolves next to the spool, making ventional reel foot, perhaps because they was capable of handling salmon, , for a trouble-free arrangement. This tend to be large and heavy. Yet the reel has or stripers. It was always perhaps more of design was so good that it has been a heavy, machined ring-clamp rod attach- a saltwater reel than a salmon reel, and almos~continuouslyever since. ment that is both serviceable and beauti- this was particularly true during the final One of the more striking examples from fully made. It seems likely that the entire years it was on the market, at which time the Museum's collections is the E. Paton reel was either homemade or custom- more specialized reels for fly fishing be- Salmon Reel, made by Edward Paton of made. came increasingly available. Still, many of Perth, Scotland, circa 1880. It has a One aspect of modern life often taken these New York Ball-handle reels were rosewood backplate and front frame and for granted is the ease with which we can passed down from father to son and were brass winding plate; the use of dark red- travel by automobile or plane. Previous dutifully pressed into traditional salmon dish wood and bright yellow brass in generations of anglers were often faced fishing use. combination yields an extra fine-looking with long and arduous trips on horseback Today a good number of these reels are reel. It also raises the question of why in order to reach their salmon fishing. discovered at estate sales: frequently they wooden reels were so much more popular Under such conditions, the portability of are filled with old silk fly line and firmly in Britain than in the United States. tackle was important. Rods had to store rusted to the seat of an ancient salmon America did produce some side- compactly and so did reels. A suitcase is rod. But what is most amazing about mounted wood- reels but nothing . one thing but a saddle bag is quite another these reels, whether used for salmon or like the number of Nottingham reels matter! saltwater fishing, is that they lacked any made in Britain and, unfortunately, noth- Addressing this need, the British de- form of drag. A fish was played quite ing resembling this very beautiful reel by veloped a folding-crank fly reel that en- literally by hand: either the line had to be Edward Paton.

TAFF SPRING 1991 l9 H. L. Leonard 1877 Patent Bimetal Salmon Fly Reel. Bangor, Maine, c. 1880; 4%''~2"; 21% 02.

Edward Paton Revolving-plate mechanism and a click mechanism that is Salmon Fly Reel. Perth, Scotland, easily removed for repairs. Of more im- c. 1880; 4% " x 1%"; 20 02. portance to the angler is an excellent ad- justable drag with real stopping power and a counterbalanced handle that moves George Main Hinged Checkplate American reelmaking had its own high within a protective rim which effectively Salmon Fly Reel. London, c. 1885; points, however, and one of these is the prevents the entanglement of line. 5"x 1%"; 38 oz. H.L. Leonard 1877 Patent Salmon Reel. Modern salmon fishermen are often Hiram Lewis Leonard (1831-1907) is re- amazed at the large size of antique salmon membered today chiefly as a rod builder reels. Most salmon reels today measure ly one reel you don't want to drop on your from Bangor, Maine, who, more than any from three inches to four inches in toes. This reel is not iust excevtional for other, helped establish the craft of bam- diameter, but in the past huge salmon its large size, but also because of a boo rodmaking in this country. Yet many reels of five inches to six inches and thoughtful antifoul handle design and fine reels were also made under the weighing one and a half pounds were not most particularly for its hinged check- Leonard mark. Most of these are based on uncommon in some parts of the world. plate. the June 12, 1877 patent of Francis Phil- Salmon reels longer than four and a half The raised checkplate design probably brook, an inventor and fellow Bangor inches were not as popular in America as originated in Britain as early as the 1840s resident. Leonard acquired the rights to in Britain or Scandinavia where a and continued to be popular for nearly this patent and, the evidence suggests, preference for large double-handed rods forty years. In this style of reel, the click contracted the work out to various shops of eighteen to twenty feet and longer mechanism is contained in a disc-shaped over the years. The Leonard reel was a big made the use of oversize reels practical. box on the back of the reel rather than success: it was made in many sizes and of Such reels were used not only for fly fish- placed between the backplate and rear various materials for nearly one hundred ing but also in boat fishing for salmon by spool flange. This arrangement gives the years. trolling and harling with spoons and bait. angler ready access to the important The 1877 Patent Salmon Reel is one of Harling is a method of Atlantic salmon working parts of the reel for repairs, ad- the rarest Leonard reels. Probably few fishing in which two or three rods are justment, cleaning, and lubrication with- were built. It sold for $25 in 1877, putting mounted in the stern of a boat and the out completely disassembling the reel. it out of reach of the average salmon boat is allowed to drift with the current at The hinged checkplate of George Main's fisherman. The reel is both an aesthetic the same pace as the lures being reel is a further refinement of the basic and mechanical triumph, handsomely presented. It is a style of angling well raised checkplate idea offering the added made of nickel silver and bronze in a suited to large, deep, and turbulent rivers convenience of push-button operation. unique raised pillar pattern. Leonard may such as the Tay in Scotland and many In spite of their positive points, raised- not have been the first to introduce the of the Norwegian rivers where casting checkplate reels tended to be extra heavy raised pillar style, but his reels did much would be tedious and wading impossible. and sometimes bulky. They were gradual- to popularize it. The advantage of placing One of the most interesting reels in the ly replaced by lighter-weight designs. the pillars above the circumference of the Museum's collection of this oversize type The angler's search for lightweight reec is that it provides a greater line is the George Main Salmon Reel. This reel tackle is not a new phenomenon. Par- capacity than the conventional pillar reel was made in London about 1885 and is a ticularly in America, where one-handed and therefore weighs less than a conven- whopping five inches in diameter and salmon rods have long enjoyed high tional reel of similar capacity. The patent weighs 38 ounces. In the hand, it seems to regard. Reelmakers have for many years claims the technical advances of a have an immense capacity (a mile of line experimented with both design and recessed side plate to contain the click seems about right), and it is very definite- materials to achieve lighter-weight sal-

20 TAFF SPRING 1991 W A. Macleay Salmon Fly Reel with Palming Ring. Inverness, Scot- land, c. 1905; 4%'' x 1%"; 25 oz.

Edward Vorn Hofe Restigouche fish with a tongue-and-groove metal Salmon Fly Reel. New York, brake. Another type of brake that was c. 1890; 4%''~1%"; 20 oz. much quieter and fairly efficient is the palming ring or what today would be mon reels. One of the truly outstanding called the exposed rim. In this design the reels in this category is Edward Vorn angler applies braking force to the rim of Hofe's Restigouche Salmon Reel. Some- Thomas'1896 Patent Mahseer Fly the faceplate (usually the front flange of time during the 1870s Vorn Hofe began to Reel by S. Allcock & Co. Redditch, the spool) by hand. When this feature use black hard rubber side plates on his England, c. 1900; 4%''~1%"; 18 oz. appears on modern reels, advertising reels. Such reels were far lighter" than the sometimes suggests that it is a recent im- all-metal reels generally in use at the time vrovement. but the truth is that this con- and, many would argue, far more beauti- duce lightweight, elegant salmon reels, cept has been around for close to a cen- ful as well. other manufacturers saw the need to cre- tury and was clearly well established in These black hard rubber sidevlates ate specialty reels that were ultra rugged 1905 when W. A. Macleay of Inverness, took an excellent finish and contrasted and could deal with heavy gamefish in a Scotland, built a Palming Ring Salmon richly with the nickel-silver fittings Vorn no-nonsense way. ~homas'i896patent fly Reel. Macleay used an extra large black, Hofe invariably used on his reels. An S- reel built by S. Allcock & Co. of Redditch, hard rubber ring" on his reel. and one can shaped counterbalanced handle com- England, is of this latter type. This reel, imagine this must have worked well as pleted the distinctive Edward Vorn Hofe designed and patented by Henry Sullivan long as it remained smooth. As soon as look, a look which has continued in later Thomas, has a revolving plate built with theiubber cracked or chipped, its useful- reels by Otto Zwarg, Arthur Walker, and a peripheral groove into which a V- ness would have been severelv com-

Stanley. Bogdan.- But Vorn Hofe was more shaped block mounted on a spring could promised. than a consummate stylist, he was a be pressed to act as a brake. Thomas in- Atlantic salmon reels todav continue to master reelsmith and mechanic. A careful vented this reel for braking the heavy runs evolve just as they did in t6e past. New study of his reels shows an exacting atten- of large fish, specifically the mahseer materials such as graphite, titanium, tion to details such as Tobin bronze bear- described in his book The Rod in India magnesium, and delrin as well as pre- ings, oversize gears, shouldered pillars, (London: Trubner, 1873). The mahseer is cision machining techniques are all play- handcut countersunk screws, roller pil- a powerful native gamefish of India, ing a part in this evolution. The develop- lars to reduce line friction, and clever oil Nepal, and Pakistan. Related to the ment of antireverse reels is noteworthy as port closures to insure that no sand or family, but omnivorous, the mahseer is the present work in corrosion-resistant grime would be introduced into the reel. grows to 120 pounds (thirty pounds is and antireflective finishes. New models It is also typical of Vorn Hofe's persistent reportedly common), is capable of initial are rapidly being introduced, some offer- dedication to the improvement of his runs of one hundred yards, and is known ing a fresh approach to old problems and reels that the adjustable drag on his Res- for its stubborn resistance even on heavy some just re-introducing old solutions. It tigouche salmon reel, which was original- tackle. Inasmuch as there are no mahseer is tempting to think that with the advan- lv on the front of the reel. was eventuallv in Britain, we can probably assume that at ces of modern technology, many of ielocated to the back wheie it could easil; least a few of Thomas' patent reels were today's Atlantic salmon reels are without be reset at any time, even while playing a employed by salmon fishermen. peer, yet it may be closer to the truth to fish. Thomas' patent reel wasn't for every- recognize that all these reels owe a large At the same that some reelmakers like one. For one thing it must have been as debt to the Atlantic salmon reels of the Edward Vorn Hofe were striving to pro- noisy as a locomotive, pressuring heavy past. e

TAFF SPRING 1991 21 GALLERY

SALMONFISHING WITH A FLY has seldom been the Pleissner once said that people would ask him to come province of the common man, and has attracted back to their salmon camps because "I knew one end famous fishermen, actors, artists, and even presidents, of a salmon rod from the other." Donated by Ogden providing the American Museum of Fly Fishing's Pleissner in 1976. archives with some of its most high-profile artifacts, Bing Crosby's (1903-1977) Orvis Impregnated Shoot- as featured in this new department of the journal, ing Star Bamboo rod (a two-piece 9% foot, 6% ounce GALLERY. In future issues, we will be using the GAL- for 9-weight line) was donated by Mrs. Katherine Cros- LERY to offer you a close-up look at some of the Mu- by in 1981. Crosbyloved fly fishing and spent much time seum's most interesting, valuable, pertinent, beautiful, salmon fishing in Ireland and Scotland. or eccentric artifacts. The fishing hat belonging to Charles Ritz (1891-1976), The flybox belonging to President Grover Cleveland famous hotelier, raconteur, fly fisher, and author (the 1837-1908 was donated by Mrs. Joseph B. Browne in elegant Swiss/American was also known for his beauti- 1986. She received the flies from Cleveland's son, ful casting and love of salmon fishing) was donated by Richard Folsom Cleveland. It has been said that Presi- Pierre Affre in 1979. dent Cleveland once confided to a friend that he was A book from Theodore Gordon's (1854-1915) collec- more interested in the future of fish and game than he tion, The Habits of the Salmon by John P. Trahcrne was in being President. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1889), donated by Wil- The Restigouche salmon fly reel belonging to Ogden liam Naden in 1976. An interesting inclusion from the Pleissner (1905-i983), landscape and sporting artist, library of one of the great innovators and popularizers was made by Edward Vom Hofe & Co., circa 1935. of the sport of fly fishing.

TAFF SPRING 1991 Photograph by Cook Neilson Weber River, are accessible from Echo City, and combine rare fishing and hunt- ing with the grand scenery of the Echo and Weber Canyons. Maggie's Creek, and many other tributaries of the Humboldt River, abound in trout, and may be easily reached from Carlin and neighboring sta- tions. But, to specify names or localities to any great extent, would require a knowledge of the country possessed only by some old "mountain man" or geologi- cal surveyor. It will consume many weeks to exhaust the novelty and attractions of the few already named herewith, and they are the very best on the line of the road. Very different today is the journey to California from the old-time wagon travel of twenty years ago. The Overland Coaches were not running then, and it was as much as a man's "har" was worth to run the gauntlet of the predatory In- A sense of place-the character of upland parks, can hardly cast his line dians. A few davs' ride in a Pullman car. our country and its rivers and amiss in any of them. In the vicinity of with every luxury at command, will take streams at any given time-is as Sherman, on the line of the Union Pacific one across the "Divide" to the Pacific important to our collective history Railway, 550 miles west of Omaha, the slope. Luxuriating there in an arcadia of as are the famous anglers and their trout fishing is equal to any on the road. boundless extent. with a climate of rods, reels, tackle, flies, books, and Dale Creek, a tributary of the Cache-a-la- wonderful salubrity, the angler can un- memorabilia. The Fishing Tourist by Poudre River. and other streams in the fold a revelation of new exueriences star- Charles Hallock (New York: Harper and immediate neighborhood, abound in tling in their magnitude and sublimity. Brothers, 1873), off the shelfof the Museumi trout of the finest quality, and weighing The scenerv of California has formed the library, gives us a clear-eyed view of the from a quarter of a pound to two pounds inexhaustible theme of every person who

United States in the 18705, and is written in each: their flesh is as hard and white as has traveled that wav:, , and if it be that the lucid prose refreshingly untinted by the that of the mountain trout of Vermont. tourist is impelled by an angler's impul- purple shading common to travel writing of Even the tiniest rivulets swarm with them. ses, as well as by an innate love of nature, the era. A writer whose "sketches of travel Fifteen miles beyond Sherman, at Vir- he will find his way to virgin lakes and and adventure" appeared periodically in ginia Dale, the Dale Creek traverses a streams where artificial flv has never Harper's Magazine from 1856 to 1873, and canyon whose walls are 600 feet high, and trailed, and whose silvery trout have no the originating editor of Forest & Stream the adjacent scenery is wonderfully diver- suspicion of wiles or stratagems. Of those mauazine." Charles Hallock lets us see our sified by grottoes, gorges, dells, canyons, waters adjacent to and accessible from the country, its waters, and the human impact precipices, towering peaks, and rugged railroad, may be mentioned Truckee Lake on the environment 118 years ago. recesses. Antelope, elk, black-tailed deer, and River, with their five-pound black- In this particular excerpt, which touches bears, sage hens, and , abound in trout; the Ogden River, three miles from briefly on the waters of the Rocky Moun- the hills and on the plateaus. There is Ogden City, with its black-trout, and its tains, California (at that time still a new excellent hotel accommodation for the silver-trout, that sometimes weigh twenty state), and Oregon, among others of the sportsman. Within a radius oftwenty-five pounds apiece; Donner Lake, two miles Pacific slope, Hallock loftily compares the miles from Sherman are manv natural and a half from Truckee Lake, a beautiful travel innovations of his day (although the curiosities and points of interest, includ- bottomless lake, three miles long by one rail routes had not yet connected with the ing Old Fort Laramie, which render a mile wide, with black and silver trout; West Coast) to the "old-time wagon travel sojourn here very attractive; and doubt- Lake Tahoe, nine miles from Truckee, of twenty years ago" when a man's "har" less this localitv will soon become a black and silver trout again; with the was imperiled by "predatory" Indians. favorite summer resort for tourists and grand preserve of the Comer Company, Reading this chapter also sadly reminds us anglers. The Black Hills flank the valley stocked with its 2,500 black-trout, weigh- of the era's racial prejudices and that the on one side, and the Rocky Mountain ing from two to twelve pounds apiece; pollution of our country's waters isn't a ranges upon the other. Lake Como and and so on, almost ad nauseam, so abun- twentieth-century invention. the Medicine Bow River, seventy-five dant and large are the fish. But the game If readers are familiar with any of the miles farther west, abound in trout. At is sluggish, and not like the lithe, active places Hallock mentions, we would wel- Fort Bridger, a few miles from Carter Sta- denizens of the Neepigon or the Tabusin- come your report on how they have changed tion, there is a good hotel, kept by Judge tac; and one's desire soon cloys. Then with the passage of a century M.P Carter, good fishing, and guides at ser- there is the Russian River, near vice. Bear River and Bear Lake, in Utah, Healdsburg, that has a variety of more THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS are traversed are reached by stage from Corinne or vigorous trout, much like the speckled everywhere by trout streams; and the Ogden Stations. A small steamer plies on trout of the Atlantic, and doubtless iden- overland tourist who is inclined to spend the river and lake, taking passengers and tical with it; and the Merced River, in the the months of July and August among excursion parties to various points. Echo Yosemite Valley, with a very peculiar their peaks and defiles and magnificent Creek, Chalk Creek, Silver Creek, and chubby-trout, marked with curious spots,

TAFF SPRING 1991 23 and a coral lateral line from gill to tail. Seth Green not to be trout, but species of long nails are driven, resembling rakes, Most of these waters are much frequented the land-locked salmon. These fish make hang over the rocks that confine the river, by residents of San Francisco, sacramen- annual migrations from Lake Tahoe to and with an upward jerk impale as many to, and other sea-board towns, as well as the brackish waters of Pyramid Lake. fish as there are nails. It is said that by travelers. Their superabundant fish af- Many of the fishermen of Tahoe insist Seepays,the Colville Indian salmon-chief, ford an inexhaustible fund of food to that the so-called silver-trout does not who has a monopoly of the fishing at the numerous Digger Indians, unkempt and leave the lake; but, as they are occasionally Chaudikre, or Kettle Falls of the Colum- squalid, who lure them by disgusting caught in the river, it is probable they also bia, catches 1,700 per day, weighing an tricks and low-bred subterfuges. A fa- migrate, but perhaps at an earlier or later average of thirty pounds apiece. At this vorite mode of fishing is to "chum" them season. In the streams of the Coast Range distance of 700 or 800 miles from the sea. by blowing mouthfuls of bait into the of mountains the trout spawn in Novem- they have become so exhausted that, in water, and when numbers have been at- ber and December; in the streams of the their efforts to leap the falls, they batter tracted to the svot. catch them with rude Sierra Nevada in March and April. There themselves against the rocks, so that they tackle baited Gith worms or cut-up fish. are no trout in the mountain streams fall back stunned. and often dead: thevi At night they often set an old stump above large falls. If there ever were trout then float down the river some six miles, ablaze by the water-side to allure their above the falls, they have passed below where they are picked up by another victims, and then the scene is picturesque them in their migrations downstream, camp of Indians who do not belong to the indeed, with the lurid glare lighting up and are debarred from returning. salmon-chief's iurisdiction. In the fall. the the darkness, and casting fantastic shad- Of good trout streams on the coast may run is even greater, and the river is filled ows upon the backgrouid. be mentioned the Gobethey Creek, two with such numbers of the dead floating or California has a seacoast line of nearly miles below Spanishtown; Lobetis Creek, cast up along shore, that they poison the 800 miles. From the Coast Range of four miles below; the San Gregoria, which atmosvhere. and cause the river to stink mountains, which adjoins the coast line is frequented by salmon also; Pompona for miles! In the head-waters, horses and for the greater part of this distance, nearly Creek, four miles from San Gregoria; and pack-mules fording are made to jump one hundred rivers and streams empty the Pescadero, a confluent of the Butena and plunge with fright by the fish flop- into the Pacific Ocean. These streams and River, the latter abounding in salmon (so- ping against their legs! Up and down a rivers vary from twenty to sixty miles in called), in such quantities that, from Oc- distance of two and a half degrees of length. The drainage of the western slope tober to March, wagon-loads of fish latitude, the Indians spear and net them of the Sierra Nevada, through" seven weighing from two to thirty pounds are in immense quantities. The Hudson's Bay degrees of latitude, forms several hun- taken daily and sold at the high price of Company long exported them largely, dred streams. whose united waters make seventy-five cents per pound. smoked, dried, and pickled. Salted sal- the Sacramento and San Joaquin Riv- Great complaint is made of the deple- mon they sold at $10 per barrel, for ship- ers-the first navigable for a distance of tion of lakes and streams by the erection ment to China, the Sandwich Islands, and 180 miles, and the last navigable one of dams and the refuse of factories which the South American coast. hundred miles from the ocean. The poison the water: the same old story of Of speckled trout in the cold streams waters from the eastern slope of the Sierra the Eastern states repeated. Waters which that flow into Puget's Sound, there is no Nevada flow into brackish and salt lakes formerly swarmed with fish are now end-even of eight-pounders. Not only in the state of Nevada, and have no outlet wholly impoverished. Since the creation can they be netted by the wagon-load, but into the ocean. Pyramid Lake, the largest of a Fishery Commission by the state, its caught by the hand by wading out into the of these, receiving the waters of the officers have not ceased in their efforts to stream. Truckee River, is forty miles long and stay the destruction. They have restocked It has been generally believed that the twenty miles wide. The inland bays and some of the streams with native and im- salmon of the Pacific never rise to a fly, fresh-water lakes of California cover ported fish, established breeding works, and repeated tests by expert anglers have more than 650 square miles-an area half and caused some passes to be made over failed to controvert the opinion. Never- as large as the state of Rhode Island. dams. Although California is a new state, theless, had experiments-been made in Salmon are abundant in the Sacramen- the work has not been begun one mo- the autumn, instead of the summer to and the Joaquin, and were formerly ment too soon, and much time will be months corresponding to the fishing plenty in the Feather, Yuba, and American required to repair the losses already in- season on the Atlantic coast, this opinion Rivers. In the first two they have material- curred. would readily have been found to be er- ly decreased of late years, while in the Of the waters of the North Pacific, tales roneous. The fact is, the Pacific salmon others they have ceased to run altogether, are told that would seem incredible, were can be caught with the fly at any time after having probably been driven out by the they not confirmed by repeated and most the fall rains commence. poisonous drainage from the mines along reliable assurances. There the salmon When the great railway routes now their borders. Trout are found in nearly swarm in countless numbers. They spawn reaching toward the Northwest-the all the streams that discharge into the all the year round; and at certain periods Canadian Pacific, the Northern Pacific, Pacific Ocean from the Coast Range of they fill the rivers of the Arctic Ocean, the the Oregon and Idaho branch of the mountains, and in the greater number of rivers of Alaska, the Gulf of Georgia, of Union Pacific, and the California and the mountain streams of the Sierra British Columbia, Puget's Sound, and all Oregon, from Sacramento to Port- Nevada. They vary greatly in size and ap- the tributaries of the Columbia whose land-when these are completed, the pearance in different waters, and at dif- falls are not insurmountable. In the great Columbia River and the rivers of ferent seasons; but so far no variety is canyons and contracted channels, during Puget's Sound will be brought within easy exactly similar to any of the March and April, they so crowd the rivers access. At present the overland journey to of the New England states. The large as absolutely to impede the passage of San Francisco and thence by steamer to brown and silver trout of Lake Tahoe and canoes. Indians, armed with long poles Portland and Victoria, Vancouver's Is- the Truckee River are pronounced by Mr. fitted with a cross-piece, through which land, is not tedious or difficult. -

24 TAPE SPRING 1991 The American Museum of Fly Fishing Post Office Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. 802-362-3300

JOIN! 1990 Annual Meeting reached by early spring 1991, and that Membership Dues (per annum*) Notes plans for the renovation and expansion of Associate* $25 the Museum would soon be initiated. The Sustaining* $50 Thirty Museum trustees, some from as support of the Museum's trustees and Patron* $250 far away as Oregon, California, Georgia, development committee throughout Sponsor* $500 and Louisiana, assembled in Manchester, 1990 was outstanding. Corporate* $1,000 Vermont. on October 21-22 for a gala din- Life $1,500 ner at ~anchester'shistoric ~Tlburton Membership dues include the cost of a Inn, tours of the Museum and discussions subscription ($20) to The American Fly with our staff members, and, finally, a Fisher and to the Greenheart Gazette. day-long meeting and planning session at Please send your application to the the charming Reluctant Panther Inn. membership secretary and include your Herewith, an overview: mailing address. The Museum is a mem- ber of the American Association of Museums, the American Association of Don Johnson, completing his third State and Local History, the New Eng- year as the Museum's executive director, land Association of Museums, the Ver- reported that AMFF was in the process of mont Museum and Gallery Alliance, finalizing another successful financial and the International Association of year. For the third consecutive year, the Sports Museums and Halls of Fame. We Museum's all-important dinnerlauction Museum Publications are a nonprofit, educational institution program showed improvement, as did all The Museum, in cooperation with chartered under the laws of the state of other income categories such as member- and Terry Heffernan Vermont. ship, contributions, publications, grants, Films of San Francisco, California, helped SUPPORT! and gallery attendance. Don also noted produce a stunning four-color 1991 calen- As an independent, nonprofit institu- that Alanna Fisher, completing her first dar which featured selections from the tion, the American Museum of Fly Fish- year as AMFF'S curator/development assis- Museum's personalities collection. The ing must rely on the generosity of tant, and Doug McCombs, the Museum's calendar was circulated to over 65,000 public-spirited individuals for substan- summer intern, had performed admira- individuals nationwide. The Museum tial support. We ask that you give our bly, and that AMFF'S traveling exhibits also launched a biannual newsletter en- institution serious consideration when and publications programs continued to titled the Greenheart Gazette, which has planning for gifts and bequests. grow, as had the Museum's educational been warmly received, and published A programs, trustee, and volunteer involve- Treasury of Reels: The Fishing Reel Collec- VISIT! ment, and collections. tion of the American Museum of Fly Fish- Summer hours (May 1 through October ing, a comprehensive, hardcover history 1991 Budget 31) are 10 to 4. Winter hours (November and museum-quality catalog by Jim 1 through April 30) are weekdays lo to 4. A fiscal 1991 budget totalling $258,000 Brown; and "Lost Pool," a signed, We are closed on major holidays. was reviewed and unanimously accepted. limited-edition print created with the A respectable increase in the Museum's cooperation of nationally known artist BACKISSUES! publications program budget will help John Swan and the Arnscott Group. The following back issues of The Amer- fund the salary of the new editor of The ican Fly Fisher are available at $4 per American Fly Fisher and the publication Priorities for 1991 copy: of a deluxe edition of the Museum's A Having satisfied many of the require- Volume 5, Number 3,4 Treasury ofReels by Jim Brown. Addition- ments for museum accreditation, such as Volume 6, Numbers 1,2,3,4 ally, the funds are allotted to employ a formulating a collections policy, and Volume 7, Numbers 2,3,4 part-time registrar and summer intern. hosting an Institute of Museum Services Volume 8, Number 3 Conservation Survey, and two Museum Volume 9, Numbers 1,2,3 Capital Campaign Assessment Program surveys, the Mu- Volume 10, Number 2 AMFF'S development committee chair- seum will look forward to applying for Volume 11, Numbers 1, 2,3,4 man Bruce Begin reported on the out- accreditation through the American As- Volume 12, Number 3 standing success to date of "The Cam- sociation of Museums in late 1991 or early Volume 13, Number 3 paign for the American Museum of Fly 1992. Similarly, it was hoped that the Volume 14, Numbers 1, 2 Fishing: Preserving a Rich Heritage for renovation of the Museum-including Volume 15, Numbers 1, 2 Future Generations." Bruce felt that the the opening of audio/visual and special Volume 16, Numbers 1,2,3 campaign's goal of $200,000 would be children's interpretive areas-would be

TAFF SPRING 1991 25 completed by mid-1991, perhaps in time Official photograph, for AMFF'S second Annual Museum Fes- The White House. Courtesv. Sebastian Marinaro Museum Renovation tival in June. The Museum will continue Begins to strive for greater professionalism in all areas of operation, and along these lines, The first phase of our plans for the the trustees felt that a professional editor renovation and expansion of the Mu- for the Museum's journal and a part- seum was successfully completed recently time registrarlmembership services aide following two site surveys by represent- should be added to the Museum's staff, atives from Vermont's Department of pending the availability of funding. Aging and Disabilities and Department of Labor and Industry. Awards Our staff was especially interested in Our trustees voted unanimously to the findings of the survey conducted by honor the seven years of selfless service David Sagi of the Department of Aging given to the Museum by volunteer Joe and Disabilities, since we have long Pisarro, by creating the Joe A. Pisarro wanted to make the Museum fully acces- Volunteer of the Year Award. This award sible to people who use wheelchairs or will be presented yearly to the Museum's who have problems with mobility. As a most outstanding volunteer. direct result of David's suggestions, we President Carter will attend the opening will be installing a wheelchair ramp in our of a fly-fishing exhibition and gala dinner new entranceway and a washroom that is to follow, in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tues- fully accessible to the aged and disabled, day, April 23. and adding several other special features sionate devotees of all types of outdoor throughout the ~useui.By making sports, although they especially love fly these improvements, the Museum will be fishing. in full compliance with the Americans We are very pleased to announce that with Disabilities Act which mandates that President Carter will be in attendance at museums be open to all by January 1992. the exhibition opening scheduled for Museum staff members have also been y30, to which all Museum members are visiting other museums and talking to cordially invited. He will also be attending museum professionals in the area in a gala dinner that evening at the Pied- order to learn more about audio/visual systems, new labeling techniques, sig- The Joe A. Pisarro Volunteer of the Year mont Driving Club in Atlanta. For further nage, and exhibit construction in prep- Award honors the seven years Joe has information call or write the Museum. worked for the Museum. aration for the changes" due to take vlace in the days ahead. As previously noted, First AMFF Endowment we ho~eto have most of our renovations 1991 Annual Meeting Created completed in time for our Second An- nual Museum Festival in Manchester on It was resolved that the 1991 Annual Museum members will be pleased to June 7-9. Meeting of the American Museum of Fly learn of the creation of the Museum's first Fishing would be held in Manchester, endowment, recently made possible Alanna Fisher Vermont, on Monday, October 21,1991. It through an anonymous $15,000 founda- was further resolved that in the future the tion grant presented to the Museum as Museum's Annual Meeting be held on an part of our current capital campaign. As alternating basis in Manchester, Vermont, many of our members are already aware, and in selected sites around the country. endowments provide the capacity and flexibility necessary to meet the expand- AMFF Exhibition at ing and future needs of the Museum. This Carter Library important resource helps to insure the highest quality of service for the fulfill- A major exhibition devoted to the arts ment of the mission and goals of the of fly fishing and fly tying is now set to Museum as a stable financial institution. open at the Jimmy Carter Library and The purposes and restrictions for the ap- Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, on the after- plication of endowed funds may include noon of Tuesday, April 23. The exhibition use in educational programming, staff is being jointly orchestrated and installed appointments, and youth programs. The by the staff members of the Jimmy Carter ultimate goal of endowed funds is to meet Library and the American Museum of Fly the needs of the institution and the inter- Fishing. ests of the donor. Those members wish- The exhibition will feature hundreds of ing" to helv build our new endowment components from AMFF'S varied collec- may do so by sending a check to: AMFF Representatives of Vermont's Department tions, and many of President and Mrs. Endowment, P.O. Box 42, Manchester, of Aging and Disabilities meet with Ex- Carter's personal fly- and Vermont 05254. All gifts are taxdeductible ecutive Director Don Johnson to discuss fly-tying items. The Carters are pas- as provided by law. renovation suggestions.

26 TAFF SPRING 1991 A Treasuw of Reels J The Fishing Reel Collection of The American Museum of Fly Fishing text by Jim Brown . photographs by Bob O'Shaughnessy

Over 200 black and white photos of individual reels More than 75 historic illustrations Printed on acid-free paper Large 81/2"xllf' format - over 285 pages Four-color dust jacket All proceeds benefit the museum Comprehensive bibliography and index

order A TREASURY OF REELS directly from the Museum. (Order one for a friend, too!) _signed and numbered limited-edition copies ot $50.00 each Postage and handling55.00 Total

.seum Gift Sh

( Our popular background. Our patch is silver-and ~-shirtiare made black on a Dartmouth Green back- of 100% preshrunk cotton. ground; $5 each, plus $1 postage and Specify color (navy or cream) and size handling. (s, M, L, XL), $10 each, plus $2 postage and handling. Four-color exhibition posters printed on high-quality glossy stock, ample bor- ders. Left, "Time On the Water" by John Swan (26"x zo"), and "An Artist's Creel" by Peter Corbin (z6"x 23") $15 each, plus $2.25 postage and handling.

Right, "Lost Pool," special limited edi- tion print by John Swan, printed on acid- Tl.\lt 01\' THE \VATER ' Jiutc I-O~IO~~!31 lc~'~c1 free paper (15%"~263/4"), ample bor- :.lob,, Surnll ,",.,","",\*".".,,,& N,?. 1 tas,8.,8C ,... bD ,.., ,,-,- ders. Each signed and numbered print, ,-.,. . < "..' $95. Postage ind handling included. I Please make checks payable to: AMFF and send to PO. Box 42, Munchester, VT 05254. MasterCard, Visa, and American Express accepted. Call 802-362-3300.

TAFF SPRING 1991 27 CONTRIBUTORS

Arnold Yelin Jim Brown is a professional librarian who lives and works in Stamford, Con- necticut. He is an avid fly fisherman and collector of antique fly tackle who has written numerous articles on the history of American fly reels as well as two books, Fishing Reel Patents of the United States, 1838-1940 and A Treasury ofReels, published in February 1990 by the Museum. Jim is a member of many angling and conservation groups including Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers, Theodore Gordon Fly Fishers, the Housatonic Fly Fisherman's Associa- Trey Combs, of Port Townsend, tion, the Catskill Fly Fishing Center, as Washington, has been writing books well as the American Museum of Flv and magazine articles about fly fishing Fishing. He and his wife Pat live wi(h for more than twenty years. H~Sbook- two cats named Felix and Otto. Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies (Frank Amato Publications, 1976) has been called the "steelheader's bible." His ar- ticle in this journal, "Atlantic Salmon Dressings in Steelhead Fly Fishing," is Donald F. Catalfimo was born and adapted from his forthcoming book, raised in Greenwich, New York, only a Steelhead Fly Fishing: The Great Rivers ten-minute walk from the lower Batten- (New York: Lyons & Burford), sched- kill. His father taught him to fish, and uled for publication in Fall 1991. after the Boy Scouts taught him to shoot, When not hunting for steelhead on introduced him to upland game hunting. Pacific Coast rivers, he fly fishes off- Don teaches biological sciences at shore in Mexico and Costa Rica for sail- a suburban middle school just north of fish and dorado. Trey has served as pres- Schenectady, New York, and pursues aca- ident of local chapters of Trout Unlimi- demic interests in ecology and natural ted and the Federation of Fly Fishers. history. He is a member of the National He presently serves on the board of Association of Biology Teachers. He en- directors of Washington Trout. joys fly fishing and fly tying, researching and collecting angling and sporting books, grouse hunting, and bird dogs, particu- larly Gordon setters and yellow Labs. Don maintains active memberships in Trout Unlimited, the Atlantic Salmon Fed- eration, and the American Museum of Fly Fishing, where he often volunteers. BI~IEpperidge I I Robert F. Tones is a iournalist and novelist who writes primarily about hunting and fishing. His most recent novel is~lood Tidd~ew York: Atlantic Monthly Press, iggo), and he is a fre- quent contributor to Sports Illustrated. He is currently at work on the first book of a mysterylthriller trilogy. His arti- cles have also appeared in such journals ,as Audubon (for which he wrote a haunting elegy on Africa's wilderness in the September 1990 issue) and Gray's Sporting Journal. He lives on a moun- tain in West Rupert, Vermont, with his wife Louise, their Labs and barn cats,

and takes whatever free time he can ' snatch away from his old Underwood typewriter to sneak down to his favor- ite, and secret, trout stream.

28 TAFF SPRING 1991 Map of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers from Sport with Gun and Rod, edited by Alfred M. Mayer (The Century Co.: New York, 1883).

A Full Slate

WE HAVE A FULL and exciting as a backdrop for the dedication of the schedule of programs for 1991. Museum's renovated exhibition and staff I Museum staff members will be areas, and to kick off a new exhibition I building exhibits, manning pub- entitled "The World of the Salmon." Ad- lic relations booths, and giving ditionally, there will be a major showing audiolvisual presentations all ov- of angling art, a gala dinnerlauction, lawn er the East. Museum traveling exhibits sale, and open house. If the success of our will be installed by host museums in vir- first Festival last year is any indication, tually every region of the country, and this year's event should be exceptional. we've expanded our dinnerlauction pro- For more information on our second An- gram to include two new venues: south- nual Museum Festival, contact the Mu- ern New Hampshire and Atlanta, Geor- seum ofice. Don't miss it! gia. More interesting yet, we plan to host Editor Margot Page informs me that an archaeology/conservation field trip to the next issue of The American Fly Fisher northern Maine during the summer, a (Summer,Volume17,Number 2) includes first for this Museum. several articles by Theodore Gordon not While we continue to bring exhibits seen by the public since their original and programs to folks around the coun- publication around the turn of the cen- try, we are also, as previously mentioned, tury; a profile of the nineteenth-century focusing on developing a full range of Colorado writer Lewis B. France; and a programming here at home. For instance, portrait of the famous publisher/writer we're very excited about the way plans for Eugene V. Connett and his renowned our second Annual Museum Festival Derrydale Press, featuring an introduc- Weekend, June 7-9, are shaping up. The tion by publisher/writer Nick Lyons. Museum's staff is using this year's Festival D.S.J. THEAMERICAN MUSEUM OF PLY FISHING was established in 1968 to preserve and ex- hibit the treasures of American angling. As the only national nonprofit educational institution of its kind, the Museum serves as the repository and conservator to the world's foremost collection of angling and angling-related objects, including more than 1,500 rods, 800 reels, 40,000 flies, 2,500 books, as well as manuscripts, photographs, periodicals, and other related items. The Museum's growing collections provide students, authors, teachers, writ- ers, and all members of the public with thorough documentation of fly fishing as a sport, art form, craft, and industry in the United States and abroad from the mid- sixteenth century to the present.