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Thaw HE FEBRUARYTHAW comes to Ver- "From the Old to the New in Salmon mont. The ice melts, the earth loosens. Flies" is our excerpt from Fishing Atlantic TI splash my way to the post office ankle Salmon: The Flies and the Patterns (reviewed deep in puddles and mud, dreaming of being by Bill Hunter in the Winter 1997 issue). waist deep in water. It is so warm I can smell When Joseph D. Bates Jr. died in 1988, he left things. The other day I glimpsed a snow flur- this work in progress. Pamela Bates Richards, ry that turned out to be an insect. (As most his daughter, added significant material to anglers can attest, one often needs to expect the text and spearheaded its publication, to see something in order to see it at all.) Se- working closely with Museum staff during ductive, a tease, the thaw stays long enough her research. The book, released late last year to infect us with the fever, then leaves, laugh- by Stackpole Books, includes more than ing as we exhibit the appropriate withdrawal 160 striking color plates by photographer symptoms. Michael D. Radencich. We are pleased to re- By the time these words are printed and produce eight of these. distributed, I hope the true thaw will be Spring fever finds its expression in fishing upon us here and that those (perhaps few) of and romance in Gordon M. Wickstrom's us who retire our gear for the winter will reminiscence of "A Memoir of Trout and Eros once again be on the water. For those mo- or Following I,. B. France into Colorado's ments during which you are not out fulfilling Middle Park." In this issue's Notes & Com- your fly-fishing destiny, we've prepared the ment, Richard C. Hoffmann adds informa- spring issue of The American Fly Fisher to oc- tion to Frederick Buller's "The Macedonian cupy your mind and perhaps fuel your fanta- Fly" (Fall 1996), and M. R. Montgomery sy life. relates a rather unfortunate incident that In "Western Fly Fishing: The Discovery of occurred during an attempt to pursue Mace- a Great Tradition," historian and former ex- donian trout. ecutive director Paul Schullery praises recent Be careful out there. advances in the written history of western fly fishing. He highlights ten books of particular importance to the field that have appeared since the mid-1980s. THEAMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLYFISHING Preserving the Heritage of Fly Fishing SPRING 1997 VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2 TRUSTEES Review of Books: Western Fly Fishing: E. M. Bakwin Janet Mavec The Discovery of a Great Tradition .............2 Michael Bakwin Wayne Nordberg Paul Schullery Foster Bam 0. Miles Pollard Paul Bofinger Allan K. Poole From the Old to the New in Salmon Flies. .......... 6 James H. Carey Pamela B. Richards Michael D. Copeland Tom Rosenbauer Joseph D. Bates Jr. and Pamela Bates Richards Peter Corbiil Robert G. Scott Thomas N. Davidson James Spendiff A Memoir of Trout and Eros or Following L. B. France Charles Ferree Arthur Stern into Colorado's Middle Park. ................ 18 Reed Freyermuth John Swan Gordon M. Wickstrom Gardner L. Grant James Taylor James Hunter Richard G. Tisch Gallery: Frank Weston Benson ................. 21 Dr. Arthur Kaemrner David H. Walsh Woods King I11 Richard J. Warren Maxine Atherton: Grand Lady of Fly Fishing's Walter Matia James C. Woods Golden Age, 1904-1997 ....................22 TRUSTEES EMERITI Notes & Comment: On "The Macedonian Fly" ...... G. Dick Finlay Leon Martuch 23 W. Michael Fitzgerald Keith C. Russell Richard C. Hofmann, M. R. Montgomery Robert N. Johnson Paul Schullery David B. Ledlie Stephen Sloan Museum News. ..........................26 OFFICERS Contributors. ...........................28 President Richard G. Tisch Museum Exhibits .........................29 Vice Presidents Arthur Stern Pamela B. Richards Treasurer James H. Carey Secretary James C. Woods ON THE COVER:Joseph D. Bates Jr. and Bruce Bates on the Rangeley Lakes in 1946. From Fishing Atlantic Salmon: The Flies and the Patterns, STAFF by Joseph D. Bates Jr. and Pamela Bates Richards (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Executive Assistant Marianne Kennedy Stackpole Books, 1996). Our excerpt from this book begins on page 6. Curator Jon C. Mathewson Development Director Eric Brown Administrative Assistant Paula Morgan The Amertiaiz Fly Fisher is published Research/Publicity Joe A. Pisarro four time< a yea1 by the Museum at P.O. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Publication dates arc wintcr, aprmg, summer, and fall Membership dues include the cost of the THEAMERICAN FLY FISHER journal ($25) and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Membership rater are llsted in the hack of each issue. Editor Kathleen Achor iU1 letters, manuscripts, pl~oto~ra~l~s,and rnater~als Intended for publication in the journal should he sent to the I~luseum.The hluseun~and journal are not respons~hlcfor unsolicited manuscripts, drawmgr, photographic Design ei- Production Randall Rives Perkins material, or memorabllla. The Museum cannot accept responsibility for statements and interpretations that are Copy Editor Sarah May Clarkson wholly the authol's Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unleas postage 1s plov~ded.Contrihutlons to The Consulting Editor Margot Page Amcrzcan Fly Ftshcr ale to he considered graiullous and the property of the Museum unless otherwise requested ContributingEditor PaulSchullery by the contl~butor.Articles appearing in this jourl~alare abstracted and indexed in H~storicalAbstracts and America- History and Life. Cupynght 0 1997, the Ametican Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, \'ermont 05254. Original nlaterlal appearing may not he reprinted without prior pcrrnlssioii. Second Class Peiniit postage paid at Manchester Vermont 05254 and additional offices (USPS 057410). The Atnerican Fly Ffshcr (ISSN 0884-3562) posrhrlisran: Send addrcss changca to The Anici Iran Fly hslier, P.O. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont o5z5q. SPRING 1997 1 REVIEW OF BOOKS Western Fly Fishing: The Discovery of a Great Tradition by Paul Schullery FIRST BECAME INTERESTED in I must start with a book that I sus- historian's real sources: journals, news- fishing history twenty years ago. I pect most history-minded fly fishers papers, and all manner of other material. Iwas living in Wyoming, so naturally have missed, but shouldn't: John Mon- I am tempted to say that Cutthroat Q I was curious about early western fly nett's Cutthroat ei. Campfire Tales: The Campfire Tales is full of digressions- fishing. As a historian, I was already fa- Fly-Fishing Heritage of the West. Mr. sometimes it's a long way between fish- miliar with some of the sporting litera- Monnett is a fisherman first, a historical ing stories-but it might be better to say ture of the west from the late 1800s and tale-teller second, and he combines that the whole book is a digression, a knew that back then a lot of people were the two avocations to create a personal very pleasant one, from an angler's out here fishing and having a good time reminiscence and historical narrative. crowded life. When we walk a stream, with the native trout. But I soon discov- Through descriptions of his own fishing we don't share its history just with earli- ered that these adventurous anglers had trips, the author takes us into the histo- er fishermen, but with campers, explor- been pretty much forgotten by modern ry of fishing in California, Colorado, ers, grizzly bears, and all sorts of other western fly fishermen. With a few no- Wyoming, and other places, including characters. manv of whom Mr. Monnett table exceptions, western fly fishing was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming1 happily introduces us to. without a written history. MontanalIdaho. There's a nice discus- Robert Behnke, for many years one It was widely assumed, in fact, that sion of western fly patterns with some of this country's leading cold-water fish- western fly fishing had no history. I can enjoyable notes on the development of eries authorities, approaches the whole remember more than one person firmly western grasshopper patterns. The au- subject of western trout from a formal, asserting in the 197os, "We western fish- thor uses his own experiences to launch scientifically disciplined direction in ermen don't have a history; we're mak- into stories about a river's past and to Native Trout of Western North America, ing it today." This credo was a matter of which must stand as the single most pride and did indicate an appreciation complete and authoritative source on for the dynamic nature of western fly the taxonomy, natural history, and hu- fishing, but it was sadly misinformed. man historv of our western trouts. The Being ignorant of their own traditions publication of this book is something of didn't make these people any worse a historical event itself: it drifted around than most fishermen, of course; few an- various scientific institutions and agency glers anywhere have more than a management offices in manuscript form sketchy idea of where their tackle, tech- for many years before finally appearing niques, and attitudes come from. But as a handsome monograph in 1992. It because I lived out here, and because must have been about ten years before what little western fishing history I'd publication that Behnke's manuscript learned was so interesting, I was espe- first crossed my desk. Long before it cially bothered by the general ignorance came out officially, Native Trout of West- of the long and exciting western fly-fish- ern North America was almost a stan- ing experience. dard reference work merely through en- I'm especially pleased, only twenty ergetic photocopying. years later, to be able to write an article What Mr. Behnke, who writes an in- in which I consider a few of the many formative and thoughtful column on books that now deal with western fly- trout for Trout magazine, has achieved fishing history.

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