American Fly Fisher Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing

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

SUMMER 2007 VOLUME 33 NUMBER 3 A Summer Spin

Crayfish. Illustration by D. W. McGary.

OMETIMES FISHING ISN’T just about fly fishing. Some - ing the war years, addressing such details as obstacles to getting times even the American Fly Fisher isn’t just about fly fish- to water in the days of gas rationing, water pollution in days Sing. Sometimes we actually acknowledge other methods of before serious regulation, and motorless boating. But while fishing. And what better time to do that than summer? giving a sense of the work of it, he also captures its joys: the rit- Think about it. I’m guessing that many of our readers got uals, the bait gathering (worms, crayfish, minnows, hellgram- their first taste of this sport during long, warm, slightly more mites), and the being-out-in-it that we all love—a world of carefree days. I’m also guessing that more folks than not start- turtles and snakes, herons and egrets, sandpipers and ducks, ed with a rod not loaded with fly line. Some impaled living and various flies (horse-, dragon-, damsel-, butter-). When the things on a hook to attract bigger living things. Some trained twelve-year-old McGary gulps down an ice-cold orange drink a thumb to play its part when lobbing line from a bait-casting at the end of a hot, dehydrating day, the reader is right there reel. Some marveled at the efficiency and simplicity of a spin- with him. This memoir about a boy, his grandfather, and some ning rod. Many of us found our way to fly fishing through one fish is a great summer read. “Challenges and Delights” begins of these alternate routes. on page 2. Not only are these methods part of fishing history, but for We fly fishers and the rest of the world lost Ernest most of us, they are part of our personal histories, and there- Schwiebert in December 2005. In January 2007, his friend Jim fore part of who we are as fly fishers. Rikhoff was among a small group who gathered to bury his So I was most enthusiastic to be able to offer you a look at ashes by Argentina’s Caleufu River on Douglas Reid’s estancia. Paul Schullery’s “Spinners and Sinners: Crossing the Divide With “Homage to Patagonia: Schwiebert’s Friends Deliver His between Angling Subcultures.” Dating his own foray into seri- Ashes” (page 19), Rikhoff shares a little of this journey. ous fishing to his acquisition of a Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning We’re also sad to report the passing of museum friend reel, Schullery gives a brief history of spinning lures and reels, Gerald A. Hayes Jr., who died in February in Pennsylvania. The and of the fast evolution of the sport after World Wars I and II, museum has received many generous memorial contributions when progress in materials and leisure time came together in in his name. For more about Jerry, turn to page 22. an almost explosive way. He discusses the tensions among bait, As always, we report on important happenings in Museum spin, and fly fishers in terms of regulations, philosophy, con- News (page 24). We recognize and thank our annual fund servation issues, and class. He debunks some firmly held ideas donors on page 26. We announce our joint exhibit with the by and about both spin and fly fishers. Ultimately, he recog- Peabody Museum of Natural History (page 20). And we nizes the allure of both methods—at least personally. This encourage you to keep those cards and letters coming, as our engaging article begins on page 13. friends have done on page 23. About the same time I happened upon “Spinners and These sultry summer days, think back to your own fishing Sinners,” I read another piece that wasn’t really about fly fish- beginnings. ing per se, but had so much texture and historical sense of place that I wanted to find a home for it in these pages. The title pretty much sums it up: “Challenges and Delights: Fishing the Susquehanna at Steelton in 1943.” D. W. McGary gives an KATHLEEN ACHOR account of being a boy fishing that part of Pennsylvania dur- EDITOR THE AMERICAN MUSEUM Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing OF FLY FISHING SUMMER 2007 VOLUME 33 NUMBER 3 Preserving the Heritage of Fly Fishing TRUSTEES Challenges and Delights: Fishing the E. M. Bakwin Carl R. Kuehner III Susquehanna at Steelton in 1943 ...... 2 Michael Bakwin Nancy Mackinnon Foster Bam Walter T. Matia D. W. McGary Pamela Bates William C. McMaster, MD Duke Buchan III John Mundt Spinners and Sinners: Crossing the Divide Peter Corbin David Nichols between Angling Subcultures ...... 13 Jerome C. Day Wayne Nordberg Paul Schullery Blake Drexler Raymond C. Pecor Christopher Garcia Stephen M. Peet Homage to Patagonia: Schwiebert’s Friends Ronald Gard Leigh H. Perkins George R. Gibson III John Rano Deliver His Ashes...... 19 Gardner L. Grant John K. Regan Chris Gruseke Roger Riccardi Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing: James Hardman Kristoph J. Rollenhagen An Exhibition ...... 20 James D. Heckman, MD Robert G. Scott Arthur Kaemmer, MD Richard G. Tisch In Memoriam: Gerald A. Hayes Jr...... 22 Woods King III David H. Walsh James C. Woods Letters ...... 23 Museum News ...... 24 TRUSTEES EMERITI Charles R. Eichel Robert N. Johnson Contributors ...... 25 G. Dick Finlay David B. Ledlie W. Michael Fitzgerald Leon L. Martuch William Herrick Keith C. Russell ON THE COVER: D. W. McGary’s photograph of his grandson exploring the Paul Schullery same ledges he did as a child is featured in McGary’s article “Challenges and Delights: Fishing the Susquehanna at Steelton in 1943,” which begins OFFICERS on page 2. Chairman of the Board Robert G. Scott President Nancy Mackinnon The American Fly Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) is published Vice Presidents George R. Gibson III four times a year by the museum at P.O. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Stephen M. Peet Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership dues include the cost of the David H. Walsh journal ($15) and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Membership rates are listed in the back of each issue. Secretary James C. Woods All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and materials intended for publication in the journal should be sent to Clerk Charles R. Eichel the museum. The museum and journal are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photographic 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. Contributions to The American Fly Fisher are to be considered gratuitous and the property of the museum unless otherwise requested STAFF by the contributor. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. Copyright © 2007, the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Original Executive Director William C. Bullock III material appearing may not be reprinted without prior permission. Periodical postage paid at Collections Manager Yoshi Akiyama Manchester, Vermont 05254 and additional offices (USPS 057410). The American Fly Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) Administration & Membership Rebecca Nawrath EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.amff.com Art Director Sara Wilcox POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The American Fly Fisher, P. O. B ox 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Account Manager Patricia Russell THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Editor Kathleen Achor We welcome contributions to the American Fly Fisher. Before making a submission, Design & Production Sara Wilcox please review our Contributor’s Guidelines on our website (www.amff.com), or Copy Editor Sarah May Clarkson write to request a copy. The museum cannot accept responsibility for statements and interpretations that are wholly the author’s. Challenges and Delights: Fishing the Susquehanna at Steelton in 1943 by D. W. McGary

D. W. McGary

A view of the Susquehanna in 2006, taken by the author from the boat-launch ramp on which he begins his story.

HEN THE WATER is perfect, the In the middle of summer, the launch As I got about 10 yards from the launch late evening air warm and pleas- area is a busy place. Not only do people ramp, a boat gradually emerged on the Want, and you still have energy to put their boats in there, others come ramp. It was being backed down on a keep at it, it is very hard to accept the real- down to the shoreline and fish off the trailer behind a huge, immaculately ity that you are just not going to catch large rocks that line the edge of the clean, shiny-black SUV. The boat was at anything. And when that happens, you water. Some people come there and just least 16 feet long, black fiberglass, flecked either pack it in and go home, or you find sit on folding chairs alongside the ramp with metallic gold. On the back of the something else to do along the river. Not or skip flat stones over the water or go boat was a 225-horsepower outboard so long ago, on a perfect evening in July wading. There is almost always someone motor, and there was a large electric while fishing along the Susquehanna, I there to talk to or something to watch, motor on the bow. Sticking up along the admitted defeat, sat on a rock with my and I expected to find some diversion sides of a central console were six fishing feet dangling in the water, reeled in my there before going home. rods, each already rigged with a different line, took off the fly, and headed for the For the most part, after people launch kind of lure. Once the trailer had been shoreline. their boats at the ramp, they go off down - backed into the river, a man and a boy I had been fly fishing, wet wading in stream toward the Pennsylvania Turn - got out of the SUV and soon had the the pockets of water among ledges that pike Bridge a mile away where, it is gen- boat floating free. extend out from the west shore of the erally believed, the fishing is better than While the boy held the boat at the river, about a mile downstream from the it is upstream toward Harrisburg. But shoreline by a bow line, the man drove I-83 bridge leading into Harrisburg and some anglers do go upstream for a half the SUV up the ramp to the parking lot. about 6 miles upstream from the Three mile or more in a channel just offshore In a couple of minutes he returned, got Mile Island nuclear power plant. The from the ledges, then drift downstream into the boat, sat at the console, fired up ledges are a couple of hundred yards up - and fish along the way. No boats venture the motor, and in another two or three stream from a boat-launch ramp and into the quiet water between the ledges, minutes the boat was roaring down- parking area. where I always fish. stream toward the Turnpike Bridge. 2THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER The Bethlehem Steel Works, ca. 1896. Panoramic photographs collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, pan1993001131/PP. I watched as the boat became smaller whole section of Harrisburg and Route One was at Harrisburg, and the other was and smaller and eventually disappeared 230 from the river. at the lower end of Highspire, where the in the distance. And as it did, it carried The downriver end of both the steel Olmsted Air Force Base runways began. me with it, back into a time when I was plant and Steelton was at the town of However, reaching those points just to about the age of the boy in the boat, a Highspire, where the Turnpike Bridge now get to the water required transportation, time when there was a world war going crosses the river. Highspire continued for and there were few options. One option on, when there was no Turnpike Bridge, another 2 miles downstream along the was to walk, but from the middle of when there were no fiberglass boats and river to where it ended at what are now Steelton, the walk was a minimum of 3 no SUVs. the runways at Harrisburg International miles, and the need to carry everything Airport. In 1943, though, HIA did not to fish with over that distance and back YOU COULD HARDLY GET exist; instead, Olmsted Air Force Base discouraged all but the truly desperate THERE FROM THERE occupied the grounds there. The town of from walking. A second option was to Middletown then extended from the use the bus line, which ran the whole way 3 Directly across the ⁄4-mile-wide Sus - downstream end of the airport runways from Middletown to Harrisburg. The que hanna from the boat launch, the town another mile along the river. The Three third option was to drive. World War II of Steelton lies on hillsides rising from Mile Island nuclear power plant, built was a deciding factor in making a choice. the eastern shore of the river. I grew up long after 1943, sits on an island in the We had a car, but during the war, gaso- in Steelton, and from where I fish among Susquehanna about 2 miles farther down - line was rationed and its use restricted in the ledges on the west shore, I can look stream from Middletown. terms of how it related to the war effort. across and see the large brick school build- In addition to the businesses and “Nonessential” meant uses not linked ing that still stands across the street from industries running along the river from directly or indirectly to fighting the war. the house in which I grew up. Through Middletown to Harrisburg, the main Owners of cars used for nonessential binoculars, I can see the house itself. tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad lay basic day-to-day living were give an “A” When I was about the age of the boy on a roadbed above the floodplain not sticker to put on the windshield, indicat- at the ramp, about eleven or twelve, the far inshore from the river. Even in the ing to service stations that only about 4 year was 1943. Our family at the time few sections of the towns where the gallons of gas a week could be purchased. consisted of my mother and father, two industries were not densely concentrated sisters and me, my mother’s father and and several streets reached to the tracks, mother, and a great-grandmother. Our crossing the tracks to get to the river was home was in half of a double three-story dangerous, and the few crossing points house three blocks up a steep hill from were guarded as part of wartime defense. the main street through town—really a Of course, the railroads were private section of Route 230, which generally property; crossing them was trespassing. paralleled the Susquehanna and con- The geography of the area and the nected Lancaster and cities farther east locations of businesses, industries, and with Harrisburg. Steelton owed its exis- the railroads in 1943 made getting to the tence to the Bethlehem Steel plant, which Susquehanna to fish a challenge. Even extended almost 3 miles along the river, today, the corridor from Middletown to the whole length of the town, except for Harrisburg remains mostly isolated from a few blocks at the northern end. Located the river by the same set of factors that as it was, the steel plant effectively isolat- existed in 1943. But other conditions ed the town from the river. have greatly changed, especially the From the upriver end of Steelton, a wartime restrictions and the complica- mile-long series of warehouses, business- tions that they created for simple activi- es, and other establishments connected ties, like fishing. the town with the central area of For someone living in Steelton who A gasoline rationing “A” sticker. Harrisburg. All of these buildings were wanted to fish in the nearby Susque - Farm Security Administration—Office of located between the river and Route 230 hanna and who did not want to risk War Information Photograph Collection, and residential areas of Harrisburg on injury, arrest, or being shot at a railroad Prints & Photographs Division, Library hillsides to the east, thus separating that crossing, there were two access points. of Congress, LC-USE6-D-004667. SUMMER 2007 3 Pleasure driving, including driving some- shore line and the eastern half of the The boat had belonged to someone where to fish, was definitely nonessential. river. Although the water appeared who lived near the Rockville Bridge, Of course, someone could drive up to unpolluted—except when raw sewage about 4 miles north of Harrisburg. I re - Harrisburg, park along the river, and sometimes floated in it—it was not member my father and grandfather peri- fish. But both rationing and gas use were amenable to most common species of odically discussing its purchase over a strongly enforced, and a car with an A plant and animal life. The overall result period of weeks and then finally scraping sticker parked along the river and with was an ecosystem consisting of hardy up the 4 dollars to pay for it. someone fishing nearby would have bottom feeders and minimal plant life. For some practical reasons that will be been a red flag waving to attract the Along much of the eastern stretch of clear later, it was agreed to keep the boat authorities. We had an A sticker, and we river from Harris burg to Middletown, at the lower end of Highspire, at White did not drive to go fishing. the river was a wasteland of sorts, both House Lane, the upstream end of Olmsted The continuity of industries, busi- aesthetically and physically. Air Force Base. This meant, of course, that nesses, and the railroads along the route For someone living in Steelton, fishing the boat north of Harrisburg at Rockville from Middletown to Harrisburg pre- the nearby Susquehanna for something had to be moved to Highspire, a distance cluded walking over to the river from edible in 1943 was limited to two options. of about 15 miles. There was only one way town. Distances from Steelton to Harris - The first was to take a bus to Harrisburg, to make the move. burg or to High spire mainly ruled out walk the mile across the Market Street One day in June, my father and I took walking to an ac cess point. a bus to the far end of Gas rationing eliminated Harrisburg. We took along a driving. Buses, then, provid- pair of oars, a length of ed the best way to get around chain, a lock, and some rope. the restrictions and gain From the end of the bus access to the river at Harris- line, we walked to Rockville, burg or below High spire. But paid for the boat, and then the state of the river launched it. We then drifted itself be came a discouraging downstream to the south reality. end of Harrisburg, where we It was generally accepted stopped a hundred yards or by many at the time that fish- so upstream from the Dock ing along the eastern shore Street Dam. The dam has or in the eastern half of the remained to this day a dan- Susquehanna from the lower gerous spot on the river, end of Harris burg down- with a history full of acci- stream through Highspire dents and drownings. Our would be a waste of time, if only choice at the dam was not a threat to health. to pull the boat out of the Above Harrisburg to the The Rockville Bridge spanning the Susquehanna River, north of water and carry it around north and east lay anthra cite I-81. Historic American Engineering Record, Prints & Photo graphs the dam, which we were able coal mines in the ridges and Division, Library of Congress, HAER PA, 22-ROCVI, 1. to do because the boat was valleys of the mountains not large and was made of running east-west out to the Pocono Bridge to get to the unpolluted west light wood. The portage was uneventful. Plateau. The coal fueled many of the shoreline, and fish there; but that meant From Harrisburg, we drifted down on industries that were running at capacity walking back across the bridge later and the polluted water past Steelton and during the war. With little regulation in taking the bus back home. For various Highspire to where a few other boats effect or observed, mining provided a reasons, this was an option we took were tied up along the shore at White constant flow of coal to run wartime fac- sometimes, but fishing was limited to the House Lane. There, we pulled the boat up tories, and it produced a constant flow of shallow, mostly un productive water onto the shore, chained it to a tree, car- coal dust into the Susquehanna water- along the rocky shoreline. ried the oars a quarter mile over White shed, producing fine deposits of black The second option was to get a boat, House Lane to a house, where we left silt over the beds of streams and the cross the eastern wasteland to the clean them with a relative. We then caught a Susquehanna. Although not directly poi- west half of the river, and fish there. But bus back to Steelton. sonous, the silt created an unnatural because there was no access between From that time on, all we needed to do environment for plants and animals Harrisburg and the Olmstead Air Force to fish in the river was get from Steelton while, at the same time, other effluents Base, using a boat meant either keeping to White House Lane in Highspire. from mining further degraded the one tied up at Harrisburg or at a point watershed. Mining, however, was only somewhere below Steelton. We had a boat. SUSQUEHANNA RIVER one contributing factor to the condition FISHING GUIDE of the water. BASS TRACKER, CIRCA 1943 Industries and municipalities all My opportunities to go fishing de - along the main stem of the Susquehanna The boat was 12 feet long and 4 feet pended entirely on the availability of and its tributaries contributed a wide wide at the middle, 2 feet at the square someone who could take me. However, range of contaminants to the water. ends, and not more than a foot deep. It my father and grandfather both worked Combined with the effluents from the was made of pine planks and was painted for Bethlehem Steel and were, it seemed, mines, these additions produced a green. There was a seat in the stern, one in always at work—especially my father, cumulative effect that seemed to be very the middle (where there were oarlocks), who worked a rotation of three different pronounced in the river as it flowed and one at the bow. It was the standard eight-hour shifts. But there was someone along the Harrisburg–Steelton–Highspire river fishing boat design at the time. else in my life who was a quietly fanatic 4THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER fisherman and who was not tied up by a D. W. McGary demanding job. He was my other (my paternal) grandfather, and he lived near- by, just two blocks up the hill from our house. My family was always very reluctant to talk about its members. In that way it was more typical than different from many families in those days. Whatever secrets were considered too dark to bring to light remained in darkness forever. The best I could ever find out about this grandfather was that he and my other grandmother had separated for some reason and lived apart. Questions about the separation were met with silence, then and always. Parker was my grandfather’s first name, but for some reason everyone called him Cy. In 1943 he worked as the custodian at the church our family attended. This was his only job, and it left him relatively poor financially but The view from the author’s childhood home, blessed richly with flexibility for pursu- looking down the hill toward the main street. ing his interests: mainly fishing and hunting. With virtually no limitations, never had a driver’s license. He got A SUMMER DAY ON THE he was able to find or create opportuni- around town and elsewhere very well by ties to go fishing. walking, riding buses, or getting rides SUSQUEHANNA People tend to give children names to with someone who had a car. I became a call adults, especially relatives, and the beneficiary of his skills, ex perience, and I was waiting for him out on the front name they gave me for Parker was Pappy ability to get around, especially when it porch. Cy. I suppose this name worked for me came to fishing in the Susquehanna. About eight o’clock, Cy came down back in my early years, but I just can’t Whenever Cy had plans to go fishing, the hill, carrying his rods and a tackle refer to him that way now. I remember he would stop by the house a couple of box. Over his shoulder he had a creel. He him better as just Cy, quiet, tall, gangly, days ahead of time to see if anyone was had on his lucky felt fishing hat, wore a someone who could have been the interested. For the most part, that really blue long-sleeved shirt, a pair of black model for old pen-and-ink drawings of meant me, because my father and other pants, and black sneakers. After stopping Ichabod Crane. grandfather were seldom available. I was for me and getting all my things togeth- Cy lived very conservatively in a small usually interested, and on the appointed er, including a lunch my mother had two-room apartment. He cooked a lot of day, I would be ready, waiting for him to packed and a can of worms, we walked meals for himself in the basement of the come down the hill to get me. the three blocks down the steep hill to church, but sometimes he ate with us. He And, one day in July, we went fishing. Front Street where, after a short wait, we got on a bus for the ride down to the end of Highspire, to White House Lane where we kept the boat. With all the stops through town, the ride took about a half hour. At the end of the main street in Highspire, at White House Lane, there was a corner house in which Cy’s es - tranged wife—my plump, warm grand- mother Bess—lived. Bess was always glad to see us—mainly me, I believe. When she came out to meet us, she engulfed me and smothered me with kisses and hugs. We stayed there long enough for Cy to have a cup of coffee and for both of us to have a toasted piece of homemade bread. A lot of my curiosity about Bess and Cy was fueled by this kind of seemingly amicable visit, but there was no point in bringing it up. Besides, the visits there were more than social; there was a very practical reason for stopping at Grand- mother Bess’s house. From Charles M. Mansfield, “Camping on the Susquehanna,” It was at Grandmother Bess’s house Field and Stream, June 1909, 140. that my father and I had left the oars SUMMER 2007 5 when we floated the boat down stones to serve as a walkway over from Rockville. Since then, a the tar to the boat. After putting wooden pole and two bait nets these in place, we made two very had been added, along with a spe- careful trips out to the boat with cial bucket for live bait. The pole our equip ment, the anchors, and was about 12 feet long with a metal everything else. Then we got into sleeve at one end and was used to the boat, distributed everything, push the boat through the water and prepared to get the boat off when we did not row. The oars, the tar. pole, and nets were all vital to a Cy had me sit on the backseat in fishing trip; therefore, we had to order to put weight on the end of make a stop to get them. But I the boat closer to the water in the remember the stops more because hope that doing so would take of Grandma Bess. weight off the tar. He stood up on After picking up the pole, bait the middle seat and started to push bucket, oars, and nets, and the with the pole, causing bubbles and things we had brought from home, odors to rise from the tar. The boat we walked across White House did not move an inch. Then he Lane toward the river, a quarter went to the front seat and pushed mile away. The road was paved part from there. Again there was no of the way, then gave way to gravel, movement. He turned and mo - and then turned into dirt and sand tioned to me to do what was the before passing under the railroad ab solute last resort un der these tracks close to the river. At the river conditions, something I had done we began the process of getting the before and dreaded. boat ready for launching. Cy got up on the backseat. I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my pants above my knees, TRAVAILS OF eased off the front of the boat, and LAUNCHING: GOOD got into the warm tar. Bubbles and DAYS AND BAD DAYS odors rose to the surface. I sank down a foot or so until I was on We kept our boat fastened to a something solid—probably grav- long chain locked to a ring stone, a el—and then started to push on block of concrete with an eyebolt the boat while Cy used the pole. embedded in it. The chain was The boat began to slide off the tar, long enough to cover the distance and I reached out to grab hold so from the ring stone to the water. that I could pull myself on board, To keep floorboards from drying an action I had perfected from out and opening up at seams, other launch ings of this kind. But boats kept along the shoreline Parker “Cy” McGary, circa 1943. my grip failed this time, and the were left floating, rather than From the collection of D. W. McGary. boat, with Cy in the back, slid out turned over, even though rain- into the water leaving me stranded storms sometimes half filled them. A outward section of the shore days or in the goo. Cy, laughing, motioned for drop in the river level over a period of weeks later. And that was a problem. me to walk through the tar toward the time, however, could leave a boat sitting Under very low water conditions, a water. He got the boat pointed at me and up dry, away from the water’s edge. It stranded boat would be sitting on a strip brought it up to the edge of the tar. was everyone’s hope that their boats of something that resembled tar, but Fighting the suction the tar exerted on would be floating or at least partially in which was a lot more than tar. It had the me as I struggled through it, I got to the water when going fishing there. The consistency of tar, but if disturbed by boat, leaned over the front end, and makeup of the shoreline was the reason stepping into it or throwing a rock into pulled myself partly on board. for this hope. it, noxious-looking bubbles and odors There was an understanding on fish- The shore area, from inland at the rail- burst out of it, and the nearby water ing trips that tar was to be kept off the road tracks, consisted first of a low hilly become iridescent. It was generally inside of the boat, so after getting half of area overgrown with grasses and shrubs. assumed that much of this material was myself on board, I sat facing front with Next there was a gentle slope of sand, coal a by-product of manufacturing, espe- my feet and lower legs hanging over the silt, and river gravel. The ideal situation cially from the upriver steel plant. edge in the water. I stayed in this position was for the water to be in on shore as far Regard less of its source, the tar layer was until Cy got us almost halfway across the as the gravel so that the boat was mostly unpleasant and difficult to deal with river and pushed the boat up onto a in water and could be pulled up onto the when launching a boat. Launching from grass patch. At the grass patch, the two of solid gravel, loaded, man ned, and pushed the tar took much more than five min- us used sand, coal silt, and gravel to off into the river. A launch from the grav- utes and required ingenuity and even a scrub off the tar. el usually took five minutes at the most. degree of bravery. Riding like that out to the grass patch But in midsummer, when the river We found our boat sitting up on the tar. meant that I was letting my feet and lower ran low, boats left floating at the edge of After unlocking the boat and two legs trail through the polluted east half of the gravel after one fishing trip were homemade an chors from the ring stone, the river. Over the years I have achieved a sometimes found stranded on the last we found a plank and two large flat certain peace of mind by be lieving it is 6THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER ball and tossed them into the water upstream from the net so that the little balls drifted down over the net as they sank. Almost instantly shiners began to attack the dough balls, and when Cy felt enough shiners were above the net, he pulled it up quickly, trapping most of them. Then we picked off the largest of the catch and put them into the bait bucket, which was kept hanging from the side of the boat in water deep enough to allow fresh water to enter it all the time through screened openings. Once Cy felt we had enough shiners, he disassembled the net and wound it up, and we got back A 1943 wooden fishing boat of the type often seen moored along the into the boat for the next bait stop. Susquehanna. From the collection of D. W. McGary. From the grass patch, Cy poled us across to the west shore, where we beached the boat and got out into the shallow water. Our prey at this stop were true, as I have heard it said, that over time extent to using lures, and even later he crayfish, or as everyone in those days the human body constantly grows new took up fly fishing, but he always pre- called them, “crabs.” We had a special net skin and re places the old. I continue to ferred live bait: anything from worms to for catching the crabs. It was stretched cling to this belief and assume that after crayfish to minnows to hellgrammites, over a D-shaped frame with a handle more than sixty years I am fully rid of things that lived in or around the about 4 feet long. The net looked a lot whatever I may have picked up in the La Susquehanna. like a butterfly net, except that the mesh Brea Tar Pit at Highspire and in the east- Except for worms, which we dug up at was about half inch, which allowed water ern wasteland of the Susquehanna on a dump outside of town, other live bait to flow freely through it but still trapped those days when we had really bad had to be caught on the river. Even if we the crabs and other creatures. launches. could have gotten live bait in Steelton, Cy put the net into the water so that transporting it on a hot bus without air- the flat part of the D rested on the bot- SUSQUEHANNA GONDOLIER conditioning in midsummer and then tom. Then he waded upstream, pushing carrying it across White House Lane in the net ahead of him through the mud Although we had oars, we seldom the sun to the river was out of the ques- and gravel on the bottom and through used them. In stead, to get around on the tion if live bait were to remain live. Each the thick growth of plants growing up river, Cy or my father (when he was with trip out on the river, then, meant spend- from the bottom. This was not subtly us) stood on the backseat and used the ing close to an hour getting live bait. done. The objective was to disrupt the long pole to push the boat through the Cy’s favorite live bait were shiners, 3- peace and quiet of the river and panic all water. Few peo ple who fished from boats inch minnows that flashed reflected sun- creatures living there to try to escape when the water was at its normal sum- light when they darted around in the ahead of the oncoming net. After scoop- mertime levels used anything other than water. They tended to concentrate in the ing ahead this way for about 10 feet, he a pole to get around. The method was water close to grass patches, something lifted the net up out of the water and preferred over rowing, especially because well known to fishermen and bass. took it to the shore, where he laid it out it let the poler see ahead, unlike rowing Once we had cleared the miasma of so that we could examine its contents. “backward” from the middle seat. But it the shoreline and east half of the river I loved this part of bait catching was also more effective than rowing in and scoured the tar off me, we got on because there were so many different terms of making quick changes in direc- with the serious business of netting some kinds of larvae, salamanders, frogs, tion and in avoiding rocks and other bait. Cy unwound the obstructions. Someone skilled in the pol- dip net we had with us ing art could quickly change directions, and attached the four bring the boat to a stop, or keep it going corners to the ends of in a straight line upstream, downstream, the metal frame, which or at any angle to the current. Cy and my had a rope attached to it father tried to teach me how to pole once in the center. Wading I got older, but I never really learned it. I along the grass growing could only get the boat to move a few in about 2 feet of water, yards ahead before it would start turning he gradually lowered irreversibly, and someone would have to the net by its rope to the take over. Even in later years, when I had bottom, and then we a boat of my own, I could never make both took up positions poling work. 10 feet or so upstream from the net. PRELIMINARIES: He had made a ball CATCHING BAIT of dough the day before, adding a little vanilla for Cy was a live bait fisherman in 1943. flavor. We pulled off A dip net. From the Edward vom Hofe and Years later he became converted to some pieces from the dough Company Incorporated catalog, 1940. SUMMER 2007 7 shelled creatures, leeches, and small fish what was coming, having done all this LAWS OF PHYSICS AND that got trapped and lay there flapping, many times before. LIMITED TECHNOLOGY crawling, or wriggling on the wet net. To We each had an anchor beside us and me, each new netting was like opening a now put them up on the upstream edge In 1943, our fishing rods were made of present. There was always the possibility of our seats. At the right moment, Cy metal, hardwood, or bamboo. No fiber- that something totally new and exotic said “Now!,” and we lowered the anchors glass, no graphite. One rod I used for a would be there to discover wriggling into the water and let the anchor ropes while was made from a pool cue, but on around among the usual critters. Cy’s play out until we heard and felt the my trips with Cy, the rods were steel. perspective on each catch was different. anchors hit bottom, usually 4 or 5 feet Mine was one piece, about 5 feet long; Cy He was only interested in crabs, especial- down. Then we tightened the ropes and had two, one telescoping from 4 to 8 feet, ly the “soft shells” that had recently molt- tied them fast. The result was a boat held the other about 8 feet long, in three sec- ed and were deadly bass bait. in place across the current by the two tions. Our reels were freewheeling, with- From each netting he selected what he anchors on the upstream side. out any level winding mechanism or wanted, added it to the bait brakes, and the lines were bucket, then emptied everything Cuttyhunk, strong and thick. else back in the water. As soon as Casting from the reel was not he felt that we had enough crabs, something any sane person he put the net in the boat, we got would consider trying. Our in, and he pushed us off to go method of getting a live-baited fishing—finally. hook to the bottom down- To give a sense of time about stream was a combination of one of these fishing trips, once applied mathematics, laws of we had finished with the bait physics, and a high level of natur- gathering, it would be long past al or acquired eye-hand-muscle- the middle of the morning, nerve coordination. heading into the steaming hot After we got anchored se - hours of a midsummer day. And curely, we rigged the rods for by this time we would not have action, tying on catgut-snelled tried to catch anything larger hooks and adding a length of than a minnow or a crayfish. line with a lead sinker. Once rigged, the hooks were baited LINING UP with a shiner or crab. Cy usually FOR THE KILL put a shiner on one of his hooks and a crab on the other. He Cy knew every rock, sub- almost always had me put on a merged log, ledge, and fishing crab to start. He usually put his hole for more than a mile along two lines out before mine. the west half of the river across Standing in his end of the from White House Lane. We boat, Cy laid one of his rods never fished very far down- across the boat near the middle stream, especially late in the seat, the tip pointing down- day, because it would mean stream. He laid the baited hook having to pole up against the and sinker on the seat and then current, using time and energy started pulling line out through we couldn’t spare for our trip the end of the rod and coiling it back across the river in the loosely next to him on the bot- evening. Usu ally Cy would pole tom of the boat. Although I had us up stream about a quarter From Louis Rhead, Bait Angling for Common Fishes no idea how far downstream mile or so, and then we would (New York: The Outing Publishing the fish were supposed to be, Cy drift downstream in intervals, Company, 1907), facing page 76. seemed to know, and he pulled stopping at different special enough line out to reach that places to fish. For the most part, we Most of the time when we tried to distance. Then, standing facing the shore fished offshore several hundred yards, anchor this way, it worked fine. and away from the coil of line on the out in the current away from the shallow, Sometimes, though, one anchor would bottom, he took hold of the line about a quiet pockets of water that lay between not grab hold, and the boat would start foot up from the baited hook and sinker, the many ledges extending out from the turning. But usually by letting the other spit on the bait for luck, and started to shoreline. anchor rope out a little more, the boat swing it in a circle parallel to the current. From the crabbing spot, Cy poled us would come horizontal again, and even- When his instincts told him the force upstream through the current until he tually both anchors would be fast on the had built up sufficiently, he let go of the reached a point he recognized from bottom. Seldom would one anchor not line, and the baited, sinkered hook sailed landmarks only he seemed to know. hold at all, and in those cases we had to up and out in a graceful arc that landed There, he began the coordinated maneu- give up and start again farther down- the bait in the water with a loud splash. vers that put us into position to fish. stream. It would have been easy to After putting his other line in the First, he turned the boat so that it was anchor just one end of the boat and have water the same way, he put mine in at my perpendicular to the current and was it oriented with the current. The reason end of the boat. We then had three rods drifting downstream. At another land- we did not do it that way had a lot to do pointed downstream, propped on the mark, he told me to get ready. I knew with how we fished. downstream edge of the boat, one at 8THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER each end and one about the middle, with up, but left much to be desired in the way sipping from the moist stones and moss. the lines downstream in the water and of taste. Warm as the water was, though, Black-and-yellow-striped swallowtails, separated far enough from each other to we had usually drunk it all by the time others dark blue with yellow and orange avoid getting crossed if something was we were ready to eat. spots, orange checkered ones, pale yellow hooked. Then we sat and waited. After three drifts, anchorings, cen- ones, bright whites. I liked to get down This was a common technique that trifugal insertions, and no catches, we on my knees close to them and watch many people used to get weighted bait pulled up the anchors, and Cy guided us them uncoil their tongues to sip, and downstream from a boat or out into a downstream, where we parked the boat sometimes one would land on the back stream from the shoreline. I was given a at a small opening among the big rocks of my hand or arm and rest there prob- lot of instruction on this centrifugal on the shoreline. Real water awaited us. ing, searching so lightly I couldn’t feel it. insertion technique, but I never really The spring was in small dense woods Birds chattered in the bushes and trees mastered it. Occasionally things worked on the slope of a hill 50 or so yards up nearby; otherwise, it was as quiet as out- out, but more often the bait and sinker from the edge of the river at the end of a doors ever gets. I always loved to stop at would ricochet downstream like a pebble path. Crude steps that cut into the bank the spring, and I always hated to leave it. skipped over the surface, or it would beyond the spring led to the top of the But Cy was ready to leave, and cen- rocket in with a great splash a yard or hill, where a dilapidated cottage stood. trifugal insertion and more fishing two downstream, or my release would We never saw people there. Someone, remained. We filled the canteen after one send things into a near vertical flight that though, kept a metal cup at the spring, more drink and got back into the boat. ended with the bait and sinker plummet- and we used it to drink and drink and ing back down into the water only a foot drink. There is no taste in the world like downstream (or even worse, upstream), cold springwater drunk from a metal cup MOVING ON TO or if I happened to be standing on part of in the middle of the day in summer after QUIETER WATERS the coil of line on the bottom of the boat, sitting for hours in a boat. the hook and sinker would snap back The spring in the woods was a magi- Although Cy had lots of patience, his after flying a yard or so and hit the side cal place. The rocks around it were heavy need to catch fish to take home drove of the boat or me. Cy often simply did it with dark green moss, no matter how him from place to place on the river, for me, as he did this time, probably feel- hot and dry things were elsewhere. There especially as late afternoon approached. ing safer that way. And I did not mind. was a special odor of cool wetness that Sometime about the middle of the after- Besides being awful at it, I didn’t like filled the air around it. Everything was noon, he would announce that we were centrifugal insertion fishing because it soft to walk on. There were always spot- going to head upstream farther to some usually resulted in long, long periods of ted salamanders in the spring, and some- other fishing holes he had in his reperto- waiting for something to happen down- times frogs among the grasses, and wild- ry. This was always good news to me. stream out of sight. My preference was to flowers close to the water. And there were Sometimes when we reeled in our bait my line with a worm, without a always butterflies fluttering around or lines before moving on, I noticed that the sinker, put a cork on the line a couple of feet higher up on the line, and let the line Jim Ferguson out slowly 10 or 15 feet from the boat. The river was full of fish that liked worms, and I enjoyed a lot of action while Cy sat and sat and sat and waited for something to happen. Mostly I caught sunfish and rock bass, but occasionally I would get a small bass that had to be tossed back in or even a turtle. Cy was not interested in little things. He was after legal-size bass or a walleye, a catfish, an eel, anything. He fished for food, the way most people did then. Sport was all right, the overall aesthetic experience was fine, but taking something home was what counted. If it was legally big enough to keep, it was kept and eventually eaten, and I con- tributed almost everything legal I caught, no matter its size, to the fish bag that we hung over the side.

THE BUTTERFLY SPRING Usually, after two or three down- stream floats, it would be time to eat the lunch that my mother had packed for us: sandwiches, pieces of fruit, sometimes a piece of candy. For something to drink, we always had a canteen of water with us, but it was not insulated, and the water in it became heated in the sun so that it A swallowtail butterfly. served only to prevent us from drying SUMMER 2007 9 D. W. McGary lit way, a ledge was as magical as the but- terfly spring. On the ledges, I fished little, wandered more, wondered most. We moved frequently from one ledge to another as the afternoon wore on, proba- bly because Cy was feeling pressure to catch something to take home. Up to this point, our fish bag had only a couple of sunfish in it. Cy’s sense of desperation dur- ing these moves was missing in me. I sim- ply loved making the moves from ledge to ledge—because of how we made them. To move to a different ledge, Cy would pole us along the ledge we were on until he came to a break in it. There he would turn the boat into the current floating through the break and let us drift down- stream to reach another ledge. As we drifted quietly, I would lie on my stomach across the front seat with my head over the edge of the boat, some- times with my hands in the water, feeling the coolness and just sensing the pull of the water against my fingers. While Cy was intent on locating the next stopping point, I was watching the passing scenery in the water: the long waving strands of Wondering on a ledge. Anacharis, the tiny bass fingerlings with black lines on their tails, bright little sun- hooks were bare, even though there had When we fished off a ledge, Cy would fish, shiners, mussel shells on the bot- been no bites. Cy’s explanation was that let me go off on my own to do what I tom, a sudden violent sweep of a big dragging the bait up through the current wanted. That meant I could fish with my carp, insect larvae, crabs, a small water had probably dislodged the crabs or worms on a corked line or I could snake—all against a changing colored minnows. But I wondered whether cen- explore the ledge. I usually did some of background of rocks, all slowly silently trifugal insertion had loosened things up each while he tried spot after spot along passing away from me upstream. With too much and that we might have been the length of the ledge. every move we made among the ledges, I sitting for a half hour or more waiting The quiet water between ledges, espe- watched a whole vibrant world of life for fish to bite on empty hooks. cially upstream close to the rocks, was a glide by below me. For the trip upstream, I sat facing haven for sunfish and rock bass, and I ahead to watch for obstructions, a task Cy could usually catch one after another as STARTING FOR HOME gave me, I believe, to make me feel useful. long as I wanted to, even in the middle of From his vantage point (standing up on the afternoon. But I probably spent as The short drifts among the ledges the backseat) and with his knowledge of much time walking along the exposed meant that the end of the fishing trip was the river, I doubt that there was much ledges just investigating things. at hand. By the time we had reached the chance of hitting anything unexpectedly. Bird life was plentiful among the point from which we had poled up - The upstream fishing spots Cy went to ledges. Herons and egrets hunted in the stream after the break at the spring, it were not out in a channel far off the shallow water and stained the ledges was probably six o’clock or later, and we shoreline. Instead, they were in fairly white with their droppings. Ducks pad- still had to cross the river, beach the boat, deep pockets of quiet water among the dled around in flotillas made up of fuzzy walk back across White House Lane, ledges. Other than maneuvering through young and protective adults. Sandpipers leave the oars, pole, and other things at occasional breaks in the ledges, poling dipped and flitted. An occasional gull Grandma Bess’s house, and then catch was easy, as though moving along the floated by. And there were all kinds of the bus to get back to Steelton. surface of a pond. From the vantage other things to find and wonder about: I had no regrets about starting for point of the years since those trips, I esti- crayfish shells left from a bird’s meal, home. We had been out on the river mate that we traveled upstream as much bones and pieces of fur from something under the summer sun for as long as as a half mile, to about where the eaten, ribs and pieces of skin from a fish, eight or more hours, with only one stop Turnpike Bridge is today. huge black horseflies buzzing in the air, at the spring and the short periods on Cy took us out from shore upstream dragonflies and damselflies flitting from the ledges as breaks from sitting on the above one of the ledges, turned the boat place to place, whirligig beetles in the wooden boat seats. Besides, by that time broadside to the current, and let it drift water, water striders walking on the sur- I was getting hungry. So, when Cy pulled down against an exposed section of the face, minnows and other small fish in lines for the last time, took off the ledge, where we then put out an anchor swimming among the crevices, a turtle hooks and sinkers and reeled in, I fol- on the ledge and snugged up the rope. head sticking up in the water, a piece of lowed suit and perched on the front seat The combination of the slight current snakeskin hanging from a tree branch ready for the crossing. and the anchor held the boat securely stuck on the ledge, a dead catfish floating Looking back on the trips I made with against the ledge, allowing us to step out belly up, plants with pink blossoms wav- Cy, I remember them as generally unpro- onto the rock and fish from it. ing in the slight current. In its own sun- ductive in terms of catches. I don’t re - 10 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER member taking home anything much and the bow would wind up sitting on light empty boat far enough over the tar longer than a foot. Other than an occa- gravel, and I would get out and secure it to get the front end to the gravel. sional eel or yellow catfish, the catches there. Then it was just a matter of getting Once we had everything out of the consisted of smallmouth bass, rock bass, all the stuff out of the boat, chaining the boat, Cy fastened the long chain to it, and sunfish. But anything that fit the boat and anchors to the ring stone, and moved the ring stone several feet farther legal limit was kept, and that included a pushing the boat off the shore so that it out toward the water, locked the chain lot of small sunfish and rock bass, which was floating. If the water was low, there and anchors to the ring stone, and gave my mother and grandmother ended up was a different procedure. And on this the boat a shove hard enough to dislodge having to clean when we got back home. trip, the water was low. it from the tar and get it into the water. Our overall way of fishing probably As we drifted toward our ring stone, Difficult as this procedure was, it was the had a lot to do with our low productivi- we found that the plank and rocks we only way to avoid one or both of us hav- ty. We always visited the ing to walk across White same fishing spots, which House Lane for a quarter meant that the fish we mile with feet and legs took out on one trip, few coated with tar. as they were, were not Once the boat had there the next time. Then been chained, we gathered too, al though live bait up all of our things—the remains even today the pole, oars, rods, tackle recognized best bass bait box, creel, nets, live-bait for the river, how we bucket, fish bag, and can- fished it may have been a teen—and trekked across factor—but the time of White House Lane to day we fished probably Grandma Bess’s house to mattered the most. We catch the bus back up to were on the water during Steelton. the hottest, brightest time of day, conditions that drive fish into hiding and ORANGE DRINK make them lethargic. But AND THE BUS we had little choice be - HOME cause of our dependence on buses for trans por - At Grandma Bess’s tation and the time it took house, we deposited the just to get to the water and things that were kept there then back home. and then looked for a bus On some days, about coming up from Middle- midafternoon, I regret- town. Bess was seldom ted having agreed to go home when we finished along with Cy, especially our fishing trips; she on those days when the worked a night shift at a boat was sitting up on The author with an above-average catch. defense plant somewhere the tar bed, or when we From the collection of D. W. McGary. in Harrisburg. She was got caught out on the not at home this time. water before we could get It was fine if a bus was ashore to escape a sudden storm, or had used in the morning to launch were in sight, because a half hour would have when even the sunfish and rock bass gone, no doubt used by someone else us home. But if a bus was not in sight or would not take worms. But things never during the day. expected soon, it was not a disaster— got so bad that I wasn’t ready to go along Cy let the boat drift farther down- because of what was next door to Grand - the next time he came calling at our stream, below our ring stone, until he ma Bess’s house. house looking for someone interested in spotted two large rocks and a section of On the property next to the house, going fishing. plank near the tar, where he then maneu- one of Bess’s sisters and her family lived vered the boat toward the rocks and gave and operated what today is called a con- LANDING AND enough of a push to put the bow against venience store. By today’s standards, the DISEMBARKATION them. With the bow line in hand, I got out 1943 store was minimal, providing some onto the rocks, stepped onto the plank, drinks, a few fishing supplies, a small Cy poled us at a slight upstream angle and got to the gravel on shore. I kept ten- selection of foods, and miscellaneous across the river, through the eastern sion on the bow line to keep the boat house hold supplies. But nothing they wasteland toward the shoreline some dis- against the rocks and enable Cy to get out had there mattered to me except their tance above White House Lane. At that with the pole. Once he was on shore, he drink cooler, and nothing in the cooler point he had me sit in the middle seat to pushed the boat away from the rocks into mattered except the bottles of orange keep the bow up out of the water as much the current, then walked up the shore on drink sitting in the ice water. as possible. Then he let the current take the gravel, holding the boat by the bow Not much in life has come close to the us downstream toward our ring stone. line. By carefully pulling at just the right experience I had of uncapping one of those If the water was not too low when we times, he gradually moved the boat along bottles of orange drink and chugging it came in from fishing, Cy would give one the shore to where the ring stone was. down after dehydrating on the Sus- final strong push at just the right time, There he pulled hard enough to bring the quehanna for a day. It was why I really SUMMER 2007 11 didn’t care all that much if we had to buses and carry our equipment a quarter they live and because of what they have. wait for a bus. I often thought about it mile or more just to get to our boat. We The experiences that count most out on while we were out on the river and espe- had to use centrifugal insertion most of a river may very well depend on being in cially when we were on the way home the time, just to get bait to the fish. a flat-bottomed wooden boat poled across the river. I could have cleaned out Sometimes we had to launch or land on around by someone like Cy in the middle all the orange drink they had, but the a layer of noxious tar. And we had to use of a summer day. limit was two. a lot of time just to pole the boat across I don’t regret at all having grown up Someone would keep a lookout for the river to get from place to place to without the conveniences and opportu- the bus while we were in the store. fish. But we were no different from others nities that today’s man and boy have. I Schedules were available, but buses in 1943. Only in terms of the boy and man am sure that they find pleasures on the seemed more to follow their own incli- of today were we deprived in 1943. In 1943 river and will have memories to look nations than to bend to what was on we were not deprived: opportunities and back on over the years, as I have. But I paper. A difference of a half hour or technologies in boats, motors, and fish- question whether their pleasures and more between scheduled arrivals and ing equipment were not there for anyone, memories will fill up their senses over actual arrivals was common. not just us. Deprivation is relative. the years in as lasting a way as my mem- When the bus came into sight a quar- What people today view as benefits of ories of Cy and the Susquehanna do for ter mile down the road, we gathered up technology and opportunity can be, at me. For them, what will be equal to the everything and walked to the corner to the same time, impediments to special magic of the butterfly spring, or the crea- be picked up. A half hour later we were experiences that have capacity to enrich tures wriggling in a crab net, or all that carrying rods, creel, the tackle box, and a life far into the future. Skimming along lay along a rock ledge, or the gentle quiet modestly filled fish bag up Walnut Street the Susquehanna from place to place passing of life between ledges? the three blocks to home. during the best time of the day to fish, Rather than feel deprived or regretful, sitting up high on padded pedestal seats, I feel that I was blessed to have been PERSPECTIVE casting lures unknown in 1943 from rods, twelve years old in 1943 with a grandfa- reels, and lines unknown in 1943, then ther named Cy who could pole a wood- Compared with the boy and the man getting back to shore and home in a peri- en boat and who knew where the fish I had watched launch their boat and roar od of a few hours all stand in the way of were and where the butterfly spring was off down the Susquehanna toward where subtle, sublimely enriching experiences and who probably understood what was we had fished in 1943, Cy and I were with a river and the creatures that live in happening to me out walking along a deprived in a lot of ways. We couldn’t get and around it. Such experiences may be ledge or lying across the front seat of a out on the river and fish during the close to impossible today. They depend boat watching a whole world of life glide evening hours when it was cooler and too much on opportunities that today’s by a foot away. the fish were more active. We had to ride man and boy can’t have because of how !

D. W. McGary

Later generations on the ledges.

12 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Spinners and Sinners: Crossing the Divide between Angling Subcultures by Paul Schullery

DATE MY PERCEPTION of myself as a FLIGHTS AND serious fisherman to a little more than WITCHES Iforty years ago when I acquired a Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning reel, which I saw (and still see) as fishing tackle’s entry But of course in the sport of into that small group of classic “types”— “spin” fishing, it is the lure that the 1957 Chevy, the Smith & Wesson is meant. For centuries, anglers Model 19 revolver, the Martin D-28 gui- have been making lures spin, tar, and the IBM Correcting Selec tric turn, and flash in the water. In typewriter all come to mind—that serve the 1600s, Walton him self gave as gold standards in their respective fields. us an extended discussion of One thing I didn’t understand, how- how to mount a dead minnow ever, is what “spinning” meant. I as - on a big hook with its tail bent sumed it had something to do with the “a little to the right or left reel, probably with the perfect smooth- hand” so that it will “turn ness with which the monofilament line quick in the water . . . it is flowed off and on the spool, or with the impossible that it should turn spinning-wheel precision of the mecha- too quick.”1 nism itself. The Mitchell was, after all, a For centuries, “spinning” great mechanical idea at the height of its had nothing to do with the powers, and there was a spider-fiber sort reel. One could and did fish a of magic to its operation. “spinner” with whatever tack- That I could own and “spin-fish” with le was at hand, from the most such a reel for years, and now and then sophisticated to the crudest. It go out and buy myself a few Mepps spin- was all about getting the min- ners without noticing their name or now (real or artificial—both thinking what it might mean indicates a were in common use by 1800) certain dull blitheness, I know, but it also out into the current and forc- suggests that I was, like a lot of fishermen, ing it against that current fast preoccupied with results rather than no - enough so that it would work men clature. Besides, I was so charmed by its magic (it was long thought the spinning reel itself that there seemed impossible to spin a lure by no need to look beyond its smooth, beau- casting upstream). tiful engineering to justify its name. Fly-pattern innovators have Though I have examined some of the had no thing on the spinning finest, most universally adored fly reels in crowd. Nineteenth-century an - history (you haven’t lived until you’ve seen glers developed a hardware the rare gold-plated model of the Orvis store full of patent-office can- 1874 reel), I have yet to see any fly reel that didates in their efforts to per- approaches the Garcia Mitchell 300 for fect spinning. Book after book pure mechanical satisfaction. and catalog after catalog por- trayed an endless variety of This article appeared in much shorter form in vaguely medieval-looking wire- Amer ican Angler (January/February 2006, vol. 29, and-hook contrivances (vari- From the 1961 Garcia Fishing Annual. no. 1). ously known as flights, sets, SUMMER 2007 13 and rigs) that consisted mainly of a cen- above the hook, and a second about a popular for much of the twentieth cen- tral metal shaft (often of shaped lead) yard farther up.”3 This separation of swiv- tury. One of the most famous brown from which hung a fearsome array of el and spinner is intriguing and probably trout in more than two centuries of single, double, or treble hooks. By any of worked just fine, but I suppose it faded Pennsylvania fishing lore—and for many 1 a variety of means, a dead minnow was from use because anglers preferred the years the state record—was a 15⁄2-pound attached to the shaft, and the thing was simpler arrangement of the lure and swiv- fish taken in 1945 by Don Martin of Fort ready to use. Hewitt Wheatley’s “Water el as part of the same dainty device. Hunter, outside of Harris burg. He Witches,” artificial minnows illustrated Through the nineteenth and early caught the fish from Big Spring, near in The Rod and Line: Or, Practical Hints twentieth centuries, both British and Carlisle, using a bamboo fly rod to cast a and Dainty Devices for the Strawman Nymph with a Sure Taking of Trout, Gray - 4/0 Col orado Spinner at its ling, Etc. (1849), featured as head. many as fifteen hooks. Dain- ty devices indeed. Wheatley, REAL SPINNING after announc ing that his REELS lures were far superior to any others, added as a sort of Though various com- moral bonus that using mentators have pointed such lures allowed him to out that the principles of “avoid the cruelty of either the modern spinning reel threading a fine, lively were worked out by a vari- worm on a hook, or even ety of people in England, of killing fish, merely as Scotland, Switzerland, and baits for other fish.”2 prob ably other places, Brit - One intriguing differ- ish inventor Alfred Holden ence between many of these Illingworth developed and Vic torian-era spinners and popularized the first ones later lures was that in many we’d recognize, shortly af - cases the hooks were not ter World War I. Iron ically, directly attached to the unlike fly reels and casting lure itself. In stead, external reels, whose spools actually lines ex tended down along do spin, the spinning reel the flanks of the real or relies on a fixed spool, fake fish, and treble hooks aimed axis forward, so that were strung in series along the line practically melts these lines. Some called off it when the lure is cast. these hooked lines “drags.” This frictionless dispensing The idea was that a fish of the line was a huge that grabbed the lure but advantage over traditional failed to inhale the whole casting reels, whose line package would very likely had to be dragged from the be snagged around the rapidly turning spool by mouth, eyes, or head by the cast lure, with the con- these free-swinging gangs stant threat of backlash. of hooks. This style of spin- Combined with progres- ner probably faded from sively better nylon lines, fashion partly because it spinning reels enabled gen- must have been a mess to erations of post–World War handle, especially when II anglers to make long, try ing to land a frantically accurate casts after only a struggling fish, and partly From Hewitt Wheatley, The Rod and Line: Or, Practical Hints and little prac tice. It was a revo- be cause the sporting defin- Dainty Devices for the Sure Taking of Trout, Grayling, Etc. (London: lution, and not a quiet one. ition of a fair-caught fish Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1849), facing page 26. Though Bache-Brown has evolved to entirely Luxor spinning reels were exclude hooking the fish anywhere out- American tackle manufacturers expand- first im ported to the United States from side of its mouth. ed the number of spinnable lures beyond England in about 1935, it wasn’t until Another difference between these ear- all hope of counting. With the American after World War II that a variety of reels lier spinners and today’s models is that development of excellent casting reels came in such numbers as to change the the swivel—the little free-spinning metal before the Civil War, it became possible way Americans fished. The good reels connection that allowed the lure to turn to pitch hefty lures great distances with were still comparatively cheap, they were without the line getting all twisted up on extraordinary accuracy. Many of those amazingly easy to learn to use, and they itself—was usually placed not at the head lures featured propellers, angled fins, and landed in the New World right in the of the lure but some distance up the line. other clever attachments designed to middle of the greatest recreation boom William Stewart, in his strongly opin- heighten their rotation and attraction. in American history, as millions of peo- ioned The Practical Angler (I quote from Lighter, miniaturized versions of many ple—many of whom were new to fishing the 1857 edition), recommended that one of these same designs were marketed for of any kind—hit the streams with more swivel “should be placed about two feet use with fly rods, and they remained leisure time than ever.

14 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing the fishing population, fly fishers found themselves dwindling and left behind. An interesting measure of this decline in fly fishing may be seen in the appear- ance of several excellent, even path-break- ing fly-fishing books, including Art Flick’s Streamside Guide to Naturals and Their Imitations (1947), Vincent Marinaro’s A Modern Dry-Fly Code (1950), John Atherton’s The Fly and the Fish (1951), and several others. A few of these (such as Ernest Schwiebert’s extraordinarily broad Matching the Hatch, first pub- lished in 1955) seem to have flourished, but most sold poorly and didn’t become prominent and influential “classics” until the 1970s, when they were resur- rected by Nick Lyons and introduced to new generations of anglers. Flick, Marinaro, and the others had labored on their information and theories for many years before spinning arrived and just happened to release their studies in Longtime Orvis President Dudley C. “Duckie” Corkran (left) book form at the wrong time, when poses with a tarpon brought in on a spinning outfit. there was the least interest in new fly- fishing thinking. Who needed to know This was a far more widespread intended to last for one fishing trip, and about bugs and new fly patterns when change in fishing than the dramatic in - sometimes they didn’t even do that. there were all these shiny little metal crease in fly fishing in the 1970s. This was One importer exhibited a boxful of doodads that the trout just couldn’t resist? a whole country hooked on a new sport. Japanese imports, all different. He said Eventually fly fishing climbed out of Some of the nation’s leading outdoor they cost him roughly a dollar apiece in its market pit and re-established its this country and he wondered which writers, including such rising household would be the best one for his line.4 prominence among the different kinds fly-fishing names as Joe Bates and A. J. of angling. In a thoughtful essay, McClane, jumped on the popularization THE OPPOSITION “Sinning Against Spinning,” published in bandwagon and wrote books extolling Trout Madness (1960), Robert Traver and explaining the new gear. It was also Waterman who best chronicled his own conversion from fly Spinning was often billed as finally summed up the antispinning reaction fishing to spinning and his eventual bridging an imagined gap between the among traditionalists: “The spinning reversion to the fly rod. Charmed like so lightest flies and lures that could be cast thing got silly in the early 50s when some many others by the amazing efficiency of with fly rods and the heavy lures that of its opponents an nounced that it good spinning tackle, Traver announced could be cast with traditional casting meant the death of all other forms of it “the new love of my life,”7 but got over rods and reels, but it wasn’t that simple. casting and that it might be ne cessary to it very quickly. It certainly was true that spinning gear pass new laws to keep it from completely could cast lures lighter than most casting wiping out fish populations.”5 With my customary childish curiosity rigs could handle, but there were plenty Spinning’s “opponents” weren’t light- and helpless compulsion to possess every new fishing gadget that comes of fly rods sturdy enough to cast small weights. They included Edward Ring - along, I too fell for spinning—hook, lures, too. As well, spinning outfits were wood Hewitt, now a venerated grand old line, and sinker. Some two-hundred- soon available that could cast very heavy man of fly fishing, whose long life in the dollars-worth-of-equipment later I lures. Savvy American tackle dealers real- sport yielded so many influential books woke up, rubbed my eyes, and decided ized this; Orvis adopted the Pelican spin- and ideas. Interviewed in 1957, just that I did not give a tinker’s damn for ning reel, made in Italy, renamed it the before his death, Hewitt ranted against this new method of taking trout. In fact Orvis 100, and marketed it into the first the deadly efficiency of “this whole spin- I gave up spinning before many fisher- widely used saltwater spinning reel. ning business” and insisted that all state men in these parts had even heard of it, Spinning’s real advantages were its fish and game agencies should see that it and instead returned to my fly fishing 6 with, if possible, an even greater sense ease and cheapness. Charley Waterman, was outlawed. There was an almost joy and dedication. . . . It is not so much in his wonderfully down-to-earth A moral in dignation here, as if spin fishers that I hate spinning, but rather that I History of Angling (1981), emphasized the weren’t really fishermen at all, but some love fly fishing so much better.8 cheapness: vile new kind of social scum. Of course, spinning didn’t lead to The irresistibly quotable Traver gave When spinning really got going in the Trout Armageddon, though there is no us a reasonable list of the reasons why so late 40s, it came with a few high-grade question that the great increase in the many converts to spinning eventually reels and some appalling junk. number of fishermen, their choice of drifted back to flies. Some reasons were The junk came because builders and importers saw that a great many new tackle aside, was hard on the available quite practical, such as his dislike of tak- fishermen were going to get spinning fisheries. On the other hand, by all ing so much time to retrieve the line for gear and that the market was going to accounts, one serious effect of spinning’s the next cast; he could lift his fished-out depend on price. Many were what tack- popularity was a corresponding eclipse in fly line from the water and recast it at any le dealers called “throw away” outfits, fly fishing. Never all that large a portion of time, all at once. Other reasons were SUMMER 2007 15 From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing but the hook at the other. The fish-hook- ing dilemma for TU, as was often point- ed out to them, was how hopelessly anti- conservation some trout-fishing meth - ods were. Both TU and FFF promoted limiting your kill and some forms of catch-and-release, but even in the 1960s, most people knew that bait-caught fish suffered a far higher release mortality than did fly- or lure-caught fish. Releasing them dead seemed to miss the point. FFF lead ers saw no reason to dilute the effectiveness of fly fishing as a catch-and-release tool by inviting bait fishers into the fold. Neither TU nor FFF was willing to give on this matter. Fly-fishing commentator Arnold Gingrich, ruminating some what grumpily over this problem in The Joys of Trout (1973), said, “But while TU refuses to abandon bait, just as stubbornly as the fly fishermen refuse to compromise their identity, which they equate with their Robert Traver. integrity, the situation shows all the ear- marks of an impasse—which is some- more subjective and, ultimately, more and early members of both organiza- thing that goes forward steadily back- important. tions were primarily interested in fly ward.”10 fishing for trout, there was a period in Over the succeeding years, TU may But none of these objections goes to the the late 1960s and early 1970s when seri- never have abandoned their hopes of heart of the matter and I suspect that I would still prefer to fly fish for trout ous conversations took place about sim- attracting even more bait fishers into with the conventional split bamboo fly ply combining these two into one more their ranks (not that they give them any rod and regular tapered silk or nylon powerful group. room in their splendid magazine any- line even if all the technical objections The merge never happened, and it’s more). The two organizations have gone to spinning were solved. I rather think easy enough to argue that there were their separate but overlapping ways. that the simplest statement is that I find good reasons. Starting in the 1950s, a Meanwhile, out on the streams, many the art and ritual of fly casting a joyous tremendous broadening of interest of both organizations’ clubs and chapters and poetic experience in itself, fish or among fly fishers led them to a great either acquired joint affiliations or oth- no fish. Perhaps it is sheer sentimental- variety of fresh- and saltwater fish that, erwise cooperated in the good work. The ity or conservatism on my part; perhaps it is a stubborn desire to do things the though many had been caught on flies hard way; but somehow or other I like long before, had never been of wide and prefer the sense of personal involve- interest. FFF was, by its own definition, ment and immediacy and control that I, not just about trout, and it was expand- at least, feel only when I am delicately ing its horizons from the day of its cre- casting my fly over likely trout waters.9 ation. TU, on the other hand, prided itself on The purism of fly fishing is usually por- a different kind of breadth, across the trayed as a kind of snobbery, and often it spec trum of trout-fishing methods from is. But in this one paragraph Traver cap- bait to spinning lures to flies. The all- tured the finer essence of the purist’s encompassing democ- heart. racy of TU’s ap proach, based on a desire to GETTING ALONG FOR attract the largest possi- GREATER GOOD ble constituency to the cause of trout conserva- Spinning came along as American tion, was not something The logos of Trout angling entered its most dynamic and to be cast aside lightly. Unlimited and the restless decades. More was going on than There were also a Federa tion of Fly a flood of new tackle. Anglers were join- number of philosophi- Fishermen as they ing the real world, becoming conserva- cal differences between appeared in the late tion activists in unprecedented numbers. the groups, including 1960s. Trout fishermen particularly were find- the centralized authori- ing a voice and flexing political muscles, ty of TU and the grass - most often through the offices of Trout roots approach of FFF. Unlimited, founded in 1959, and the But for the mo ment Federation of the Fly Fish ermen (later let’s consider not the the Feder ation of Fly Fishers), founded political person at one in 1965. Because many of the founders end of the fishing line, 16 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER barriers between FFF and TU may have “But they don’t wish to! They’ll kill them shrines. For generations, sometimes for been organizationally insurmountable all!” And I do know spin fishers who are more than a century, fly fishers have but were otherwise full of holes. Twice just like that. But if we don’t like them as devoted enormous amounts of energy now, one individual has held a key people, or if we disapprove of their atti- and money to protect and nurture those administrative position first with TU tudes and values, let’s not waste time tak- particular waters. Eloquent books have and later with FFF. Esther Simon was the ing it out on their tackle. brought literary immortality to a num- first to accomplish this, in the 1980s, and If I were an active spin fisher these ber of these places. Most of the cultural Pete Van Gytenbeek, an early TU execu- days, I’d cast a jaundiced and jealous eye aura of such places—everything from tive director, became FFF’s president in on fly-fishing-only waters around the the local place names to the quirky local 2004. country and wonder loudly how come service businesses—is a product of its Crossing the boundary seemed the those guys are getting these private little long-present society of fly fishers. Surely, only way to do both jobs. As Gingrich fishing preserves of their own, on public that should earn them a little preference put it with an almost audible shrug of streams that are managed solely by tax here and there. resignation, “Well, since they’re both on dollars. But I also hope that I would lis- the side of the angels, there’s obviously ten with some sympathy to the less sci- SEPARATE BUT EQUAL . . . ISH only one thing to do. You’ve got to join entific justifications for such fly-fishing- them both, and keep your fingers only waters. There are chicken-or-egg questions crossed.”11 Which is just here. Do fly reels and what many of us have From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing spinning reels attract dif- done, for a couple gener- ferent classes of people on ations now. some level of intellect or If the TU-FFF story temperament, or are dif- seems like a tangential ferent kinds of people just aside, consider this. Be- using fly fishing and spin hind all this political his- fishing as social badges tory is one consistent if to distinguish them selves often unspoken element from each other? Do we in the story of these two fly fish because we don’t essential organizations’ like to spin fish, or vice inability to work togeth- versa? My own best an- er even more closely. swer to these questions is, Most of the time, the “Maybe not, but some- issues that kept them times it looks like it.” apart lined up people There are many spin- with fly rods on one side ning lures that I could and people with spin- comfortably cast with my ning rods on the other. fly rods (I know this from early experience, when I THE SOCIAL GAPS was still switching over). There are quite a few When I became in- Woolly Buggers, Montana volved in fly fishing in Arnold Gingrich and his wife Jane. Nymphs, and other large- the 1970s, there was a caliber flies in my vest formidable body of opinion among fly For one thing, there is something to that I could comfortably cast with a light fishers that their method was superior, the argument that some types of fishing spinning outfit. With a small plastic bub- not merely in Traver’s sense of providing simply require a little water of their own. ble a couple feet up the line, the lightest a finer personal experience, but as a The total fly-fishing-only stream mileage small flies can be cast, somewhat impre- means of conserving hard-used fish pop- is trivial nationally; surely we are rich cisely, with a spinning rod. The lines ulations. I re member point ing out to enough in aquatic resources that we between the hook-delivery capacity of people with this view that science sug- don’t have to subject all waters to the the two methods are so blurred that an gested otherwise—that fly fishing was no tragedy of the commons. uninformed but perceptive observer less harmful in catch-and-release fish- Also, there are a great many more might wonder what the fuss is about. eries than certain types of spin fishing. “special-regulations” waters (almost I have wondered myself. At my most Some of those people didn’t want to hear always catch-and-release, or at least a judgmental, driving along some favorite it. They believed in scientific manage- restrictive slot limit) that do allow both river, I see the passing ranks of cookie- ment only until science ran up against fly and spin fishing but exclude bait fish- cutter fly fishers decked out in our gener- their prejudices. ing because of its high release mortality. ously flapped/pocketed/Velcroed layers The statistics have accumulated over- Fly fishers and spin fishers seem to get of fashionable pastels, and I wonder if whelmingly since then. We fly fishers may along okay there, though in the places I even the most outlandishly dressed pride ourselves on occupying some aes- know that have such regulations, the fly golfer could look any foppishly sillier to thetic or even spiritual high ground fishers tend to dominate the local fishing the uninitiated. among anglers if we want to, but that’s population, just because so many more Then I see a spin fisher in faded jeans about all we can pretend to have going of them have no interest in taking fish (the People’s pastel) and flannel shirt for us anymore. Spin fishers can release home anyway. standing (they never crouch like we do) just as many fish alive as we can, if they Last, there is the imponderable matter with his toes right up to the edge of some wish to. Ed Hewitt would hate to hear of tradition. Fly fishers perceive some of beautiful trout stream, and I am remind- that, and would probably burst out with, their most historic waters almost as ed of Russ Chatham’s description of such SUMMER 2007 17 a man, “flipping a spoon carelessly into ness. It makes me think better of spin Thaddeus Norris and the Briton Francis the water the way another might discard fishers generally to know that they, too, Francis, did it all. In the twentieth centu- a candy wrapper.”12 Then I wonder if it is can get lost in the fog of symbolism and ry, some of our most beloved fly-fishing possible to look any more emotionally imagery that surrounds fishing at its writers, including Ray Bergman and Joe remote from what one is doing than while least practical. Brooks, were also avid generalists. That’s spin fishing. good enough company for most of us, I Though I have many recollections of GETTING ALONG AFTER ALL think. myself and others in extraordinarily Today, I suspect that many of us who embar rassing and foolish situations Fishermen have always enjoyed pok- started with a spinning outfit have never while fly fishing, my strongest memory of ing fun at one another and probably entirely escaped its charms. Like Robert any fisherman achieving the very finest always will; it’s just human nature, and Traver, I may fly fish because I like it bet- level of absurdity did involve a spin fish- it’s often done in a friendly enough spir- ter, but I still take that old Mitchell out erman. It was more than twenty years it. It would take a herd of sociologists— now and then, give the crank a few wist- ago, in Vermont. I had stopped at the and maybe even a few psychologists—to ful turns, and consider my options. Union Street bridge over the ! Battenkill, not far down- stream from Manchester, just ENDNOTES to take a look at the water, which was low and clear. It 1.Izaak Walton, The was also very pretty, so I Compleat Angler (London: John stood for a little while in the Lane, 1897; reprint London: middle of the bridge, looking Senate, 1994), 106–07. upstream. Unlike so many 2.Hewett Wheatley, The Rod “bridge pools,” this was un - and Line (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, promising water, just a cou- 1849; reprint Mortonehamp- ple inches deep over a bright stead, Devon: The Flyfisher’s bed of sand and gravel. Classic Library, 2002), 21. But on the west bank just 3. William Stewart, The Prac - upstream from the bridge tical Angler (Edinburgh: Adam there was some bare dirt and Charles Black, 1857), 159. right down to the water, and 4. Charles Waterman, A His - a local young man had parked tory of Angling (Tulsa, Okla.: his big pickup truck so he and Winchester Press, 1981), 224. his girlfriend could walk 5. Waterman, A History, 224. down and sit close together by 6. I discuss Hewitt’s views the water while he fished. He on spinning and quote him at had a nice spinning outfit and greater length in American Fly Fishing: A History (New York: had cast out into the middle Nick Lyons Press, 1987), 190. of the river. I looked down 7.Robert Traver, Trout and watched his shiny little Madness (New York: St. Martin’s spinner as the clear current Press, 1960), 39. slowly rolled it along over the 8. Ibid. gravel in the ankle-deep water. 9. Ibid., 141. It was a telling moment. 10.Gingrich, The Joys of He knew essentially nothing Trout (New York: Crown Pub - about what a spinner was lishers, 1973), 119. My comments supposed to do or where to on the early political relation- do it, and yet he was pic- ship between the Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited turesquely honoring all the From Ed Zern, To Hell with Fishing forms of “going fishing,” in this discussion are based in (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1945), 35. good part on Gingrich, The Joys including some I’m sure he’d of Trout, 115–20, 212–16; my own never heard of. It was a experiences as a member, senior advisor, and tableau vivant of the Young Angler’s Idyl. unravel the relationship between mod- vice president for communications of the The disconnect between really fishing ern spin fishers and fly fishers. Spin fish- Federation of Fly Fishers in the late 1970s and and what this young man was doing was ers who blather about how they can out- 1980s; my longtime membership in Trout stupendous, but I recognized immedi- fish fly fishers ought to just get on over to Unlimited; and many conversations with Bud ately that this, too, was a kind of fishing, the fish market and stop taking up valu- Lilly, founding president of Montana Trout though it wouldn’t produce an actual able river space. And anyone who has Unlimited and longtime activist with both fish if he did it for a thousand years. taken up fly fishing for the sense of artis- organizations. I sensed a rare achievement in this tic or moral superiority it gives them has 11. Gingrich, The Joys of Trout, 120. man’s approach. For all the quixotic casts bigger problems than fishing can solve. 12. Russell Chatham, The Angler’s Coast I’ve seen fly fishers make—including all I find it reassuring that many of the (New York: Doubleday, 1976), 67. the absurd long shots I’ve sent under authorities who fished spinners a centu- logs, over weed beds, between branches, ry or more ago were also leading fly-fish- and into other sure tippet-clippers—I’ve ing authorities. Anglers like Wheatley, never seen anyone approach this happy mentioned earlier, and such great and young man for sheer purity of hopeless- beloved generalists as the American

18 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Homage to Patagonia: Schwiebert’s Friends Deliver His Ashes

A group of sportsmen gathered on January 18 on the Caleufu River on Douglas Reid’s estancia to honor the memory of the world-renowned fisherman-author Ernest Schwiebert, who died on 10 December 2005, in Princeton, New Jersey. Jim Rikhoff, Ernie’s lifelong friend since their days as undergraduates at Ohio State University in the 1950s, holds the ashes. He observed the burial of the remains with (from left) Douglas Reid; Will Paine, another friend of Ernie’s; Inez Jorgenson; and Xavier Rivera, one of Schwiebert’s longtime guides in Argentina.

Photos by Tom Brennan

Above: The interment.

Right: Ernie’s view, overlooking the Caleufu River, one of his favorite streams.

SUMMER 2007 19 Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing An Exhibition

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History file photo The American Museum of Fly Fishing is proud to announce its collaboration with the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (New Haven, Connecticut) on an exciting exhibition that features collections of both museums. Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing opens on 29 September 2007 and runs through February 2008. It includes highlights from the Amer - ican Museum of Fly Fishing’s permanent collection, which will be greatly augmented by the Yale Peabody Museum’s extensive ichthyology and entomology collections. The American Museum of Fly Fishing has enjoyed an excel- lent relationship with the Yale Peabody Museum since the early 1990s, when our traveling exhibit, Anglers All, showed there to great success. Working together to create this new exhibition, both institutions look to reach out to the next generation of anglers and naturalists, and to inspire their participation in the natural world through the wonderful sport of fly fishing. The exhibition will open with a short film produced by the American Museum of Fly Fishing. This high-definition video will introduce the visitor to the sport, noting the differences between fly fishing and conventional fishing. Filmed in fantas- tic settings throughout North America, it will feature legendary fly-fishing practitioners—including Gardner Grant, Joan Wulff, James Prosek, John Gierach, and many others—as they communicate the beauty and diversity of the sport. Drawing from core collections of the American Museum of Fly Fishing—the largest public collection of angling artifacts in the world—Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing will chronicle the sport’s history, paying particular attention to nineteenth-century European influence and the evolution of mod ern fly fishing as evidenced by tactics, equipment, art, and The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. literature. It will also delve into the fascinating world of fly tying. Featuring the Yale Peabody’s extensive entomology collections, Both institutions are organizing demonstrations and semi- the exhibit will explain methods used by fly tiers to match the nars to further highlight the sport. There will be fly-tying and hatch—that is, create flies that mimic specific insects, fish, casting demonstrations every weekend during the exhibit, as mammals, and algae—to hook species from all over the world. well as various lectures from docents. The Yale Peabody’s extensive ichthyology collection will A major one-day fly-fishing event, planned by both institu- offer a glimpse into the myriad fish species targeted worldwide tions, is in the works for early December 2007. The event will by fly fishers. The visitor will be introduced to the many fish- feature guided tours of the exhibit, along with guided access to eries frequented by anglers, get a better understanding of these the magnificent collection of angling books housed at Yale Uni - fisheries, and learn about the history of conservation in fly versity’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It will fishing as it relates to these fisheries. end with a wonderful dinner in the gallery of the Yale Peabody There will also be a chance to view the celebrated collection of Museum, featuring a sporting dinner and auction to raise funds fly-fishing reels and rods from the American Museum of Fly for both institutions. Fishing, which detail the evolution of designing and man u - Stay tuned to our website (www.amff.com) and journal for facturing techniques from the nineteenth century to modern day. more news on this exciting exhibition.

20 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER AMFF file photo

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History file photo

Above: A sampling of the American Museum of Fly Fishing’s permanent collection.

Right: The magnificent Great Hall of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Below: A portion of the Anglers All timeline chronicling the development of the sport in the late 19th century.

AMFF file photo

SUMMER 2007 21 IN MEMORIAM Gerald A. Hayes Jr.

Jerry Hayes on a fishing trip in Tierra del Fuego, January 2002.

Gerald A. Hayes Jr., age sixty-two, of Philadelphia, a recently retired businessman, died after a brave fight with cancer at Pennsylvania Hospital on 13 February 2007. Mr. Hayes graduated from Villanova University in 1966. After graduation, he served as an officer in the United States Air Force until 1971. Immediately following his service, he began his banking career with First Pennsylvania Bank and continued with Corestates Bank until 1996. Since 1996, he worked as a consultant, most recently with Allegiance Bank and Paramount Mortgage. An avid fly fisherman, Jerry found peace and relaxation while casting, being with nature, and enjoy- ing the perfect cigar. He was a member and president of the Brodhead Hunting and Fishing Association in Canadensis, Pennsylvania. His passion for the sport led him to other destinations, including South America, the Florida Keys, Idaho, and Canada. In addition to his angling adventures, he enjoyed collecting antique fly rods and tackle. Jerry loved traveling with his family and dear friends. Many fond memories were created on Monhegan Island, St. Barths, and the Chesapeake Bay. Inspired by his travels, Jerry built a cherished collection of art work—most noteworthy from the artist colony on Monhegan Island, Maine. Inspired by fellow artists, he dabbled in watercolor painting. In addition to his loving wife, Beverly, he is survived by his daughter, Kimberley Hayes Cooper; a brother; a sister; and many loving nieces and nephews. Donations in Jerry’s memory can be made to the Joan Karnell Cancer Center in Philadelphia or the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

22 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER LETTERS

I became a member a year ago and Would that anyone is interested in Ken Owens responds: look forward to each issue of the journal. such matters, I enclose a picture of a 16- So, when I eagerly opened this one to see pound rainbow (not the largest fish I Mr. Ginzel is absolutely right. Now what fascinating articles awaited me, I have taken here) taken on 6x tippet and that I look at it carefully, there is no found myself confronted with: The Index a dry #22 Trico. As far as I know, he is still question that the creature in question is (Winter 2007, vol. 33, no. 1). A quick scan there (not a planted fish). definitely a whitefish. Still more shatter- determined that was essentially it for this Tight lines, ing to my reputation as a caption writer issue, and I quickly joined the groaners is this late-arriving information: Brit and gnashers club. Joe Cooper Jr. Storey, chief historian for the Bureau of But then I started to look through it Callahan, California Reclamation, now identifies the photo as and got thoroughly hooked. What an dating from 1918 (not the 1960s) and absolute treasure! It’s like stepping into a states that it was taken below Jackson private fly-fishing library and gaining There is a mystery concerning the Lake Dam on the Snake River (not Priest access to a wealth of knowledge all for $4 photo on page 3 of the Spring issue (vol. Rapids on the Columbia). Thus, despite an issue, assuming it’s in stock. 33, no. 2) accompanying Ken Owens’s the charm of the illustration, it has in My congratulations for putting it out. fine article on tailwater fisheries, which fact no direct relevance whatsoever to I can appreciate it’s a huge effort to pull shows a proud angler holding a “trophy the topic of my article. all this together. But, it’s extremely valu- steelhead.” The head of this fish looks Usually I’m so focused on the fish, my able. Thanks for making it available. salmonid enough, but it appears to have wife ob serves, that I don’t notice cos- a forked tail exactly like that of a rocky tume; but in this case I looked right past Alan Amendt mountain whitefish (Corego nus william- the obvious concerning both the fish and Farmington Hills, Michigan soni). The tail of a steelhead, while per- the lady’s fishing apparel. Only the fly haps not quite square, is never forked— rod had my attention. “A different angle,” or is it? says my wife, not meaning any pun. I almost wish my stuff had not ap - Please thank Mr. Ginzel for me and peared in the journal because then my Roland Ginzel extend my apologies to all other readers. remark here might seem to carry less bias. Lenox, Massachusetts The fact that the journal publishes an Ken Owens index (Winter 2007, vol. 33, no. 1) raises it Sacramento, California so far above all the other sporting maga- zines as to be in another universe of the mind. Pub lish an article in other maga- zines, and it lives a couple months and then is as good as lost forever. Pub lish in the Amer ican Fly Fisher, and your work can live and be found by the genera- tions. It makes the museum a serious cultural, historical, scholarly institution. What a wonderful thing!

Gordon Wickstrom Boulder, Colorado

Joseph W. Cooper Jr. regrets that he will be unable to attend the AMFF Annual Evening in Napa on 2 June 2007. At ninety-one years of age, that is a long way from Callahan. Shed not too many tears of sympathy for this old man, however, as Callahan is within a mile or so of some very nice fish, and I continue to pursue them en - thusiastically, currently with a score of 14,502 for a lifetime (all on my own flies), striving for 15,000. Joe Cooper and his 16-pound rainbow trout.

SUMMER 2007 23 Photos by Yoshi Akiyama

Above: Aldro French, owner of the historic Forest Lodge on the Rapid River, is flanked by Museum Trustee Richard Tisch (right) and Charles Wallshein, a longtime Rapid River angler.

Right: Bill Pierce (right), PR representative for the Maine De - partment of Inland Fisheries, presents a conservation award to Executive Director Bill Bullock for his efforts on the Rapid River Brook Trout Project during the museum’s Anglers’ Club dinner.

Anglers’ Club Dinner at Bullis Hall, the Conservancy & Sporting Society, the Yellowstone Valley Ranch, Steve Horowitz and Kestrel Outfitters, The museum held its annual Anglers’ Club of New York L. L. Bean, Robert Cochrane, Jim Collins, Kris Rollenhagen, Peter Dinner and Sporting Auction on March 15. The evening was a Corbin, Adriano Manocchia, Carmine Lisella and the Jordan great success, raising significant dollars for our archival and Mills Rod Co., John Mundt Jr., Roger Riccardi and Gallo Wines, collections work. With the city bracing for a large winter storm Dr. Gary Sherman, Dr. Mark Sherman, Dr. Steve Sherman, late that evening, our audience enjoyed a lively social hour and Richard Tisch and the Potatuck Club, Leslie Clark and the auction preview. The attendees enjoyed a wonderful culinary Winston Rod Company, Captain Joe Mustari, and Ted Sypher. experience thanks to Mary O’Malley and her professional staff. Lyman Foss returned to serve as the evening’s auctioneer. His entertaining auction style, combined with several ques- Upcoming Events tionable anecdotes, produced some great bidding and several heated battles. October 2–3 The museum would like to thank the Anglers’ Club of New (tentative) York for once again hosting this important event. We offer a Cast and Hack Tournament huge round of applause to dinner chair John Mundt and his Shelter Harbor Golf Club and South County Rhode Island committee—James Baker, Jim and Judith Bowman, Bob Saltwater Fishery Westerly and Charlestown, Rhode Island Johnson, John Larkin, Carmine Lisella, Pamela Murray, Stephen Peet, David Sgorbati, and Richard Tisch—for their October 11–12 tireless efforts to make this event a success. Friends of Museum Corbin Shoot Thank also to our event sponsors: the Conservancy & Hudson Farm Sporting Society, Peter Corbin, Barbi and Thomas E. Don - Andover, New Jersey nelley II, Mac Francis, George and Beth Gibson, Jon and Mona Gibson, Dr. Edmund Hecklau, Doug MacKenzie, Erik Oken, October 26–27 Stephen Peet, Kris Rollenhagen, and Jeffrey Williams. Annual Membership Meeting and Trustees Weekend Finally, we would like to thank our auction donors, whose Manchester, Vermont wonderful gifts generated tremendous support for the museum: Rick Bannerot, Francisco Ruiz and the Nomads of the Seas, Aldro For more information, contact the museum at French and the Rapid River Fly Fishing Company, the Orvis (802) 362-3300 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Company and Orvis Sandanona, the Tamarack Pre serve, the Inn

24 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Museum Receives Memorial Contributions The Behnke collection will be processed in 2007, after which it will become accessible to the public. It will become part of a The museum received word in late February that a friend of growing trout and salmonid collection that presently exceeds ours had passed away. Gerald Hayes died on February 13 at the 7,200 titles and also includes the Nick Lyons Ephemera Col- age of sixty-two (see “In Memoriam: Gerald A. Hayes Jr.” on lection (composed of corporate records and personal papers, page 22). His obituary suggested that friends send memorial 1932–2005). Inquiries about MSU’s Trout and Salmonid Col- contributions to the American Museum of Fly Fishing. We lection may be directed to Kim Allen Scott, Special Collections received many donations with kind remarks. Among them Librarian, at (406) 994-5297 or [email protected]. were: “Jerry was an avid fly fisherman who spent many happy times with a fishing rod in hand wading a trout stream”; Recent Donations “Please use this donation to continue your important mission of preserving our rich fly-fishing heritage for future genera- Sylvia Bashline of State College, Pennsylvania, donated a 1 tions”; “An avid fisherman, he will be missed by his many 31⁄2-inch wood-carved Atlantic salmon hen by Jim Bashline, friends and family”; “In memory of Gerald Hayes, a true and based on one he caught from the Strelna River, Russia, June longtime friend and a fly-fishing buddy for years”; and “In 1992. She also sent a framed limited-edition print (111/750), memory of our beloved president.” Salmo Salar by John Atherton. Other contributions came in with similar sentiments. It was Jennine Dickey of Rangeley, Maine, donated the photo jour- nice to see the museum listed as something so dear to someone nal of Gertrude Jungmann’s fishing trip to Labrador in 1953, whose life reflected the mission of the American Museum of along with Gert’s letter opener and a photocopy of her trip diary. Fly Fishing. Behnke Papers Donated to the Montana In the Library State University Libraries Thanks to the following publishers for their donations of recent titles that have become part of our collection (all titles In September 2006, the Montana State University Libraries were published in 2006, unless otherwise noted): were pleased to acquire the papers/archive of Robert J. Behnke. Frank Amato Publications, Inc., sent us Northern California Dr. Behnke is professor emeritus at Colorado State Uni ver - River Maps & Fishing Guide and John Shewey’s Steelhead Flies. sity. He is both renowned and respected as one of the preemi- The Lyons Press sent us Darrel Martin’s The Fly-Fisher’s Craft: nent researchers focusing on trout. His work includes the mag- The Art and History. And Randy Kadish sent us a copy of his nificent and comprehensive Trout and Salmon of North America novel, The Fly Caster Who Tried to Make Peace with the World (2002) and Native Trout of Western North America (1992). (Saw Mill River Press, 2007).

CONTRIBUTORS

Thelma McGary

D. W. McGary spent more than forty-three years in public education in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, teaching chemistry and later serving as the district’s K–12 coordinator of science. After retiring in 1997, Dan and his wife Thelma moved to New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, where they live 3 miles from the Susquehanna River and 5 miles from the nearest stretch of the Yellow Breeches Creek. The combination of leisure time and close proximity to varied waters allows Dan to pursue not only fish but his fishing heritage in the area where he grew up during the Great Depression and the years of World War II. Sharing this heritage is the motivation behind his contribution to this issue.

Paul Schullery was executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing from 1977 to 1982. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of about thirty-five books, including several relating to fly fishing and fly- fishing history. His most recent books include Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing as If It Matters; The Rise: Streamside Observations on Trout, Flies, and Fly Fishing; and The Orvis Story: 150 Years of an American Sporting Tradition. He was the 2006 winner of the Roderick Haig- Brown Award from the Federation of Fly Fishers.

SUMMER 2007 25 Museum Donors Our sincere thanks to those who contributed to fund the museum’s important work in 2006.

PLATINUM E. M. Bakwin Blake Drexler Nancy Mackinnon John Rano Michael Bakwin Christopher Garcia Walter Matia John Regan Foster Bam Ronald Gard William McMaster, MD James Reid Jr. Pam Bates George Gibson III John Mundt Jr. Roger Riccardi Stephen Benardete Gardner Grant David Nichols Kristoph Rollenhagen Paul Bofinger Christopher Gruseke E. Wayne Nordberg William Salladin R. Duke Buchan III James Hardman Raymond Pecor Robert Scott William C. Bullock Jr. James Heckman, MD Stephen Peet Jared Tausig Mickey Callanen Arthur Kaemmer, MD Perkins Charitable Richard Tisch Peter Corbin Peter Kellogg Foundation David Walsh H. Corbin Day Woods King III Leigh Perkins Sr. Frank “Chip” Weinburg Jerome “Jace” Day Carl Kuehner III Allan Poole James Woods

GOLD John Bell Jr. Thomas Rice, MD Yvon Chouinard Matthew Scott Amelia C. Fawcett Charles Treadway Dana Mead Dickson Whitney

SILVER York: (New . 17

Christopher Barrow Duff Meyercord ),

Tim Bontecou David Pennock 1875 Robert A. Clough, MD Sandra Read Fitz Coker James Specter, DDS

Patrick Durkin Edwin Stroh Fishing Waters in American Geoffrey Gold Jerry Tone Paul C. Jennings Vermont Magazine Lester Morse Foundation The American News Company, The American Company, News BRONZE Genio From Scott, James Abraham Scott Farfone John Mahar Michael Reagor Ronald Bean G. Dick Finlay George McCabe Keith Reed Ed Beddow Matthew Forelli Charles McCaughtry r.k. Miles Joel Berman Austin Francis R. M. McCulloch William Ross Alexander Bing III Keith Fulsher Charles McGowan Edward Ruestow Jeffrey Blum Peter Gambitsky Hugo Melvoin Raymond Salminen Jim and Judith Bowman Donald Grosset Gregg Messel Peter Saulnier Mark Brefka Thomas Hartman Ed Migdalski John Scully Robert Brucker David A. Hashey Warren Miller McKelden Smith Donald Buckley Coburn Haskell Paula Morgan Carl Soderland, MD Bill and Becky Burke David A. Johnson George Mumford Ronald Swanson George Butts John Kelleher Frank Murray Jr. William Troy William Casazza Thomas Knight Charles Newmyer William Webster Donald Clough, MD Peter Kuriloff Erik Oken Heather and Mitch Michael Coe Thomas Laskow Lars Olsson Whiteford Gary Corcoran James Lee Richard O’Neill Delozier Wigton Deb Donnelley Samuel Libman Robert Orth Harold Williams Tom and Barbi Donnelley William Lord Frank Paul Charles Wood III Jon R. Eggleston Nick Lyons James Pollack James F. Wood Robert Evans William Maggi Nicholas Posak Gerald Zebrowski 26 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Announcement of B ACK I SSUES! Volume 6: Numbers 2, 3, 4 Volume 7: Number 3 Annual Meeting Volume 8: Number 3 Volume 9: Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 10: Number 2 The annual meeting of the members of the American Volume 11: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Museum of Fly Fishing will take place in Manchester, Volume 13: Number 3 Vermont, at Hildene on Saturday, October 28, 2007, at Volume 15: Number 2 9:00 A.M. Volume 16: Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 17: Numbers 1, 2, 3 Members will vote on the election of new trustees, Volume 18: Numbers 1, 2, 4 officers and any other matters that may be presented. Volume 19: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Members should contact the American Museum of Fly Volume 20: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Fishing for a copy of the agenda any time after October Volume 21: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 15, 2007, at (802) 362-3300. Volume 22: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 23: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 The annual trustees’ meeting will follow the mem- Volume 24: Numbers 1, 2 bership meeting at the same location. Volume 25: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 26: Numbers 1, 2, 4 Volume 27: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 28: Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 29: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 30: Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 31: Numbers 1, 2 Volume 32: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 33: Numbers 1, 2

Back issues are $4 a copy. To order, please contact Rebecca Nawrath at (802)362-3300 or via e-mail at [email protected]. A

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SUMMER 2007 27 nomads of the seas ad

28 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Exhibits: Both Traveling and at Home

AMFF file photo

A panel from the museum’s traveling exhibit Anglers All: Humanity in Midstream depicting the various birds whose feathers go into the creation of the Jock Scott salmon fly.

S I GAZE OUT THE window at a brilliant May morning in Pleissner’s paintings will be part of a larger exhibit that joins southwestern Vermont, my mind wanders to the many his finished works with photographs, journal entries, sketches, Adistractions facing a sportsman this month: Are the artifacts, and personal remembrances of the people and places Hendrickson duns on the water at my favorite riffle below Lye he painted. Brook Pool? Do I have the time to sneak out turkey hunting to - We recently hired Bob Shaw to be our curator for this morrow? Are the morel mushrooms popping yet? Although exhibit. Bob brings extensive exhibits experience to the muse- these activities are tempting, I must buckle down, get to work, um, and we are thrilled to have him on board for this show. He and bring our membership up to speed on our activities. will be working closely with Collections Manager and Exhibit These are exciting times for the American Museum of Fly Designer Yoshi Akiyama to put this show together. Fishing. As we approach our fortieth anniversary in 2008, I am Ogden M. Pleissner spent a great deal of his life between his proud to share news of several exciting projects. studios in New York City and southwestern Vermont. Twenty- In September 2007, we will be opening a joint exhibit at the three years after his death, his spirit still pervades throughout Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. Seeing this community. Mention his name, and people will recall his Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing will feature our museum’s paintings, his humor, and his passion for angling and bird rich collection of fly-angling artifacts, which will be greatly hunting. Our museum is fortunate to have a broad selection of augmented by the Peabody’s extensive ichthyology and ento- his artifacts in our collection. We are also blessed with a wide mology collections. This show is scheduled to run through network of supporters who know where Pleissner’s best sport- February 2008. It will be an excellent opportunity for both ing works are hanging. A fantastic collection of Pleissner’s institutions to inspire the participation of the next generation paintings will be featured in this show. Don’t miss this chance of anglers and naturalists in the natural world of our sport. to view the works of one of America’s greatest twentieth-cen- The Peabody Museum of Natural History and the American tury painters through the lens of fly fishing. Museum of Fly Fishing collaborated on a smaller fly-fishing Finally, I hope you can visit the museum this summer. exhibit fifteen years ago, and we are happy to be working Earlier this year, Yoshi put together a wonderful traveling together again. Our museum’s collection has grown consider- exhibit commemorating the work of reelmaker Stanley E. ably during the intervening years, and we are looking forward Bogdan, our 2007 Heritage Award winner. We intend to broad- to this creation of a must-see exhibit for fly anglers young and en this exhibit with loaned reels, artifacts, and other memora- old. For more on Seeing Wonders: The Nature of Fly Fishing, see bilia to celebrate Stan’s career. I urge you all to make the jour- page 20. ney to see our spectacular museum and enjoy the world’s Our Ogden M. Pleissner exhibit, The Sporting Grand Tour, largest public collection of angling artifacts. will open in our Manchester galleries in May 2008. This exhib- Tight lines! it will include paintings and sketches from the American Museum of Fly Fishing, private collectors, and the Ogden M. BILL BULLOCK Pleissner estate housed at Vermont’s Shelburne Museum. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The American Museum of Fly Fishing Box 42, Manchester,Vermont 05254 Tel: (802) 362-3300 •Fax: (802) 362-3308 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.amff.com

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING, a nationally accredited, nonprofit, educa- J OIN! tional institution dedicated to preserving Membership Dues (per annum) the rich heritage of fly fishing, was found- Associate $40 ed in Manchester, Vermont, in 1968. The International $50 museum serves as a repository for, and Family $60 conservator to, the world’s largest collec- Benefactor $100 tion of angling and angling-related objects. Business $200 The museum’s collections and exhibits Patron $250 provide the public with thorough docu- Sponsor $500 mentation of the evolution of fly fishing Platinum $1,000 as a sport, art form, craft, and industry in The museum is an active, member-ori- the United States and abroad from the ented nonprofit institution. Membership sixteenth century to the present. Rods, dues include four issues of the American Fly reels, and flies, as well as tackle, art, books, Fisher. Please send your payment to the manuscripts, and photographs, form the membership director and include your major components of the museum’s col- mailing address. The museum is a member lections. of the American Asso ciation of Museums, The museum has gained recognition as the American Association of State and a unique educational institution. It sup- Local History, the New England Asso ciation ports a publications program through of Museums, the Vermont Museum and which its national quarterly journal, the Gallery Alliance, and the International American Fly Fisher, and books, art prints, Association of Sports Museums and Halls and catalogs are regularly offered to the of Fame. public. The museum’s traveling exhibits program has made it possible for educa- S UPPORT! tional exhibits to be viewed across the As an independent, nonprofit institution, United States and abroad. The museum the American Museum of Fly Fishing relies also provides in-house exhibits, related on the generosity of public-spirited indi- interpretive programming, and research viduals for substantial support. We ask that services for members, visiting scholars, you give our museum serious considera- authors, and students. tion when planning for gifts and bequests.