The American Fly Fisher Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing

      Fly Fight!

        Foster Bam Frederick S. Polhemus From Thomas Sedgwick Steele, Canoe & Camera Dave Beveridge Roger Riccardi (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, ), . Peter Bowden Robert G. Scott Mark Comora Ronald B. Stuckey on’t you just love a good fight? From Scotland’s Tweed we move to the Ronald Gard Tyler S. Thompson Perhaps argument is a better word Amethyst Brook in western Massa - Gardner Grant Jr. Richard G. Tisch for differences of fly-fishing opin- chusetts. It was there, Thomas Johnson D John Hadden Andrew Ward ion. Disagreement, maybe. Quarrel. tells us, that the first factory to manufac- The fly-fishing world, like all worlds, ture fly rods was established in the mid- Karen Kaplan Patricia Watson harbors pockets of hostility. When these s, and that “manufacturing equip- Woods King III Thomas Weber differences of opinion were argued in ment, skilled craftsmen, and knowledge Walter T. Matia Frankie Wolfson print one or two centuries back, retorts from this original facility would, over the Robert A. Oden Jr. James C. Woods could be years in the making, given the years, pass to different companies and Annie Hollis Perkins Alan Zakon relative slowness of book publishing. locations in the Pioneer Valley, through Leigh H. Perkins Nancy W. Zakon Fights could last decades. which the Connecticut flows.” Johnson Alan Diodore—employing the phrase traces this historical line from Horace vented his most argumentative spleen— Gray & Son in Pelham to Thomas & reports on one of these drawn-out ten- Thomas in Greenfield in “America’s First   sions in “A Forty-Year Spat.” Setting the Fly-Fishing Rod Factory in the Pioneer historical stage of early-nineteenth-centu- Valley of Western Massachusetts: A Short James Hardman ry Great Britain, Diodore introduces us to History.” You’ll find it on page . James Heckman, MD John Younger (the “Tweedside Gnostic,” A few months back, one of my favorite David B. Ledlie author of River Angling for Salmon and authors sent me a copy of the museum’s Paul Schullery Trout), born into poverty, and Thomas first Greenheart Gazette, a short-lived news - Tod Stoddart (author of The Art of Angling letter. In it I found a humorous piece writ- as Practiced in Scotland), a man with a ten by longtime (and beloved) museum steady income who was well educated and volunteer Joe Pisarro. It deserves a wider         well connected. The two Scots, says audience, and you’ll find it on page . Karen Kaplan Diodore, “disagreed on nearly everything Events continue to keep us busy: a President except for their mutual dislike of enclo- members-only gathering, Hooked on the sure.” Learn what “nearly everything” Holidays, and presentation of the  Gardner Grant Jr. means (and, perhaps, “enclosure”) by Austin Hogan Award to Lance Hidy at Vice President/Treasurer turning to page . our holiday reception (see Museum Robert A. Oden Jr. Also on the above-mentioned Tweed - News). In October, the museum honored Vice President side Gnostic’s much-disliked list was fel- President Jimmy Carter and the late Andrew Ward low Tweedside angler Sir Walter Scott. President George H. W. Bush with its Vice President The famed author not only wrote novels Heritage Award (page ). and poetry, but also spent a great deal of And once again, our Winter issue fea- James C. Woods time fishing. Keith Harwood, in “Sir tures an artist and work from our perma- Secretary Walter Scott and Angling” (page ), offers nent collection. Last year, as part of the us a brief biography and reports on fish- Trophy Sporting Art Collection, the ing stories found in letters, memoirs, museum acquired Spring Freshets, which journal entries, and the writings of oth- appears on the front cover. Turn to page     ers. He includes information about the  to read “Darkness and Light: Etchings Kathleen Achor relatively short-lived Scott series of by Kerr Eby,” in which Collections Editor salmon flies, named for the novels, sold in Manager Ava Freeman tells us about this Sarah May Clarkson the Hardy Anglers’ Guide in the early accomplished printmaker and his work. Copy Editor twentieth century. Harwood’s full-length book, Sir Walter Scott on Angling, was K A Sara Wilcox published in November by Medlar Press. E Design & Production         ’        Foster Bam and Sallie Baldwin Karen Kaplan Dave Beveridge Robert McGraw Peter Bowden David and Margaret Nichols Mark Comora Leigh and Annie Hollis Perkins Gardner Grant Jr. Robert and Karen Scott Summerfield Johnston Marye and Richard G. Tisch Jill Joyce Alan and Nancy Zakon

Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing         Nick Dawes Janet Mavec and Wayne Nordberg Tom Evans Ronald and Joan Stuckey A Forty-Year Spat ......  Alan and Linda Gnann Tyler and Francis Thompson Alan R. Diodore John Hadden Andrew and Elizabeth Ward Paul Tudor Jones Patricia Watson  Art and Martha Kaemmer Tom Weber Sir Walter Scott and Angling...... Wendy and Woods King III Robert Wilson Keith Harwood Beverly and Julia Landstreet Tom Wolf Frankie Wolfson Darkness and Light: Etchings by Kerr Eby ......  Ava Freeman

       ’        America’s First Fly-Fishing Rod Factory in Louis Bacon Walter and Pam Matia the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts: Eugene Conroy Patrick McEvoy A Short History ......  Anthony Davino Bradford and Pamela Mills Thomas Johnson Charles Patrick Durkin Jr. Jason and Shachar Scott Alan Guarino Chris Smith The Reel Thing ......  James and Susan Heckman George Stark Joe A. Pisarro Ben Juergens James Woods The  Heritage Awards ...... 

      ’       Museum News ...... 

Parker Corbin Woods King IV Contributors ......  Bailey Hallingby Jason M. Scott

  : Spring Freshets, etching and sandpaper ground on paper        by Kerr Eby (plate:  ⁄ x  ⁄ inches), . From the collection of the Sarah Foster American Museum of Fly Fishing. Executive Director Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Yoshi Akiyama The American Fly Fisher (publication number -) is published four times per year (Winter, Spring, Deputy Director Summer, Fall). Editor is Kathleen Achor. Complete address for both publisher and editor is The American Museum of Fly Fishing, P.O. Box , Manchester, VT . The journal is wholly owned by the American Alex Ford Museum of Fly Fishing. Total number of copies: , (average number of copies of each issue run during Digital Marketing Coordinator the preceding twelve months; , actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date). Paid/requested circulations (including advertiser’s proof and exchange copies):  (average;  actual). Ava Freeman Paid distribution by other classes of mail:  (average;  actual). Paid distribution through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales:  (average;  actual). Free distribution by mail:  (average;  Collections Manager actual). Free distribution outside the mail:  (average;  actual). Total free distribution:  (average;  actual). Total distribution: , (average; , actual). Copies not distributed:  (average;  actual). Clay Livingston Total: , (average; , actual). Percent paid and/or requested circulation: .% (average; .% actual). Gallery Assistant The American Fly Fisher (ISSN -) is published four times a year by the museum at P.O. Box , Kelsey McBride Manchester, Vermont . Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership dues include the Administrative Assistant cost of the journal () and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Membership rates are listed in the back of each issue. All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and materials intended for publication in the journal should be Samantha Pitcher sent to the museum. The museum and journal are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photo- Assistant Director of Development graphic material, or memorabilia. The museum cannot accept responsibility for statements and interpretations that are wholly the author’s. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless postage is provided. Shane Quintana Contributions to The American Fly Fisher are to be considered gratuitous and the property of the museum unless Gallery Assistant otherwise requested by the contributor. Copyright © , The American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont . Original material appearing may not be reprinted without prior permission. Periodical postage Patricia Russell paid at Manchester, Vermont ; Manchester, Vermont ; and additional offices (USPS ). The Business Manager American Fly Fisher (ISSN -) : [email protected] : www.amff.org Sara Wilcox : Send address changes to: The American Fly Fisher Director of Visual Communication P.O. Box  Manchester, Vermont  A Forty-Year Spat by Alan R. Diodore

   century Stoddart was born. Tom Stoddart was As to modest and diffident, it appears was an exceptionally difficult time well educated and well connected, and he that those qualities may not have fully Tfor those on the low end of the had sufficient steady income to enable ex tended to his prose. socioeconomic scale in Great Britain. In him to marry and establish a life of fish- Stoddart and Younger disagreed on some ways, those in rural areas were hurt ing and writing. In , he and his wife, nearly everything except for their mutual the most. Bess, settled in Kelso, some  miles from dislike of enclosure, and Stoddart had Britain was en gaged in war with St. Boswells. some sharply pointed comments about France at the time, and three domestic William Henderson was acquainted enclosure in Sutherlandshire. events caused great harm to the poor. with Younger, and he described Younger’s  The first was the Corn Laws of . shoemaker’s shop as a gathering place for Almost the sole proprietor in this shire These were protective tariffs on the local anglers. He said of Younger that there is the present Duke of Sutherland, . . . importation of grain, which drove the was “a charm about the old man” who Will it be believed . . . that the subjects of price of bread up so dramatically that it was “singularly modest and diffident.” this free realm . . . are denied access to its took the entire income of many. Second, although the enclosure practices of the landed gentry had been taking place for several centuries, new laws were passed to enclose commons and open fields to grow more grain. The upshot of enclo- sure was that where one could previously roam—or more importantly, fish, more or less at will—became off-limits to non- riparian landowners or renters. In Scotland, enclosure was effective, and “the lairds used their power to have the land enclosed and tilled by modern methods.” It is interesting to note that in , Mr. Arthur Young, the “Chief Apostle” of enclosure, wrote: “By nine- teen out of twenty Enclosure Bills the poor are injured and most grossly.” The third event—actually, a process— was the Industrial Revolution, which destroyed the spinning and other home- based employment of women and chil- dren from agricultural families. It also destroyed the “full-time employment of villagers in various trades as . . . milling and brewing . . . cobbling, and tailoring . . . and cloth-weaving.” This resulted in migration from rural areas to industrial centers to find employment, leaving the villages almost purely agricultural. With the foregoing circumstances against him, John Younger was born on  July  in the tiny village of Lang - newton on the bank of Ale water, a trib- utary of the Teviot. Younger was born into poverty, and except for rare brief flashes of prosperity, he lived and died in poverty. To help with his family’s income, he was put to work as a shoemaker while still a child—a trade that he followed for life. By the age of twenty-five, he had married and settled This image of John Younger is the frontispiece from the  edition of on the Tweed at St. Boswells. That was River Angling for Salmon and Trout (Kelso: J. & J. H. Rutherfurd, and likely , the year in which Thomas Tod Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons). Photo by Michael Phelps.

     remotest corner; . . . That without spe- been for many years regarded as one of certainly open to question. Stoddart’s cial permission . . . no one may throw a the premier fishers on the Tweed and was book was published two years before he feather across the most insig nif i cant of even known as the “Tweedside Gnostic.” settled in Kelso; he may not have known its countless pools, or lift a single stone  Whether “gnostic” was meant to be mere- Younger personally, but he probably from its dragon-guarded soil? ly extensive knowledge or mystically knew of him. acquired knowledge is not known; but it Intended or not, Younger clearly took Permission was one problem, but the is certain that, at least locally, he was Stoddart’s remarks personally and took other inevitable result of enclosure was placed on a piscatorial pedestal. serious exception to them. He set out to the rental of access. Younger despised the refute them and to criticize Stoddart’s rich. Although less eloquent than Stod - SALMON FLIES methods and suggested flies in language dart, he was no less bitter in pointing out surprisingly truculent for a person who that in his area, William Scrope and oth- In his comments on salmon flies, had been described as “singularly mod- ers with wealth drove rents so high that Stoddart wrote that those who used Irish est and diffident.” the effect was “these great lordly pikes dri- and other gaudy flies were rid iculed by Stoddart had outlined his first list of ving us smaller fry out of the water.” It is “prejudiced clodhoppers” on the Tweed salmon and trout flies in The Art of worth noting that two of Scrope’s neigh- and in the north. He went on to say that Angling. It contained, among others, bors were his good friend Sir Walter Scott, no dependence should be placed on wingless black or red hackles; the Maule much disliked by Younger, and George “stubborn prejudice”; that salmon would fly named for William Maule of Bainbridge, a wealthy Liverpool banker. rise at a gaudy fly when they would not Edinburgh; and the Professor fly in both John Younger was fifty years old when rise at another; and that anglers should salmon and trout sizes, named for his Stoddart’s The Art of Angling as Practiced “be shy of being advised by a downright friend and mentor Professor John in Scotland was first published in book ignoramus.” Whether the last comment Wilson. In regard to Highland trout, form in . By that time Younger had was only general or directed at Younger is Stoddart said: “You may catch them with bread and cheese at the end of a cable. . . . Give them red and black flies in abun- dance. . . . A killing fly may be construct- ed of a hen’s feather and a twitch of flan- nel wool taken out of an old carpet, when no other materials are at hand.” Both men opined that the salmon fly resembled no creature on the water in which they angled. Stoddart remained content with that, but Younger looked for something to explain or justify the appearance of the salmon fly. In , Henry Newland’s book, The Erne, was published, which contained a paragraph clearly limited in application, but upon which Younger seized enthusi- astically. In writing about what he referred to as “the three fly Parson Tribe,” the “Kill-Many,” the “Kill-More,” and “Jack the Giant Killer,” Newland said: [I]t is not like anything in heaven or earth; but is very like something in the water; it is like a shrimp, which I imagine to be the food of the salmon while at sea. . . . It moves in a succession of jumps, like nothing whatever that has life, except a shrimp, but exactly like that. Depend upon it, your fly is a shrimp.

Younger embraced and greatly expanded upon this quote, and wrote at length about it in , coming to the conclu- sion that “having never seen a shrimp, dead or alive, . . . the bright golden flies of the Erne, and the darker flies of the Tweed, must all be imitations of shrimps, though unwittingly so designed.” Seven years earlier, in , Stoddart wrote that herring fry, sand eels, and shrimp were favorite foods for salmon:

Thomas Tod Stoddart. From Thomas Tod Stoddart, Angling With regard to the shrimp, as forming Songs, with a Memoir by Anna M. Stoddart (Edinburgh and part of the customary marine food of London: William Blackwood and Sons, ), facing title page. the salmon, I have heard alleged that

   the jerking motions frequently given to were tied by my Fisherman Charles WINGSAND HACKLES the artificial fly by the rod-fisher, bear a Purdie,” and that the white-tipped wing close resemblance to those of this little fly “has been called Toppy from time Younger’s trout flies were all winged save shell-fish; in short, to this particular immemorial.” As to his fly “Kinmont one palmer, and only two—apparently play of the lure they attribute, more Willie,” Scrope said, “I found this fly very somewhat reluctantly—had hackle behind than any other cause, the readiness of the salmon to approach and seize it. successful in the Annan when I lived at the wings. For the most part, they were Kinmont.” based on the English March Brown and With this opinion I am not inclined to  coincide; but as it is held by a sports- Clearly, the old shoemaker’s princi- what he termed the Pale Yellow Dun. man of great celebrity, I think it proper ples of color and shade were by no Actually, those flies were old patterns to notice it. means unique. In , John Kirkbride of even by the first edition of River Angling Carlisle described a series of materials (). In , most of the trout flies Younger claimed that he had reduced that were, for all practical purposes, the Bainbridge listed were hackled behind the number of salmon flies needed to same as Younger’s. In addition, the the wings. Younger obviously knew five or six, based on “the vari- about Bainbridge because he ety of colour, fur, wool, and criticized his paired-wing slip feather.” He then set out to method as “extreme nicety, contradict Stod dart, main- which may only be resorted taining that Irish flies had to as a trial of skill.” “unexpectedly good success” Referring to Stoddart’s on the Tweed and that “inex- wingless hackled flies in com- perienced fishers are very parison with his winged pro- unwilling to believe in the ductions, Younger wrote: “a propriety of sober colored hundred vile imitations of flies.” He further claimed this fly [his winged fly] meet that although salmon will rise with partial success, while to the gaudy fly, they will “shy those who use such often off” and not take it, and that ignorantly aver that it is of no the “local product” of turkey consequence to be nice about wing provided all that was flies.” He also criticized necessary. black and red hackle flies as That Younger had little, if not working on the Tweed any, interest in the principles between Melrose and Ber wick, and techniques of others is a stretch that includes Kelso. shown when he wrote that one Continuing the attack on the could fish a lifetime and not hackle, he stated that “occa- use an exact type of one of his sionally, a very small short bris- salmon flies, but “at the same tle of hackle close behind the time, I am certain that unless wings . . . can do no harm . . . he come so near that my prin- though by no means an essen- ciple can be detected in his tial appendage.” practice, his general success Younger went on to will be far from coming to his describe his yellow night fly, wishes and expectations.” It is which he claimed to have striking to contrast this invented twenty-five years ear- Younger quote with Stoddart’s lier. His inconsequential error very brief instruction on how was in not knowing that his fly to tie a salmon fly, then urging was practically the same as the those who wanted to become Yellow Cadew described by adept to read Blacker’s The Art Samuel Taylor in . The of Fly Making. larger error was to refer to the It appears that Younger had This image of Scrope’s flies can be found facing page  in Professor fly as a “vulgar imi- somehow, perhaps through Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed (London: tation” of his yellow fly. his virtual isolation, come to Herbert Jenkins, ). Photo by Michael Phelps. Stoddart did not claim to believe that his principles of have invented any particular color and shade were in some way pro- authority Andrew Herd has pointed out, fly but gave full credit for his trout pat- prietary. For example, in his autobiogra- “The most common English, Welsh, and terns to Professor John Wilson (aka phy, he wrote that his friend John Scottish salmon flies in the very early Christopher North) and the professor’s Haliburton had obtained flies from him lists were tied with fur or wool bodies, brother, James. The Professor fly was first and that Haliburton had worked for and had divided wings made from tied by John Wilson on an angling tour of William Scrope for seven to ten years. duck, turkey, bittern or kite, . . . and the Highlands in the summer of . To Because of that, Younger concluded that there wasn’t a great deal of difference in use the word vulgar in connection with the flies illustrated in Scrope’s book were salmon patterns tied anywhere in the Wilson no doubt irritated Stoddart, who his “to a shade.” That assertion seems three nations.” idolized and virtually worshiped the somewhat questionable as Haliburton is Trout and trout flies did not rank as professor. It is of some parenthetical mentioned in passing only twice in high on the fishing scale as salmon to interest that this “vulgar” fly lives on as a Scrope’s book. Further, in describing his Younger, but he vented his most argu- trout fly in at least nine pattern varia- six salmon flies, Scrope wrote, “They mentative spleen at Stoddart’s trout flies. tions and as a salmon fly.

     As might be expected, the level of persons who did other things.” After ANIMADVERSIONS invective demonstrated by “inexperi- much correspondence between Stoddart enced,” “ignorant,” “vile,” and “vulgar” and Stewart—all of which, unfortunate- Revisions were actually few in the  was not lost on Stoddart, and seven years ly, seems to have been lost—a fishing edition, but it did include a section titled later, in , he wrote: contest was arranged, complete with sec- “Animadversions,” in which Younger onds. Sadly, there is no evidence that the wasted no time in venting his anger at T. The flies dressed by Younger of St. contest ever took place; but Anna opined Tod Stoddart. He stated that he had not Boswells are, upon the whole service- that if it had, Stewart probably would been aware of Stoddart’s  comments able; still, it is plain, that this worthy have won. until three or four years later and that his angler is but partially, or if the term  may be used with propriety, locally It took thirteen years for Younger to income had been injured thereby. versed in the mysteries of the Art. There respond to Stoddart’s  comments on Merely as a matter of curiosity, one won- is too much mannerism about them to his flies. In , when Younger was sev- ders how much his income could have render his winged productions general enty-five years old, an expanded and par- been affected if it took up to four years to favourites, and I cannot say, in regard to tially revised edition of River Angling learn of Stoddart’s criticism and thirteen his salmon flies, that they at all years to complain. For some take my fancy, or that I could reason, he then quoted the employ them with any sanguine  entire offending passage and expectation of success. then ingenuously asked: “What spirit could have induced these For a time, Stoddart said no remarks from a person I had but more; but others did, and for twice or thrice casually met?” Younger, it did not get better. William Scrope, who had A Black wood’s magazine re - really done nothing, was once viewer wrote about the  edi- more dragged into the fray; and tion of The Angler’s Companion again Younger insisted that that “as a teacher of practical both Scrope’s and Stod dart’s angling in Scotland, we look on salmon flies were his patterns. Mr. Stoddart to be without Oddly, he did not mention that rival or equal.” In , in his  list of salmon flies Edward Fitzgibbon’s The Book he had added the Maule fly of the Salmon was published, in from Stoddart’s Art of Angling which he discussed the casting and the Double White Top that techniques of both Stoddart and was in the  edition of The Scrope—not two of Younger’s Angler’s Companion. To be fair, favorite people. Fitzgibbon also the Maule fly was probably listed all of Scrope’s salmon pretty widely known because flies. Then in , the second Mr. Maule was a familiar angler edition of William Blacker’s on the Tweed. The Art of Fly Making was pub- It comes as no surprise, how- lished with a favorable men- ever, that the crux of Younger’s tion of Stoddart. Neither complaint came down to Fitzgibbon nor Blacker men- money. Younger’s book sold for tioned John Younger; nor did eighteen pence; Scrope’s book Stoddart in his  edition of sold for two guineas and had The Angler’s Companion. some excellent art, including a If Younger was aware of full-color lithograph of his being ignored by these doyens salmon flies; and Stoddart’s of mid-nineteenth-century fly sold for half a guinea with a fishing, it must have given him full-color lithograph of salmon the impression that the sky was An insert with bound color facsimiles of “the flies used by flies that were, according to falling and that his pedestal as Mr. Stewart” was included with the  edition of W. C. Younger, “hardly perceptibly, the “Tweedside Gnostic” was Stewart’s The Practical Angler (London: A. & C. Black, Ltd.). removed from Scrope’s.” Ac - crumbling away. A response to tually, although the recipes for Stoddart would come; but in the interim, appeared. The response contained there- the flies use many of the same materials, there was another, much milder, and in strikes one as a mixture of despera- the lithographs show little similarity in actually humorous development. tion, pathos, anger, and confusion. In the the flies. Sadly, there are no images of In , W. C. Stewart’s The Practical preface, he asserted that eight or ten Younger’s flies. To understand Younger’s Angler was published. Anna Stoddart authors had succeeded him since his complaint and to put those book prices gave a lengthy description of her father’s  edition, and he named Wilson and in perspective, twelve pence equal one surprise that some gave Stewart’s book a Stoddart among them. It is possible shilling, twenty shillings equal a pound, higher rating than his. Both he and his that Younger may not have known that and a pound plus a shilling equal a best friend, John Wilson Jr. (son of John Wilson had written for Blackwood’s guinea. Professor John Wilson), referred to magazine on sporting and other subjects Younger ended his polemic with a Stewart as the “Pretender.” Stoddart quick- since , but he did know that statement dripping with animus: “Let ly came to realize, however, that times Stoddart’s Art of Angling had preceded Mr. Stoddart do what he can for himself were changing and that the angler of his book by five years because that was . . . he had better just contrive to fall as “Arcadia . . . was giving place to new men, the genesis of his irritation. softly as he can for there are those who

   may be able, though very unwillingly, to of River Angling, so his death was proba- and Sons, ), . put him down.” Not only did no one bly within a few days, or perhaps even a . John Younger, On River Angling for ever put Stoddart down, but Younger did few hours, of writing these words. He Salmon and Trout, More Particularly Practised not even have the satisfaction of seeing may have teetered on the brink of fly- in the Tweed and Its Tributaries (Edinburgh: “Animad versions” in print in the  fishing immortality as father of nymph W. Blackwood, ), .   edition of his book. After revising only fishing, but he dismissed his discovery in . Ibid., . . Ibid., –. fifty-five pages of River Angling, he died the same way that he dismissed . Ibid., . on  June , some months before its Bainbridge’s paired-wing slip tech- . Stoddart, The Angler’s Companion to publication. nique—merely as a trial of skill. It is like- the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland, nd ed., . Of course, not even Younger’s death ly that because of his isolation and his . Younger, Autobiography, –. ended the matter. It had taken him thir- inability to break from the iron tradition . William Scrope, Days and Nights of teen years to respond to Stoddart. of the winged fly, he could not appreciate Salmon Fishing in the Tweed, th ed. (London: Twenty years later, in , the publisher the nymph as a valid, effective method in Herbert Jenkins, ),  et seq. of Stoddart’s book of poetry, Songs of the its own right. Thus, it was left to the . Ibid. Seasons, asked him to write a short auto- inquiring mind of G. E. M. Skues to . John Kirkbride, The Northern Angler biography for a second edition. The brief become “father” of the nymph. (London: C. Thurnam, ), –. autobiography contains, with other in - . Andrew Herd, Salmon Fly Patterns: for mation, some genealogy and long lists – (Ellesmere: Medlar Press, ), .  of friends, associates, and acquaintances. . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and Trout ( ed.), . Stoddart did mention Younger and sim-  . Bainbridge, The Fly-Fisher’s Guide, ply wrote, “My publication on the sub-  –. ject preceded his by several years.” The . G. M. Trevelyan, History of England, . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and book was published in . Tom Vol. III (London: Longman, Green & Co., Trout ( ed.), . Stoddart died  November . Anchor Books ed., New York, ), –. . Ibid., . It seems somehow appropriate here to . Ibid., . . Ibid., –. recall Confucius’s admonition that before . Ibid., –. . Samuel Taylor, Angling in All Its embarking on a mission of revenge, one . Ibid., . Branches (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, should dig two graves. . Ibid., . ), . . Ibid., . . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and . John Younger, River Angling for Salmon Trout ( ed.), . YOUNGER’S BRUSHWITH and Trout, with a Memoir of the Author: . Thomas Tod Stoddart, An Angler’s Together with a Treatise on the Salmon and a Rambles and Angling Songs (Edinburgh: ENDURING FAME List of the Tweed Salmon-Casts (Kelso: J. & J. Edmonston and Douglas, ), . .Ibid., . John Younger may not have been adapt- H. Rutherfurd, and Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, ), xv–xx. . J. Edson Leonard, Flies (New York: able or particularly creative, but in his . Alan R. Diodore, “Thomas Tod Stoddart: Nick Lyons Books, ), –. own way he was quite observant, and he The Completely Scottish Angler,” The American . Poul Jorgensen, Salmon Flies (Harris - certainly observed the nymph. I believe Fly Fisher (Fall , vol. , no. ), –. burg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, ), . that Robert Venables gave the first . Anna M. Stoddart, Memoirs and Angling . Thomas Tod Stoddart, The Angler’s description of weighted wet-fly technique Songs (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland, in : “You may if you please place a and Sons, ), . st ed. (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood small slender Lead upon the shank of . William Henderson, My Life as an and Sons, ), . your Hook to sink the Bait where the Angler (London: W. Satchell, Parton & Co., .Quoted in Anna M. Stoddart, Memoirs River is not violently swift, and draw the ), –. and Angling Songs, . Cadbait over the Lead, you may make . Thomas Tod Stoddart, The Art of An - . Edward Fitzgibbon, The Book of the gling as Practiced in Scotland (Edinburgh: W. Salmon (London: Longman, Brown, Green one the head of black silk, and the body      of yellow wax; this you must be often & R. Chambers, and London: Orr & Smith, and Longman, ), , , – .   .William Blacker, The Art of Fly Making, raising from the bottom, and so let it ), .  . William Scrope, Days and Nights of &c., nd ed. (London: Blacker, ), . sink again.” Salmon Fishing in the Tweed, st ed. (London: . W. C. Stewart, The Practical Angler However, it was John Younger who John Murray, ). (London: Adam and Charles Black, ). first described what appears to be actual . John Younger, Autobiography (Kelso: J. . Quoted in Anna M. Stoddart, Memoirs nymph fishing in the  edition of & J. H. Rutherfurd, and Edinburgh & and Angling Songs, . River Angling: Glasgow: John Menzies & Co., ), . .Anna M. Stoddart, Memoirs and Angling . George Bainbridge, The Fly-Fisher’s Songs, –. When the flies come up thickly on the Guide (Liverpool: F. G. Harris’ Widow and . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and surface . . . ; for a trial of skill mutilate the Brothers), . Trout ( ed.), . wings of your flies by picking them off . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and . Ibid., . about half middle (not cutting them); or Trout ( ed.), xxiii. . Ibid., . rather by tying down the top of the wing . Stoddart, The Art of Angling as . Ibid., . near the tail of the fly, which makes its Practiced in Scotland, . . Ibid., . appearance something like the maggot . Ibid., –. . Thomas Tod Stoddart, Songs of the released from its first case on the bottom . Ibid., –. Seasons and Other Poems (Kelso: J. & J. H. stone on its ascent to the surface. Then, . Henry Newland, The Erne (London: Rutherford, ), xlil. as much as you can, let them sink low in Chapman & Hall, ), –. . Robert Venables, The Experienced the water . . . , and you will most likely .Younger, River Angling for Salmon and Angler, rd ed. (London: Printed for Richard succeed in getting a few trouts. Trout ( ed.), –. Marriot, Under the King’s-Head Tavern, Fleet . Thomas Tod Stoddart, The Angler’s Street, ), –. Again, Younger died after revising only Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland, . Younger, River Angling for Salmon and seventy-five pages of the second edition nd ed. (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood Trout ( ed.), –.

     Sir Walter Scott and Angling by Keith Harwood

 S W Scott is best and rented a cottage at Lasswade, a vil- of treasures, which includes a fine dis- known today for his poetry and his lage on the River North Esk,  miles play of antique armor and weapons. It Aworks of historical fiction, what is south of Edinburgh. Five years later he has become a shrine to lovers of Scott’s less well known is that he was also an rented Ashestiel House from his cousin works and is one of Scotland’s most pop- angler who fished for salmon and trout James Russell, who was serving in India. ular tourist attractions. by both fair means and what would be The house was located  miles from As we have already seen, Scott spent a regarded today as foul means. This, per- Selkirk on the south bank of the River great deal of time during his formative haps, should come as no surprise as Scott Tweed. He remained at Ashestiel until years in the Scottish Borders, especially in spent a great deal of his life in the Scot - , when he bought a farm, which the neighbourhood of Kelso, and it is not tish Borders, and Abbotsford—the mag- became Abbotsford, on the right bank of surprising that he developed a great love nificent house he built—sits on the the Tweed and embarked on an ambi- for the area’s natural beauty. His imagina- banks of the Tweed, the most prolific tious building program to convert the tion was captivated by the area’s historical salmon river in the United Kingdom. property into a suitable country resi- associations and by its songs and ballads, Walter Scott was born on  August dence. Today, Abbotsford is the house which inspired him to become a writer  at College Wynd (since demolished) most associated with Scott, containing and resulted in the publication of The in Edinburgh, where his father was a his library and extraordinary collection Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. lawyer. At the age of eighteen months, he contracted polio, which left him lame for the rest of his life. However, this limita- tion does not seem to have affected his love of walking, horse riding, and partic- ipation in a variety of field sports, which included fox hunting, shooting, and fish- ing. In hope of a cure, he was sent in  to live with his paternal grandparents at their farm at Sandy-Knowe, near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. He returned to Edinburgh in , but during the sum- mer he was taken by his aunt Jenny for spa treatment at Bath in England. He remained at Bath for a year before returning to Edinburgh and then to his grandparents’ house at Sandy-Knowe. By , he was back in Edinburgh, and the following October he commenced his education at the Royal High School of Edinburgh. After finishing school in Edinburgh in , he was sent to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso and attended lessons at the local gram- mar school, where he met and befriend- ed James Ballantyne, a keen angler, who later became his publisher. At the age of twelve, Scott attended classes in Latin, Greek, and logic at Edinburgh University, but a serious ill- ness in  meant that he was sent back to Kelso to convalesce. He returned to Edinburgh University from  to . There he studied law, was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates, and became an advocate (barrister). After his marriage to Charlotte Carpenter in  and his father’s death in , Scott was appointed Engraving of Walter Scott after the  portrait sheriff-depute (a judge) of Selkirkshire by Sir Henry Raeburn. Author’s collection.    Photos by Keith Harwood

Abbotsford.

The River Tweed at Abbotsford.

Not only did Scott stay at his grand- Davy’s Salmonia (), which appeared in nephew], and we still recollect the mor- parents’ house at Sandy-Knowe and his the October  Quarterly Review, he is tifying distinction between his success aunt Jenny’s at Kelso, but he also spent rather modest about his own angling skill. and our want of it. With all the kindness many summers at his uncle’s house at and much of the skill of Halieus [the Rosebank in the countryside to the east For ourselves, though we have wetted a angler in Davy’s Salmonia], he trained us to high adventure:—‘Throw where of the town. His uncle, Captain Robert line in our time, we are far from boasting of more than a very superficial knowl- yonder stone breaks the stream; there is Scott, a retired ship’s captain who had a trout behind it’—we obeyed, and worked for the East India Company, edge of the art, and possess no part what- ever of the scientific information which is hooked the stone itself. . . . Our Mentor appears to have taken his nephew under necessary to constitute the philosophical gave us the choice of his flies and relin- his wing, and it seems likely that he intro- angler. Yet we have read our Walton . . . quished in our favour even that which duced Scott to the delights of angling. and, when we endeavour to form an idea we had seen do instant execution. It John Purdie, a nephew of Tom Purdie, a of paradise, we always suppose a trout- seemed as if what in his hands had been poacher-turned-gamekeeper whom Scott stream going through it. The art itself is a real, animated insect, the live child of employed as his forester at Abbotsford, peculiarly seductive, requires much inge- heat and moisture, was disenchanted in ours, and returned to a clumsy compo- had this to say of Scott’s angling skills: nuity, and yet is easily reconciled to a  course of quiet reflections. sition of iron, wool, fur, and feathers. [B]ut young Sir Walter was gude [good] Scott records fishing with his uncle on wi’aither rod or leister [a type of barbed In fact, Scott was skillful with both rod several occasions, and in a letter to his fork for spearing salmon]—a better and leister. His knowledge of angling lit- mother dated  September  (written never threw a line, and a strapping fal- erature was unrivaled, and he lived in an at Rosebank, his uncle’s house at Kelso), low [fellow] as ever stood in shoe leather. Him and me was baith about a angler’s paradise with the waters of the he complains about the fishing: “The Tweed flowing at the bottom of his exten- fishing has been hitherto but indiffer- age, and about a heicht, and twae as  bang [lithe] youths when we took the sive gardens at Abbotsford. ent.” Unfortunately, he does not tell us moors wi’ our guns as ye micht hae All anglers need a mentor—someone where he had been fishing, but he is con- seen. Ah me! I can see him now throw who can teach them the basics of the fident of catching a hare with the help of his line wi’ a lb. rod across the Carey art—and Walter Scott was no exception. his uncle’s newly acquired greyhounds. Weel Pool [a pool on the Tweed], and It seems likely that Scott’s uncle, Captain In the summer of , Scott accompa- make her licht [light] like a feather at  Robert Scott, was his nephew’s angling nied his uncle Robert on a fishing expedi- the far side. mentor and, in the same review quoted tion to Wooler in Northumbria. In a letter above, Walter Scott reported: to his friend William Clerk dated August Unfortunately, Scott’s -pound rod no , he recorded some of their experiences. longer survives, but his brass fishing reel We used sometimes to pursue the can still be seen in the collections of the amusement with an excellent friend [N]ext morning’s sun beheld us on our National Museum of Scotland in Edin - now no more [Capt. Scott died in June journey, through a pass in the Cheviots, burgh. In Scott’s review of Sir Humphry  and left his entire estate to his upon the back of two special nags, and

     man Thomas behind with a portman- teau, and two fishing-rods fastened across his back, much in the style of St. Andrew’s Cross. . . . Out of the brooks with which these hills are intersected, we pull trouts of half a yard in length, as fast as we did the perches from the pond at Pennycuick . . . all the day we shoot, fish, walk and ride: dine and sup upon fish struggling from the stream.

William Clerk, to whom this letter was addressed, was a friend of Scott’s at Edinburgh University, where they both studied law. Clerk, too, was an angler. In his memoirs, begun at Ashestiel in , Scott told of a fishing expedition with Clerk and several other friends.

Wood, water, wilderness itself had an inexpressible charm for me and I had a dreaming way of going much further than I intended so that unconsciously my return was protracted and my par- ents had sometimes serious cause of uneasiness. For example, I once set out with Mr. George Abercromby, now Lord Abercromby, Mr. William Clerk and some others to fish in the lake above Howgate [a hamlet south of Penicuick, Midlothian] and the stream which descends from it into the Esk. We break- fasted at Howgate and fished the whole day and while we were on our return next morning I was easily seduced by Will Clerk, then a great intimate, to visit Pennycuick House the seat of his family. His delay in returning home following this expedition caused a certain amount J. M. W. Turner engraving of Ashestiel from J. G. Lockhart’s Life of Sir Walter Scott (). of alarm in his father’s household, and he was suitably chastised. It is largely thanks to fishing that Scott rediscovered his unfinished manuscript of Waverley not long after moving into Abbotsford. Scott himself told the story of its rediscovery in his “General Preface to the Waverley Novels” ().

I happened to want some fishing-tackle for the use of a guest, when it occurred to me to search the old writing-desk already mentioned, in which I used to keep articles of that nature. I got access to it with some difficulty; and, in look- ing for lines and flies, the long-lost manuscript presented itself. I immedi- ately set to work to complete it, accord- ing to my original purpose.

And complete it Scott did. Waverley, gen- erally regarded as the first historical novel in the western tradition, was published in , and such was its success that it was quickly followed by a series of other his- torical novels. Apart from Scott’s account of the re - discovery of his manuscript, the scene was depicted in oils by the artist Charles Sir Walter Scott Finding the Manuscript of Waverley in an Attic by Charles Martin Hardie (–). The painting Martin Hardie. Oil on canvas, . By kind permission of Abbotsford Trust. can be seen at Abbotsford House.    While living at Abbotsford, Scott enjoyed walking, fishing, and picnicking at Cauldshiels Loch, which became part of the Abbotsford estate in . Scott made a number of references to this loch in his journal, which covers the years from  to the year of his death, . In his entry for  August , he records visit- ing the loch with Dr. and Mrs. Brewster and their family. Although they fished the loch, they did not have a great deal of suc- cess; the children managed to catch four trout. George Cole Bainbridge, author of the acclaimed Fly Fisher’s Guide (), had bought the neighboring Gattonside estate and was a frequent visitor to Abbots ford. Initially, Scott was not enam- oured of Bainbridge and referred to him as the “cursed banker.” However, Scott soon revised his opinion, and the two became friends, frequently dining at each other’s houses, and Bainbridge was grant- ed permission to fish at Cauldshiels Loch on a number of occasions. As well as fishing his loch, Scott liked to fish the Tweed (not surprisingly, as he lived on its banks). James Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd,” a friend and fellow angler, recalls Scott “toiling in the Tweed to the waist.” However, it seems that Scott was no purist when it came to fish- ing and was not averse to float fishing when the occasion demanded, as the fol- lowing  May  entry from his journal reveals: “I have been at Gladdies Wiel [a pool on the Tweed] when I have caught two trouts, one with the fly the other with the bobber. I have landed both.” Not only did Scott resort to float fish- ing on occasion, but he also very much enjoyed the now highly illegal method of “burning the water.” This method in - volved using a torch of burning peat or Scott Monument in Edinburgh. Engraving from coal, known as a blaze, to illuminate the J. G. Lockhart’s Life of Sir Walter Scott (). water and, when a salmon was spotted, to spear it with a leister. James Hogg relates one such story about Scott when he lived at Ashestiel, which did not quite go as planned.

He, and Skene of Rubislaw, and I were out one night about midnight, leister- ing kippers [salmon about to spawn] in Tweed, about the end of January, not long after the opening of the river for fishing, which was then on the tenth, and Scott having a great range of the river himself, we went up to the side of the Rough haugh of Elibank; but when we came to kindle our light, behold our peat was gone out. This was a terrible disappointment; but to think of giving up our sport was out of the question, so we had no other shift save to send Rob Fletcher all the way through the dark- ness, the distance of two miles, for another fiery peat. . . . Rob Fletcher came at last, and old Mr. Laidlaw of the Peel with him, carrying a Nineteeth-century engraving of burning the water. Author’s collection.

     lantern, and into the river we plunged in A verse of an old song; and during the Sadly, Sir Walter Scott (he was created a frail bark which had suffered some very time he was reciting these lines, a baronet in ) passed away at his deadly damage in bringing up. We had a down went the boat to the bottom, beloved Abbotsford on  September fine blazing light, and the salmon began plunging us all into the Tweed, over , following a trip to Italy. His legacy, to appear in plenty, “turning up sides head and ears. It was no sport to me at however, lives on in the form of the Scott like swine;” but wo be to us, our boat all, for I had no change of raiment at began instantly to manifest a disposition Ashestiel, but that was a glorious night Monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street to sink, and in a few minutes we reached for Scott, and the next day was no Gardens and the nearby Waverley Gleddie’s Weal, the deepest pool in all worse. Railway Station, named after Scott’s that part of Tweed. When Scott saw the Waverley novels. In , the Hardy terror that his neighbour old Peel was Not all of Scott’s attempts at harpooning Anglers’ Guide launched a set of six new in, he laughed till the tears blinded his a salmon ended in a nocturnal dip in the salmon flies, the Scott series, which bear eyes. Always the more mischief the bet- ter sport for him. “For god’s sake, push Tweed. C. S. M. Lockhart, in The Cen - the names of several of his published her to the side!” roared Peel. “Oh, she tenary Memorial of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. works: Ivanhoe, Waverley, Rob Roy, The goes fine,” said Scott. (), gives a vivid account of Scott suc- Black Dwarf, The Lady of the Lake, and “An’ gin the boat war bottomless, cessfully harpooning a -pound salmon Marmion. The Guide claimed that these An’ seven miles to row.” in the Tweed at Abbotsford. flies had been “designed in November,

Left: Hardy’s  Pattern Salmon Flies, the “Scott” Series, Hardy Anglers’ Guide, .

Below: The “Scott” Series Salmon Flies, Hardy Anglers’ Guide, .

   , by a committee of practical salmon anglers and fly dressing experts.” It also stated that “as a set of killing patterns they will be hard to beat, and are worth inspection by all salmon anglers.” Following World War I, the Scott series was reintroduced and appeared in the Hardy Anglers’ Guide from  to . However, by this time it was claimed that the flies had been designed by J. J. Hardy, one of the founders of Hardy Brothers and author of Salmon Fishing (). Whether this was a gen- uine mistake or whether J. J. Hardy was claiming these flies as his own invention, it is hard to know. What is clear, howev- er, is that the flies appeared to fall out of favor and were not listed in the guides after . Although the Scott series of salmon flies may no longer grace the casts of salmon anglers, the name Sir Walter Scott lives on, especially through his poetical works and historical novels, which are still popular with the general public and loom large in university courses devoted to Scottish literature. The story of Scott as an angler and reviewer of angling books is less well known, and it is hoped that this article may help to redress the balance.



. There are numerous accounts of Scott’s life, both online and in print. I found Sir Walter Scott –: A Bicentenary Exhi - bition most useful. The catalog was published in Edinburgh by HMSO in . The exhibi- tion was organized jointly by the Faculty of Advocates and the National Library of Scotland. Other biographies that I have found useful include J. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott (London: Adam & Charles Black, New Popular Edition, ); Eileen Dunlop, Sir Walter Scott: A Life in Story (Edinburgh:  National Museums Scotland, ); and A. N. The Scott series of flies, tied by the author. Wilson, A Life of Walter Scott: The Laird of Abbotsford (London: Pimlico, ). . Walter Scott, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (London: T. Cadell and W. New Popular Edition, ), . . Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, . Davies,  and ). . Ibid., . . Anderson, The Journal of Sir Walter . David Kilpatrick, Walter Scott’s Kelso . Quoted in David Hewitt (ed.), Scott on Scott, . (Kelso, Scotland: Kelso and District Amenity Himself (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic . James Hogg, Domestic Manners and Society, ), . Press, ), . Private Life of Sir Walter Scott (London: The . C. S. M. Lockhart, The Centenary . Ibid., . A complete collection of Folio Press, ), . Memorial of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (London: Scott’s Waverley novels (a series of novels . Anderson, The Journal of Sir Walter Virtue & Co., ), . written between  and , which takes its Scott, . . Sir Walter Scott, review of Salmonia: name from the first novel, Waverley), com- . Hogg, Domestic Manners and Private or Days of Fly-Fishing in Quarterly Review plete with Scott’s newly written general pref- Life of Sir Walter Scott, –. (vol. , October , London: John ace, was published by Cadell and Company in . Lockhart, The Centenary Memorial of Murray), . Edinburgh between  and . Sir Walter Scott, Bart., –. . Ibid., . . W. E. K. Anderson, ed., The Journal of . Hardy Anglers’ Guide quoted in Andrew . Quoted in J. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Sir Walter Scott (Edinburgh: Canongate Herd, Hardy Brothers Anglers’ Bible (Ellesmere, Walter Scott (London: Adam & Charles Black, Books, ), . U.K.: The Medlar Press, ), .

     Darkness and Light: Etchings by Kerr Eby (Canadian American, –)

  A Bank Street Balcony, etching on paper (plate:  ⁄ x  ⁄ inches), . Used with permission from Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of Mrs. Harry Katz in memory of Harry Katz. ...

   ’ , artist Kerr Eby was art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, then lived in New England known to step outside and gaze at the darkened land- for much of his adult life. Eby served in both world wars for the Oscape regardless of the weather. Close friend and fellow United States; he earned the rank of sergeant first class in World artist Robert Lawson described Eby “standing out there in the War I and was hired as an artist correspondent for Abbott starlight, his hair blown by the wind, looking out at the twin- Laboratories during World War II. The subjects depicted in kling lights in the valley, at the bulk of his old house and the Eby’s work serve equally as an autobiography: he worked from great maple branches etched black against the sky. ‘God,’ he’d what he saw in life, both harrowing and beautiful. always say, ‘isn’t it swell?’” Here, beneath the night sky, we imag- Eby used etching to its full potential as an artistic medium. ine Eby contemplating nature’s beauty. Nature is reduced to its In his work, light and dark serve as critical dualities within a simplest of forms, darkness and light—contrasts that together language of tone, line, and space. To master this vocabulary, reveal the world around us. One could say these thoughtful Eby experimented with various approaches for composing and moments form the foundation for Eby’s artistic inspiration. marking his plate. In his  etching, A Bank Street Balcony, Kerr Eby was generally regarded as one of the most techni- Eby captures the light bouncing off bedsheets as they are hung cally accomplished American printmakers of his time. He prac- to dry from a clothesline over a shadowed street. The silhou- ticed alongside great artists such as Frank W. Benson, John ettes from nearby rooftops softly overtake the sheets as they Taylor Arms, and Childe Hassam during the early- to mid-twen- blow in the wind while solid moments of darkness, glimpsed tieth century. Working primarily in intaglio, Eby developed through the balcony windows, quiet the scene. Eby’s use of more than two hundred prints throughout his lifetime depicting dark and light work harmoniously to convey an absorbing an array of subjects, among them New England landscapes, field beauty in this humble moment. sports (including fly fishing), and battlefield scenes. Eby gained recognition in the art world for a series of etchings Eby was born in Japan to Canadian Methodist missionaries transferred from images in the sketchbook he carried on the bat- and lived abroad the first four years of his life before the fami- tlefield during World War I. In these prints, the depths of Eby’s ly returned to Canada. He moved to New York in  to study talent is exposed. When asked about his work, Eby passionately

   stated, “Into these war things I have put all I know, technically pull etchings in his studio. Dark stubborn lines across his plate and otherwise. I actually do not care a ‘tinker’s dam’ whether they began to transform into the edges of trees bordering a snow-cov- are art or not, so long as they say what I want to say.” Eby’s etch- ered field or the outline of a hunter and his dogs as they patient- ings speak loud and clear, ironically, in a manner only translat- ly trek through the wilderness. When he was away from home, able through art. In A Kiss for the Kaiser (), a soldier shields Eby drew ancient streetscapes twisted by gravity, sea fishermen himself from the blast as he fires his own artillery. There is no coming in from the catch, violent seascapes, and silent forests. In harmony in Eby’s treatment of light and dark in this image; the  etching pictured below, Eby selectively wiped the plate of instead, the shadows appear paralyzed as they struggle to stand ink to softly cradle the light of a campfire being tended within a their ground against the jarring light. Eby delivers an unforgiving shadowy forest. Although the scene is centered on the camp’s rawness in his portrayal of the soldier’s experience: the viewer is activities, Eby allows the night sky to reveal the tops of pine trees faced with the stark contrast between the power of man and in the distance, subtly reminding viewers of the forest’s depth one’s own mortality. and allure. The scene is quiet and tranquil, displaying a mutual Although the war left its shadow on Eby, he searched for beau- respect between mankind and nature. ty within the delicate boundary where the forces of nature and Eby’s work can be found in renowned museum collections human life coexist. In , he settled in Westport, Connecticut, across the country, including the Smithsonian American Art where he owned property bordering the Aspetuck River. Eby’s Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Sterling and hand submitted to the landscape around him as he continued to Francine Clark Art Institute. Last year, the American Museum of

A Kiss for the Kaiser, drypoint etching on paper   (plate:  ⁄ x  ⁄ inches), . Plate I in Kerr Eby, War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, ).

Untitled, night scene by water edge, drypoint etching on   paper (sheet:  ⁄ x  ⁄ inches), . Used with permission from the collection of the Williams College Museum of Art. Gift of Daniel A. Dickinson, class of , in honor of his aunt Phyllis Eby, widow of the artist. M...

       Spring Freshets, etching and sandpaper ground on paper (plate:  ⁄ x  ⁄ inches), . From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Fly Fishing welcomed Kerr Eby’s  etching of an angling . John Taylor Arms, Kerr Eby, – (New York: A. H. scene, Spring Freshets, into its collection. This piece is a perfect Harlow, ). example of Eby’s use of expressive line and soft toning to intro- . Giardina, Kerr Eby: The Complete Prints, biographical infor- duce us to his subject. Gazing at the overflowing falls, we are mation, –. left to contemplate Eby’s marks as they organically join to form . Arms, Kerr Eby; Giardina, Kerr Eby: The Complete Prints, crooked trees that find their footing along the rocky ledge Appendix A: Kerr Eby, “Etching—Technique,” –. . “Dramatic War Etchings by Kerr Eby,” The Evening Star above while an angler finds his in the riverbed below. (Washington, D.C.,  December ), B-. https://chroniclingamerica .loc.gov/lccn/sn/--/ed-/seq-/, accessed  October . A F . Giardina, Kerr Eby: The Complete Prints, . C M . Light in the Woods is the title listed by the catalogue raisonné, No. . Giardina, Kerr Eby: The Complete Prints. o

. “Kerr Eby: Born —Died ,” The Westporter-Herald ( November ), , quoted in Bernadette Passi Giardina, Kerr Eby: The Complete Prints (Bronxville, N.Y.: M. Hausberg, ), .

   America’s First Fly-Fishing Rod Factory in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts: A Short History by Thomas Johnson

All photos by Thomas Johnson except where noted

Site of the Horace Gray & Son fishing rod factory on Amethyst Brook in Pelham, Massachusetts. The factory later produced small-batch bamboo rods for the Montague City Rod Company. The site is still in commercial use.

 B  from the this original facility would, over the years, few years adopted the use of a steam eastern hills through the towns of pass to different companies and locations engine–powered beveling machine to APelham and Amherst in western in the Pioneer Valley, through which the increase output. Calvin passed away in Massachusetts to the Fort River and final- Connecticut flows. Like other areas in . The next year, Horace Gray sold ly to the largest river in New England, the New England, the region deserves a spe- most of the company to Joseph Ward, Connecticut. At the higher elevations of cial place in fly-fishing history. from whom it then passed in  to this Pioneer Valley drainage, there are Horace Gray & Son (Calvin) estab- Eugene P. and Leander Bartlett, local small native populations of brook trout. lished the rod factory in  on the site Pelham boys who had started working at Similar streams can be found throughout of a sawmill founded in . The origi- the factory in . In  Eugene was New England. But along the banks of this nal rods were crafted by Calvin from made superintendent; later in the year, he seemingly typical brook, fly-fishing his- native ash, maple and birch, lancewood married. Thus, at age twenty-one he had tory was made. It was there, near the from Mexico, and greenheart from apprenticed under Calvin Gray, begun Pelham-Amherst town line, that the first Africa. In , they expanded opera- running the Pelham plant, and married factory in the United States that manu- tions when they acquired and moved the owner’s daughter, Jane Ward. His factured fly rods was established in the production to an  gristmill on an brother, Leander Bartlett, sold his interest mid-s; in another fifty years, it adjacent larger site  feet upstream. to Eugene and left Pelham in , then evolved into the largest rod producer in That same year, Calvin Gray devised the with other partners established the the world. Manufacturing equipment, production of six-piece, split-cane rods Montague City Rod Company in  in skilled craftsmen, and knowledge from by hand, and at some point in the next the north of the Pioneer Valley.      Bob Irvin, American Rivers

This recently surfaced Eugene P. Bartlett split-cane rod was manufactured in Pelham sometime between  and . It is a three-piece, six-strip hexagonal rod and is approximately ½ feet long—apparently the “Best Light Fly” model listed in the  catalog. It features a German silver John Krider–style reel seat with rails, a stained rattan grip, agate stripping guides, bayonet ferrules, and ring guides. Note the band fastener at the swell. A circa  Hendryx reel is mounted.

Sara Wilcox

This circa – Varney rod from the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing is illustrated on page  in A. J. Campbell’s Classic & Antique Fishing Tackle. Compare it with the Eugene P. Bartlett rod shown above, which predates it by a decade.

Between the years  and  at tion, signed by Bartlett, states that the For example, Mark B. Aldrich, Eugene’s Pelham, Eugene Bartlett produced six- company would provide a sample of any grandson, in an oral history conducted section split-cane rods that were among rod, and if potential buyers were not sat- for the town of Pelham Historical the best being produced anywhere in isfied, they could return it at Bartlett’s Society, notes that rods were manufac- America. What is more, the higher-priced expense. He also wrote, “To anyone wish- tured for Abbey & Imbrie in New York items brought to market by Montague in ing rods not contained in this catalogue, City, E. K. Tryon in Phil adelphia, and the the next decades continued to be pro- or that we not make, we will gladly make Marshall Field’s department store in duced at the Amethyst Brook factory, such rods either from a sample or descrip- Chicago. The last company was re - continuously run by Eugene after the tions furnished.” The “Best Hexagonal nowned both for wholesaling and its brothers joined companies in . As Section Split Bamboo Rods” came in three flagship retail store, which sold luxury an  newspaper article notes, “Mr. weight models—light, medium, and merchandise under a Tiffany-glass ceil- Bartlett sells his rods directly to the city heavy—and those with German silver ing and, in the early s, was the dealers, but many sportsmen in this mountings sold for $ apiece (roughly largest department store in the world. region get their rods of him, where they $ today). The catalog provides clear (In cidentally, Marshall Field was born in know the genuine article to be had.” evidence that Bartlett rods were at this Conway, Massachusetts, less than  An  Eugene P. Bartlett catalog time not sold only through retailers. miles from Pelham.) However, possibly notes in an introductory statement that Until now it was not thought that the first documented example of a the company was established in — rods made at Pelham by E. P. Bartlett Bartlett-marked rod recently surfaced highlighting its continuity from Horace during the decade before the facility when a fly fisher living in New Mexico, Gray & Son—and therefore was “no new- became part of Montague were maker James Buckmelter, donated it to fledged concern.” The catalog introduc- marked, as most were sold wholesale. American Riv ers, the nongovernmental

   The main factory for mass-producing rods was in Montague City, actually a vil- lage in the town of Montague located near Turners Falls, with its dam and power canal on the Connecticut River. The factory owners selected this location for the inexpensive hydroelectricity used to power the rod-manufacturing ma - chin ery and the railroad that would take the rods to markets around America. In - dicating the significance of the rod com- pany, its treasurer, C. W. Hazelton, also served in that role for the Turners Falls Company, which developed Montague City and the adjacent Turners Falls planned industrial town beginning in . Between  and , the com pany was the largest producer of fly and other fishing rods in the world. Reels were The former Montague City Rod Company factory in Montague City, Massachusetts. produced at a factory in Brooklyn, New This is where the company mass-produced its less expensive bamboo rods. It sits York. According to Horace Gray & Son: abandoned since Montague closed its doors in the early s. The First Fishing Rod Factory in the United States, a catalog from the early organization that helped with the re - of approximately fifty craftsmen. Hitch - s contained sixty pages of rods, moval of the Amethyst Brook millpond cock also noted that the Pelham facility another sixty pages of reels, and some dam (see sidebar below, “The Factory on “was the first known factory in which fishing twenty pages of rod components and the River”). Buckmelter had purchased it rods were made by machinery” (italics other fishing supplies. Records indicate at a New Jersey estate sale in  and mine). Town of Pelham historian C. O. that in the teens of the twentieth centu- fished with it for the next sixty years. Parmenter wrote in  that Montague ry, the company was still manufacturing In , it was reported by Pioneer was producing three-quarters “all of approximately three-quarters of all the Valley historian Frederick Hills Hitch cock goods,” including split-cane poles, “using split-bamboo rods in the world. To meet that some , rods, from among  bamboo from Calcutta and Japan [sic].” this large demand, the original  fac- styles, “of all grades, ranging from boys’ It appears that before the end of the cen- tory in Montague City was replaced in cheap rods to the finest silver mounted tury, Tonkin cane was being used for at  with a large new factory on Rod split bamboo rods” were being produced least some split-cane rods made in Shop Road, which today still stands, by Montague each year with a workforce Pelham. albeit largely abandoned.

THE FACTORYONTHE RIVER

I fish the Amethyst with my circa  Amherst Fishing Rod Company “Amherst” Tonkin bamboo rod and recently caught a mature brookie in the remnant of the fac- tory millpond. The dam was removed in the early s, in part to facilitate upstream spawning by trout, American eel, and lamprey. The factory site is today still in commercial use, and at the edge of the parking area, overlooking the brook, the Town of Pelham Historical Society has placed an informational plaque in recog- nition of the Horace Gray & Son factory. Access to the brook is through the Ame - thyst Brook Conser vation Area on Pelham Road in Amherst, downstream from the former factory (upstream is a reservoir that contributes to the Amherst water sup- ply). To access the small mill pond rem- nant, one must wade up the brook after first following a segment of the Robert The historic plaque placed at the Horace Gray & Son rod Frost Trail, which crosses through the con- factory site by the Town of Pelham Historical Society. servation area.

     In  the company was renamed the Leander Aldrich. He and his brother od (the AFRC’s original building is locat- Montague City Rod & Reel Company, Mark also worked at the Montague City ed two doors away from me in South and stock was offered to the public. It factory after the closing of the Pelham Amherst). AFRC lasted only until , suffered through the Great Depression, shop in . Leander’s son, Richard but for those few post-WWII transitional when demand lessened, and World War Aldrich, recently told me about two sum- years, it produced a small number of the II and the subsequent Red China embar- mers that he worked at AFRC helping to most finely crafted bamboo rods made go, when the prized Tonkin cane bam- glue the rod sections together. He noted in the United States at the time. My boo could not be obtained. It also that the business closed because it could Amherst model rod, #, illustrates this appears to have failed to effectively not afford the cost of adequately market- fine craftsmanship. The butt cut, mis- embrace the new fiberglass rod-manu- ing its rods; this is one of the reasons mated nodule, and flame-treated Tonkin facturing technologies following the war. given by Mark Aldrich for the mid-s split-cane rod is  feet long and weighs Montague closed in , but other demise of Montague, closed by its then- ½ ounces. It uses finely made Ambrac Pioneer Valley businessmen established owner, the American Fork and Hoe hardware, including a knurled locknut, the Amherst Fishing Rod Company Company (True-Temper brand). tungsten snake guides, a hardened (AFRC) in , relying on the bamboo- AFRC, which never had more than a Mildarbide alloy butt guide, and a rod expertise of the former Amethyst dozen employees, was more of a shop cocobolo wood rod shank. Brook factory superintendent: none than a factory and thus not unlike the The provenance of these materials illus- other than Eugene Bartlett’s grandson, Thomas Rod Company of the same peri- trates the high quality of rods produced in

Site of the short-lived Amherst Fishing Rod Company factory in South Amherst, Massachusetts. The building was originally built to can locally grown fruit and today serves as off-campus student housing.

The top-of-the-line Amherst Fishing Rod Company “Amherst” model, #. A pre-war Pflueger Medalist model  reel is mounted.

   Varney’s Pioneer Valley rods, “The greatest Montagues were actually direct descendants of the Leonard ethic” (see photo on page ). That same ethic, influence, and craftsmanship passed on to AFRC through shop manager Leander Aldrich, who as a young man had worked under Varney at Montague. The cane and equipment, if not the people, attracted Dorsey and Maxwell, who established Thomas & Thomas a century after Pioneer Valley rod making started on Amethyst Brook. The rest is history.

The current Thomas & Thomas production facility in Greenfield, Massachusetts.  . C. O. Parmenter, History of Pelham, the Pioneer Valley during the immediate Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Mass. from  to  (Amherst, Mass.: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, ) and Wesley post-WWII period, when mass-produc- Flora). It is dense, hard, and has a high Autio, Horace Gray & Son: The First Fishing Rod tion and especially fiberglass were con- oil content, making it difficult and even Factory in the United States (Pelham, Mass.: spiring to the detriment of the fine bam- dangerous to work, but those properties Pelham [Massachusetts] Historical Society boo rod just as returning servicemen took also make it ideal for the finest musical monograph, ). Autio is a University of up fishing and other leisure pursuits. instruments, gun grips, knife handles, Massachusetts, Amherst professor and Pelham AFRC produced some of the first high- and other inlay applications. The use of resident; the monograph is available on the tech rods anywhere, replacing traditional cocobolo for rod shanks by other manu- society’s website (http://pelhamhistory.org). German silver metalwork and use of agate facturers during this era is unknown but . The Pelham Historical Society gave me with newly manufactured materials con- unlikely for production rods. access to the Amherst Fly Rod Company Pelham ceived and made in America. The Pioneer Valley story then moves model bamboo fly rod (http://pelhamhs Ambrac—a white-nickel ( percent) to the town of Greenfield, located across .org/pa/index.php/Gallery/) and document silver alloy developed by Anaconda—was the river from Montague City, where the collection donated by Mark Bartlett Aldrich trademarked in  by the American Deerfield River joins the Connecticut. (–), the son of Royal Wesley Aldrich (–, superintendent of the Montague Brass Company, in Waterbury, Connecti - There, another veteran of the Montague factory in Pelham) and Lota Amanda Bartlett cut. It is strong, bright in appearance, and City plant, Sewell Dutton, bought the (–), the daughter of Eugene P. corrosion resistant. For these reasons, it remaining Tonkin cane stock and equip- Bartlett. The reference to Calvin Gray is from was primarily used for marine hardware ment from the defunct AFRC and in   these documents, in particular an unpub- fittings. Compared with the aluminum established a new production line for the lished  manuscript, “Montague City Rod and even plastic being used at the time by Angler’s Choice label. When he retired in Company,” by Michele B. Cutting, which is other rod makers, its use by AFRC for the , the equipment was sold to Tom part of the Pelham Historical Society’s reel-seat hardware is notable and perhaps Dorsey and Tom Maxwell, the founders Bartlett-Montague collection. The beveling unique. of Thomas & Thomas, which started machine is mentioned in “A Bay State Town Mildarbide is the trademarked name production in Turners Falls and is now with a History” in the  August  edition for a tungsten-based alloy originally located in Greenfield. This company, of the Springfield Sunday Union. made by the W. W. Mildrum Jewel Co. in today considered one of the most noted . James K. Garrett and Lenard Brooks, “The Rise and Fall of the Montague City Rod East Berlin, Connecticut. The company production makers of fly rods, is located    Company,” Montague Rod and Reel ( July was established in and made jewels less than miles as the crow flies from ), www.montaguerodandreel.com/ for manufacturing purposes, as well as the first fly-fishing rod factory on ///the-rise-and-fall-of-the-montague-city agate rod guides—one of the first U.S. Amethyst Brook—a thin blue line with -rod-company/. Accessed  November . manufacturers to do so after precision quite a history. This website piece is informative, but it drilling techniques developed by a Unique to the pioneering fly-fishing incorrectly states that Eugene and Leander Chicago lapidary company around  rod makers of the Pioneer Valley is the Bartlett “began working in the fishing rod displaced the handcraft methods used in single family who stayed in one area and factory of Joseph G. Ward.” In fact, the broth- Germany. In , Mildrum patented saw their skills cross four generations ers began working in the fishing rod “indus- the use of the alloy for textile machinery over nearly one hundred years, begin- try” in the Horace Gray & Son factory in  guides, then quickly adapted the tech- ning with Eugene P. Bartlett in  and for Gray senior, although Ward did purchase nology for rod hardware. An early ending with his great-grandson, Richard a majority stake in the company in . adopter, AFRC began using the new butt Aldrich, who was working in AFRC . This information is corroborated by guides manufactured by Mildrum the when it closed in the mid-s. During Bartlett-Montague documents in the archives of the Pelham Historical Society and in following year. that time, the valley saw the introduction Frederick Hills Hitchcock’s The Handbook of Cocobolo is a rare and expensive tropi- of skills and knowledge from outside the Amherst, Massachusetts (London: Forgotten cal hardwood from Central Amer ica used region. George I. Varney arrived at Books, Classic Reprint Series,  [originally for high-value woodwork. It comes from a Montague in  with years of experi- published in ]). See also A. J. Campbell, species that is now protected under CITES ence behind him, including experience Classic & Antique Fly-Fishing Tackle: A Guide (the Convention on International Trade in with H. L. Leonard. Campbell said of for Collectors & Anglers (Guilford, Conn.: The      Lyons Press, ), , in the section “Eugene Leonard started the first American factory in continued to produce small numbers of high- P. Bartlett, Fishing-Rod Manufacturer,” which Central Valley, New York, during .” We end rods under Montague’s own label; and a can be found in the “Classic Eastern Tackle” now know that Horace Gray & Son’s rod reel factory in Brooklyn, New York. It should chapter. manufacturing predated this by some two be noted that in the process of conducting . “A Fishpole Factory,” Greenfield Ga - decades. This new information has implica- research, I discovered some inaccuracies in zette and Courier ( August ). This news- tions for historians and collectors. As far as I the Mathewson article. It states that Eugene paper article is part of the Pelham Historical can discern, Homel was not aware of the rela- Bartlett was from Pelham, New York, when Society’s Bartlett-Montague collection, ob- tionship between these three companies he, and his brother Leander, were actually tained from Mark B. Aldrich and other (Gray, Bartlett, Montague), and thus the first born in Pelham, Massachusetts. It also states sources. The collection includes the tran- fly rods manufactured between  and  that he and Leander bought the J. G. Ward script of an oral history recording of Aldrich in the Pioneer Valley have been largely lost to Rod Company factory in Pelham from Joseph by Barbara Benda Jenkins for the Pelham history. Jon Mathewson, in “Gallery: The Ward in May , but not that Ward bought Historical Society conducted in February  Montague Rod & Reel Company” (The most of the Horace Gray & Son factory busi- and the  manuscript written by society American Fly Fisher [Winter , vol. , no. ness from Horace Gray in  (although Gray member Michele B. Cutting based on infor- ], ), cites Ward’s company but not its retained the remaining portion). mation gathered over the years by the long- antecedents. To his credit, the late A. J. . Autio, Horace Gray & Son, –. time town archivist, Robert Lord Keyes. Both Campbell highlights Horace Gray & Son in . Ibid., . Mark Aldrich and his brother Leander his classic work, but he does not properly .Autio, Horace Gray & Son, , and per- worked as young men at the Pelham factory; acknowledge Eugene P. Bartlett’s role between sonal communication with Richard Aldrich. after it closed, they worked at the Montague  (or earlier, as he became the de facto . In the Pelham Historical Society oral City plant. They were thus in an ideal posi- owner of the Pelham operation in ) and history, Mark B. Aldrich, when discussing the tion to have historic knowledge about the . Campbell does cite the positive influence difficulties of Montague during the Depres - Bartlett family, Montague, and the Amherst of George I. Varney upon joining Montague sion, noted: “The irony of the whole thing Fishing Rod Company, where Leander served around , but until the high-quality split- was that the Winchester Arms Company had as the factory superintendent. Whenever pos- cane fly rods (including custom orders) pro- been trying for a long time to buy it out, and sible, I confirmed information from the duced in Pelham by Eugene Bartlett in the last had they bought it out they would have con- archives through discussions with their two decades of the nineteenth century can be tinued to manufacture and probably even respective living sons, cousins Mark Aldrich carefully examined, just how much Varney gone into the glass rods and a lot of it would and Richard Aldrich. improved the “best of the Bartletts” is still be operating.” As Campbell notes (Classic . Cover page introductory statement, unknown. Now that such a Bartlett rod has & Antique Fly-Fishing Tackle, –),  Eugene P. Bartlett Catalogue and Price- come to light, this study can be done. Winchester had purchased the E. W. Edwards List, Montague City Rod Company file, . Parmenter, History of Pelham, Mass. company in . Edwards left five years later Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst, from  to , . to reopen his own plant in New Haven, Massachusetts. . It is not precisely known when Tonkin Connecticut. It is not known what “long . Ibid. cane was first introduced to America, much time” period Aldrich was referring to—i.e., . Ibid. less who first used it for split-cane rods. before or after the Edwards transaction. Logic . See, for example, Campbell, Classic & Charles H. Demarest did not purchase the would dictate that discussions with Montague Antique Fly-Fishing Tackle, . company synonymous with Tonkin until , would have occurred before Edwards. . Collectors have speculated that Bartlett- and at that time it was already supplying the . MotorBoating (February , vol. , Montague sold wholesale to Abbey & Imbrie, trade (www.tonkincane.com/history.html; no. ), following page , info-advertisement given the similarity in appearance of certain accessed  March ). Trade with China, titled “Anaconda Nickel Silver.” wood-rod models in catalogs of the late led by New England–based firms and ships, . Field & Stream (May ), , and s. In an oral history recording conducted expanded after the Tianjin Treaty of  and Scien tific American ( February , vol. by Barbara Benda Jenkins for the Pelham especially following the Civil War. There is lit- CXXII, no. ), . Historical Society in February , Mark tle doubt this happened first in America and . Thomas & Thomas, “About Us,” https: Aldrich confirms for the first time that not England, which lagged behind the United //thomasandthomas.com/pages/about-us. Ac - Bartlett rods were marketed through the top States in bamboo rod making by decades. In ces sed  November . As many know, retailers in the United States.  at the London Great Fisheries Exhibition, Thomas & Thomas was started by Dorsey and . In a conversation with a vintage bam- Hardy Bros. received a prestigious award for Maxwell in  in Chambersburg, Pennsyl - boo rod expert in Massachusetts, I was told “their” invention of the Palakona hexagonal vania. It was the opportunity to purchase the that he had seen one or two other Bartlett- bamboo rod in . It appears Tonkin was bamboo-rod manufacturing equipment and marked rods approximately fifteen years ago introduced in America during the late s “the largest cache of Tonkin bamboo in North within the state. However, no photographs or and was being used in Pelham for rods as early America” from Sewell Dutton that led to the other documentary proof is available from this as anywhere in America. T&T operations’  relocation to Turners source. In a recent conversation, American . Louis H. Everts, History of the Falls. Museum of Fly Fishing Deputy Director Yoshi Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume . Campbell, Classic & Antique Fly- Akiyama indicated that the museum was not II: History of Franklin and Hampden Counties Fishing Tackle, . aware of any previously discovered marked (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co., ). Bartlett rods. . Autio, Horace Gray & Son, ; Par - . Frederick Hills Hitchcock, The Hand - menter, History of Pelham, Mass. from  to book of Amherst, Massachusetts (London: , ; and Mathewson, “Gallery: The Forgotten Books, Classic Reprint Series,  Montague Rod & Reel Company,” , also [originally published in ]), . confirm this assertion. Montague purchased . Frederick Hills Hitchcock, The Hand - the (Thomas) Chubb Company in Post Mills, book of Amherst, Massachusetts (Amherst, Vermont, in , and although rods manu- Mass.: F. H. Hitchcock, ), . This state- factured there continued to be sold under the ment by Hitchcock contradicts what others Chubb label, in  Montague’s Vermont have found, including D. B. Homel in his factory alone produced , rods a year. At Antique & Collectible Fishing Rods: Identi - its height, the Montague empire consisted of fication and Value Guide (Bellingham, Wash.: factories in Montague City and Vermont for Forrest Park Publishers, third printing, mass-produced rods primarily sold whole- ). Homel states on page  that “Hiram sale; the original facility in Pelham, which

   The Reel Thing by Joe A. Pisarro

In the early s, the museum published a newsletter called the Greenheart Gazette. For this publication, longtime volunteer Joe Pisarro—for whom the museum’s Joe A. Pisarro Volunteer of the Year Award is named—wrote a column called “The Reel Thing.” The following gem is his inaugural piece (Volume , Number , Summer ).

,   and sometime fishing companion Donovan made a remark that threw me into a funk for Rdays. The topic, as it often is between us, was fly-fishing skill. “To couple your name with skill is to create an oxymoron,” he snorted. I don’t often go in for one-upmanship, but Donovan’s remark set me to brooding. How could I top him? Ob viously any thought of bettering him in fishing bordered on fantasy. If necessity is the mother of invention, then the non sequitur has to be the father of inspiration; it came to me. Now Lee Wulff is the acknowledged authority on the Atlantic salmon; Ernest Schwiebert has no peer in matching hatches, naming nymphs, and remembering rivers; Vincent Marinaro was the undisputed tsar of terrestrials; Lefty Kreh stands alone in the fief of knotdom; Ed Zern easily leads the pack in aging humor. But none of these regal figures begins to approach me in a rather esoteric branch of the sport, not even Donovan: that of losing flies. On that subject, I could write a book, titled, inevitably, How Do I Lose Thee? Well, let me count the ways. Anyone can lose flies by hanging his backcast in a stream- side hemlock, and I tug a forelock to no man in my proficien- cy in that method of fly disposal, a talent memorialized by my son, who penned these words: From The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Onions bring tears, vol. VIII (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., ), . Potatoes have eyes; Leaves are on trees huge muddlers, no-hackles, paraduns, and just about every And so are your flies. other known type. You name it and chances are I’ll have a box- ful in some pocket. To their credit, designers build in all sorts Then there are those—I should be so lucky!—who have a of security measures—zippers, Velcro, snaps, straps, buttons, hooked fish break off with a fly embedded in its jaw. But those hooks—everything but padlocks. It’s hopeless; they might just are minor-league tactics, requiring years to rack up the kind of as well save themselves the bother. I leave pockets unfastened, score that would impress Donovan. What distinguishes me as and short of some device that would automatically seal a pock- a fly-loser of high order is my gift for losing flies in volume. I et, I will go on leaving pocket flaps unclosed and my pockets mean I lose flies by the boxful. There are fishermen from the will continue to spew out flies by the boxful. Batten Kill to the Bitterroot who have acquired enough flies for Now, I grant this is not a distinction likely to cause other several seasons simply by having been downstream from me fishermen to churn with envy. Nor earn me a niche in the when a well-stuffed fly box floated within net reach. Angling Hall of Fame. But it is the one area of the sport where Fishing-garb designers are marvelously adept at fashioning I can top Donovan. vests and jackets with an unbelievable number of pockets to To say nothing of the gratitude of all those fishermen down- hold fly boxes. I, of course, cram each pocket with boxes stuffed stream from me. to the gills with flies of every description, from tiny nymphs to      President Jimmy Carter and the Late President George H. W. Bush Receive Heritage Award Honors from the American Museum of Fly Fishing

Sara Wilcox

The America fly, created and tied by Roger Plourde, was featured in the Heritage Awards given to the night’s honorees.

he A M  F F hosted its Karen Kaplan then presented the Heritage Awards, fittingly Heritage Award event honoring President Jimmy Carter featuring master tier Roger Plourde’s America fly. Accepting on Tand the late President George H. W. Bush on October  behalf of President Carter was Carlton Hicks, his fishing friend at the Racquet & Tennis Club in New York City. It was a won- of more than forty years; President Bush’s award was collected derful evening with friends and fishing stories, illuminating by his grandson and fellow angler Jeb Bush Jr. Both speakers speakers, and an array of auction items that illustrated the gave wonderful insight into the fishing lives of the two honorees. breadth and depth of the museum’s support from the fly-fish- The museum would like to thank the Carter Center and the ing community and beyond. George and Barbara Bush Foundation for their generous coop- Guests sat down to gifts of Wheatley fly boxes donated by eration during the planning of this event. We would also like to REC Components, each containing a favorite fly of both hon- extend our heartfelt gratitude to the following auction donors: orees: President Carter’s Black Ant and President Bush’s Blue Yoshi Akiyama, All Waters Fly Fishing, Ancient Ozarks National Charm. AMFF President Karen Kaplan was warm and welcom- History Museum, Arms Reach, Bass Pro Shops, Berkshire ing as the evening’s host. Auctioneer Nick Dawes expertly took Rivers Fly Fishing, Big Cedar Lodge, Steve and Sandra Bogdan, the stage for the live auction to raise funds for AMFF’s exhibi- Mark Comora, Nick Dawes, Harry Desmond, Paul Dixon, tion program, which is focusing on the Trophy Sporting Art Dogwood Canyon National Park, E. J. Gallo, Brita Fordice, Collection (the museum’s largest art acquisition to date) and Adam Franceschini, the George and Barbara Bush Foundation, our space at the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Jim Heckman, the Hollenbeck Club, J. H. Becker Rod Works, Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri. Karen Kaplan, Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail, Walter The special guest speaker was Johnny Morris, founder of Matia, Johnny Morris, Mud Dog Flies, John Mundt, El Wonders of Wildlife and founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops. Pescador, Rebecca Redd, Mike Rice, Robert Rubin, Scientific He gave a heartfelt and moving speech about the important Anglers, Sea Island, Rich Strolis, Yashuji Sugai, Sulu Collection, role fishing continues to play in his life and that of his family Paul and Anke Volcker, Wild Rivers Press, and the Wonders of and friends. Since President Carter was in office, Johnny has Wildlife. worked with every presidential administration on initiatives related to public land access and outdoor recreation.    Event photos by Jack McCoy

Sulu Grant, AMFF Vice President Gary Grant, Marye Tisch, AMFF Trustee Richard Tisch, and Jane Simoni mingle at the cocktail reception.

This child’s chair painted by Yoshi Akiyama was a popular silent auction item.

Bob Ziehmer, Jeannie Morris, Johnny Morris, and auctioneer Nick Dawes chat before dinner.

Andrew Richter browses the silent auction.

AMFF Trustee Mark Comora and Arlene Comora enjoy the live auction.

     Good friends AMFF Trustee Leigh Perkins, Johnny Morris, Jeannie Morris, and AMFF Trustee Annie Perkins catch up during the festivities.

Longtime President Carter friend and fishing partner Carlton Hicks accepts the award on the president’s behalf.

Richard Alsop, AMFF Trustee David Beveridge, and Loli Wu enjoy a spirited conversation between courses.

Jeb Bush Jr. pays tribute to his late grandfather. Jeb Bush Jr., Karen Kaplan, Johnny Morris, and Carlton Hicks pose for a photo at evening’s end.

   Museum News

Jess Westbrook fishing with his son, Kase. Photo courtesy of Jess Westbrook.

Museum Adds Ambassador During this time, Jess began mentoring children in foster care. The timing was perfect. He was looking for a way to give Jess Westbrook of the Mayfly Project has joined the museum’s back to the community through the sport that had helped him ambassador program. over some tough hurdles. It seemed that during a most chaotic Jess and his wife Laura founded the Mayfly Project in time in their lives, foster children too could find an anchor in Arkansas in . The project’s mission is to support children the outdoors. They could take a break from being worried and in foster care through fly fishing and to introduce them to local simply spend time in nature catching fish. They could find water ecosystems. This introduction to a rewarding hobby pro- home rivers even while feeling like they didn’t feel have a home. vides opportunities to have fun, feel supported, and develop We’re pleased to welcome Jess to the ambassador team. meaningful connection with the outdoors. In , the Westbrooks partnered with Kaitlin Barnhart, who was running a similar program in Idaho, to form the now-national project Recent Donations to the Collection (https://themayflyproject.com). John O. Sands of Murrels Inlet, South Carolina, donated a Jess’s idea for the project came from his own use of fly fish- portfolio of twelve hand-colored lithographs by John Leech ing as a therapeutic tool to manage anxiety. In , Jess and titled Mr. Briggs and His Doings, published in  by Bradbury Laura’s son, Kase, was born. Soon after, Jess started experienc- and Evans, London. Mary A. Finlay of Payson, Arizona, sent us ing intense anxiety attacks, which he had never had before. He a collection of historic photographs and film belonging to her had been fly fishing since he was six years old, but something father, Dick Finlay. Nick Lyons of Woodstock, New York, gave changed for him when a friend stepped in to help by getting us a portrait of himself drawn by Mari Lyons. him out on the water. “I found that when I was on the river, I C. P. Heaton of Gainesville, Florida, sent us forty saltwater forgot about everything but fishing,” explained Jess. “When we flies tied by Captain Bill Smith, in original packaging. And are fly fishing, we are so concentrated on casting, mending, Diane Hoback of La Verne, California, donated a collection of presenting good drifts, etc., that we forget about everything framed flies containing nine framed by Bob Hoback and one else around us.” framed by William Cushner.      Samantha Pitcher Samantha Museum members gathered on September  for Hidden Treasures: Unusual and Not-Often-Seen Items from the Collection. Deputy Director Yoshi Akiyama brought out selected pieces from the museum archives, including some counterfeit reels and their genuine doppelgangers. Heather Yushak

On December , the museum hosted its annual Hooked on the Holidays event. Families joined us for a fun-filled afternoon of activities, from making Christmas cards to decorating trout cookies and tying clown flies with Yoshi. While escaping the win- ter wonderland outside, guests stayed warm by the fireplace and enjoyed exploring the museum. Thank you to all who shared this special time of year with us.

Upcoming Events Events take place on the museum grounds in Manchester, Vermont, unless otherwise noted.

February  Izaak Walton Award honoring Flip Pallot Ocean Reef Club Key Largo, Florida

March  Tie One On & Iron Fly Contest : p.m.–: p.m.

March  Frequent Fly Tier: multilevel fly-tying instruction : a.m.–: p.m.

May (TBD) Council Members Outing Potatuck Club, Connecticut

July , , , and  (Thursdays) Kids Clinics : a.m.–: a.m.

August 

Sara Wilcox Sara th Annual Fly-Fishing Festival : : Lance Hidy delighted guests at a December  reception a.m.– p.m. with stories of his father and events that led to his writing the  Austin Hogan Award–winning article “Vernon S. Always check our website (www.amff.org) for additions, ‘Pete’ Hidy: The Chronology of a Reluctant Fishing Icon.” updates, and more information or contact () - or The award, which recognizes exemplary contributions to [email protected]. The museum’s e-mail newsletter offers up- the American Fly Fisher, was presented by former Journal to-date news and event information. To subscribe, look for the link on our website or contact the museum. Committee Chair and Trustee Emeritus Jim Heckman and featured an original drawing by Austin Hogan.

   

J. Michael Phelps

Alan Diodore is is a retired federal administrative law judge who received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law. He has been a fly fisher for more than fifty years and has fished extensively in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states and Ontario. He is a past president of the Anglers of the Au Sable and has done considerable pro bono work in the area of gas and oil litigation. Diodore lives on the North Branch of the Au Sable River in Crawford County, Michigan, with his wife, Janet, and their two ancient Brittanies, Charlie and Emily. He currently spends most of his time fly fishing, tying flies, and writing. His article, “Thomas Tod Stoddart: The Completely Scottish Angler,” appeared in the Fall  issue of this journal (vol. , no. ).

Jon Ward-Allen

Before his retirement seven years ago, Keith Harwood taught Latin and Greek for almost forty years at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, an institution founded in . He is a keen angler and fly dresser and is very much interested in the history of angling. Nowadays, he fishes mainly for trout on the River Wharfe, a beautiful stream that runs through the Yorkshire Dales National Park. He has written numerous articles for a vari- ety of magazines and is the author of several books. His most recent books include Angling Books: A Collector’s Guide (Coch-y-Bonddu Books, ), John Buchan On Angling (Medlar Press, ), The Trout Angler in Shetland, Past and Present (Medlar Press, ), and Sir Walter Scott on Angling (Medlar Press, ). He lives with his wife in the beautiful Ribble Valley, and when he is not fishing or writing, he helps to look after their four grandchildren.

Lauren Johnson

Thomas Johnson is new to fly fishing, but not to writing or history, having published a number of articles in peer-reviewed professional journals and completed research on his book about the history of public libraries in New England. He is retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who spent twenty-five years working and living around the world before moving to Amherst, Massachusetts. He continues to work part-time as a consultant and toted his Tenkara rod on a recent business trip to Afghanistan. When home, he fishes for trout with bamboo and fiberglass rods as he hunts for elusive native fish in the region’s streams and brooks. Earlier in life he was a rock climber; he notes that Yvon Chouinard’s creed of simplicity was as inspirational to his climbing then as it is to his fly fishing today.

     A Journal’s Journey

Some of the earliest issues of the American Fly Fisher. From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

“     fly fishing has been in devel- AMFF and the American Fly Fisher for a long and steadfast opment in America, its history has been unrecorded journey—one that has been recorded and is available to Oand the medium which would be most closely associat- inform and educate the angling community. Our sport contin- ed with the preserving of tradition and cultural enrichment, ues to flourish, and the American Fly Fisher will keep these the sporting magazine, has very deliberately turned its back on milestones alive in print and online. the historical presentation.” So wrote Vice President and Curator Many individuals have played a valuable part in the journal Austin S. Hogan in the Spring  edition of the American Fly since its  inception, but today, as we enter , I would Fisher (page ). Hogan noted that the lack of both historical like to shine a spotlight on Jim Heckman. Shortly after joining records and means of communication made it easy to under- the Board of Trustees in , Jim became an unwavering stand how fly fishers were uninformed and cut off from a nat- champion for the journal; eventually, he chaired the newly ural interest in history of the sport. “Certainly, the fly fisher can formed Journal Committee. His experience as an editor, have his pleasures without a knowledge of the past,” Hogan said, knowledge of fly-fishing history, and love of AMFF led the “yet, how much the greater that enjoyment if there is a knowl- journal through some of its largest endeavors, including digi- edge of his development, his creativeness over the ages, and the tizing past and current issues, and partnering with the Voelker companionship of an ancestry that took pride in the pursuit of Foundation to reinstate the Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing a most unusual and satisfying form of recreation.” Award. Jim’s efforts were not limited to the journal, however. Hogan was reporting on the state of the museum and the He curated several exhibits in the Gardner L. Grant Library launch of the journal in the second-ever issue of the American Fly (featuring magazine covers from the New Yorker, Trout, Field & Fisher. “With its advent,” he said, “there is no doubt we are again Stream, and Gray’s Sporting Journal) and is a steadfast sup- casting to a dark and secret stream for there is no precedent to porter of our public programs, fund-raising events, and exhib- guide us, no collected body of research material except what is in it celebrations. I am thrilled to share that Jim was recently our library to refer to, and, what is particularly difficult to face, a appointed trustee emeritus, a lifetime honorary position. potential readership almost completely uninformed as to the Passionate anglers near and far long to be connected to the details of the historic beginnings. . . . In every project the Museum history and the stories of fly fishing, which is why the American has undertaken, we have had to break new ground.” Fly Fisher has naturally become the way many people experi- Imagining that moment—when the leaders of AMFF knew ence the museum. On behalf of our readership, I want to thank that the journal would be an essential arm of the museum— Jim for his commitment to this publication and thank those fills me with excitement. Our quarterly publication has who bravely broke ground in . become a vehicle that has educated the public and served as historical reference for decades. The fly-fishing community is S F indebted to the pioneers whose forward thinking positioned E D Catch and Release the Spirit of Fly Fishing!

 Main Street • PO Box  Manchester,Vermont  Tel: () - • Fax: () - -: [email protected] : www.amff.org M J T      is Membership Dues (per annum) the steward of the history, traditions, and Patron , practices of the sport of fly fishing and pro- Sustainer  motes the conservation of its waters. The Contributor  museum collects, preserves, exhibits, studies, Benefactor  and interprets the artifacts, art, and literature Associate  of the sport and, through a variety of out- reach platforms, uses these resources to The museum is an active, member-oriented engage, educate, and benefit all. nonprofit institution. Membership dues include four issues of the American Fly Fisher; The museum provides public programs to unlimited visits for your entire family to fulfill its educational mission, including exhi- museum exhibitions, gallery programs, and bitions, publications, gallery programs, and special events; access to our ,-volume special events. Research services are available angling reference library; and a discount on for members, visiting scholars, students, edu- all items sold by the museum on its website cational organizations, and writers. Contact and inside the museum store, the Brookside [email protected] to schedule a visit. Angler. To join, please contact Samantha Pitcher at [email protected].  V We welcome contributions to the American Throughout the year, the museum needs volun- Fly Fisher. Before making a submission, teers to help with programs, special projects, please review our Contrib utor’s Guidelines events, and administrative tasks. You do not on our website (www.amff.org), or write to have to be an angler to enjoy working with us! request a copy. The museum cannot accept Contact Samantha Pitcher at [email protected] responsibility for statements and interpre- to tell us how we would benefit from your skills tations that are wholly the author’s. and talents. S The American Museum of Fly Fishing relies on the generosity of public-spirited individuals for substantial support. If you wish to contribute funding to a specific program, donate an item for fund-raising purposes, or place an advertise- ment in this journal, contact Sarah Foster at [email protected]. We encourage you to give the museum con sideration when planning for gifts, bequests, and memorials.