Journal of the Amerimn Museum of Fly

WINTER 2~03 VOLUME 19 NUMBER I Trout Memories and Pike Tales

caught and released my first trout in April 1989 on the Beaverlull. My memory of this is pretty good, I think, Ialthough it's not as vivid as perhaps it should be. I know the date because my husband saved the black stonefly nymph and framed it in a shadowbox-an act of historical documentation close to the date of the actual event. When we lived in the D.C. area, we'd sometimes drive up to Big Hunting Creek, a favorite haunt of my high school days. I must have occasionally caught fish there, but I can't remember any particular fish. Maybe I didn't catch any. What I remember is being happy on the familiar creek, away from the city. What if I did vividly remember these fishing trips? Would I be right in their detail? How much of memory is what actual- ly happened, and how much of it is remembering the story we tell ourselves about what happened? How do the details change over time? Paul Schullery was doing a lot of in Yellowstone National Park thirty years ago when he first began reading By noting the first published claim of pike not taking the about the sport's history. On the must-read list was Edward R. as bait (Robert Venables, The Experience'd Angler, Hewitt, who, it turned out, had written quite the account of 1662), Frederick Buller makes the argument that people have fishing the park in the early 1880s. Schullery was surprised to obviously been trying the method for at least 341 years. His find that some of Hewitt's "facts" weren't exactly right. When article cites the many instances of claims against this method he went back to those writings more recently, he found the of catching pike, most of which he considers a passing along of account even more wrong than he remembered. Of course, misinformation from authority to authority. It wasn't until Hewitt wrote about his trip more than thirty years after the 1800, with Samuel Taylor's in All Its Branches, that an fact. author made a personal claim of having caught a pike on the Because the history of Yellowstone is so well documented, fly. Buller also reviews some mentions of dressings of pike flies. it's fairly easy to check people's stories. Schullery has done this, A particularly amusing reaction to one of these flies was noted and he presents some of his findings in "Edward in by a correspondent to the Field, who wrote, "But the leadng Wonderland: Yellowstone Recollections of an Angling Great." features of this remarkable insect were its eyes, formed of two The article begins on page 2. enormous glass beads, and calculated, as I thought to strike

Pike talUTimothvAchor-Hoch terror into the breast of any fish which caught sight of it; even phlegmatic Donald (the ) fetched a longer breath, and took an even larger pinch of snuff when he saw it." Buller's "Fly Fishing for Pike in Britain and Ireland" begins on page 13. Although the Museum offices and exhibit space are still in a physical state of limbo, we've been keeping busy in the field, as usual. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, was awarded our Heritage Award in November (see page 20). Sporting artist and Museum Trustee Peter Corbin hosted a successful fund- raising weekend of sporting clays and pheasant shooting (page 28). We held dinnerlauctions in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and California, and our trustees met here in Manchester in November. There's also a book review by Paul Schullery you should check out (page 22). Am I forgetting anything? American

THEAMERICAN MUSEUM Fly Fisher OF FLYFISHING Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing Preserving the Heritage WINTER 2003 VOLUME 29 NUMBER 1 of Fly Fishing

TRUSTEES Edward in Wonderland: Yellowstone Recollections of E. M. Dakwin C. McMaster, M.D. an Angling Great ...... 2 Michael Hakwin Iohn Mundt Paul Schullery Foster Ram 1)avid Nichols Pamcla Bates Wayne Nordberg Fly Fishing for Pike in Britain and Ireland...... 13 Steven Benardete Michacl B. Osborne I'aul Bofinger Stephen M. I'eet Frederick Buller Duke Buchan 111 Leigh H. Perkins Pcter Corbin Allan K. I'oole 2002 Heritage Award...... 20 William 1. Dreyer John Ra~io George R. Gibson III Roger liiccardi Book Review: J. I. Merritt's Trout Dreams: Gallery of Gardner L. GI-ant William Salladin Fly-Fishing Profiles...... 22 James Hardman Ernest Schwiebert Paul Schullery Lynn L. Hitschler Robcrt G. Scott Arthur Kaemnier, M.D. James A. Spendiff Museum News ...... 24 \Voods King 111 John Swan Ja~iiesE. Lutton 111 Richard G. Tisch The Friends of Corbin Shoot...... 28 Walter T. Matia David 14. Walsh James C. Woods Contributors ...... 30 TRUSTEES EMERITI Charles R. Eichel llavid H. Lcdlie ON THE COVER: 's hot spring known as Fishing Cone, where G. Dick Finlay Leon L. Martuch former park visitors enjoyed an activity no longer practiced today. From W. Michael Fitzgerald Keith C. Russell "Edward in Wonderland," which begins on page 2. National Park Service photo. William Herrick Paul Scliullery Robert N. Johnson Stephen Sloan

Tlii,Aii,r,imo Fly Fis1zt.r (ISSN oKS4-ijhli IS ptlbli\hrd OFFICERS fhrtirncs a yr.,r b> the Rloscum ,,I P.O. Bor 42, ~lanchcstcr,Varnont 05254. I'uhlication datcs are wintn, \pring, suanmer, dnd fall. Me~nhersllipdue\ ~nclodethc cost 01 ~hc Cllnirnlnr~oJrhe Boord Robert G. Scott lourndl lslj) dnrl i~rctas dcductiblr a* prrxidcd for h? la\\. hlrmhr~.sh~pr.,tcs ,,re li\ted in the h,~kIIC each ~suc.

Presirfeilt [)avid H. Walsh 8\11 lertcrs, m;murcript\, photographs, and material' intcndrd cur pnlilicar~on ~n the li,ornal should Lc arnt to Vice Presidents Lynn I,. Hitschler the hiiisciim. The &4\lu

Excclrtil~eDirector Gary F~nnt?r POSTMASTER: Scnd addies? change\ to Tlic A~iieircunFly i.iilicr: P,O. Ror qr, Manchcstcr, IJermont 05274. Everlfs ei ~Vf[vr~bers/zip Iliana Sicbold Art Director John I'rice Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Tl?r A!>!cnme Ily liiirrr lpubl>ranon nurnhcr uuX4-3i621 a puhlirhrd bur timer per par (\\-~nlrr, Spnng, S5omn%rr,FdIII. Fdltor is Specin1 Projects Sara ~'ilcox Kathlcen Achor. Conlyletr address Ibr both ~whlirherand rdi~orir Thc .hmcrican hlurcum oi Flr h,hm& 130no\- 42. hlanchr,icr, \T oj2jc.lhe iournal I- ~~~l~oll!owned by rhr .American h.lu*cum uf Fly Rshmg. Total number ofopiei: i.400 iaverdg~munnbcr of copm of Collecriotl Mntznger Yoslii Akiyama each rrrue run dulin8 thr. prciedilig nveke monl~~.:i,quo arnlnl mumher O( copiesof single isruepubiirhci~ ncsrerr to till,lg date]. Paidirequeued cootudc-count-,, snarl iuhscr%pl~c,n*iincludiog ndverttreis pmof and exchange cnp~es) 1,490 (a~c~s~e:1,468 rcruall. Paid in~anniy,uhicriptionr lbniludirig adverii\crlr plod and e~changciop~e~~ io (.werope: lo actual1 Sales througli iie.ile>r incl carlieis, itrccr voldnrr, counter s.de$, and olhcr nun-llSl'S paid ii~.tr>hut~,m,o ia\crage: o aitn.ll1. O~llercliaauai~~slied throigl~1ISPS: u iave.elage: o u~rual).Totil llrld .and/or rcqucarcd caculatloll: 1,joo (.wciuge, 1,478 acti!ull. Frcu rl~rtrihulzonby niail (samples,

The Yellowstone cutthroat trout would have been the fish encountered by Edward Hewitt on his 1882 visit. It was thisfish that he caught in such larze numbers as the party traveled up the ello ow stone Valleyfrom~illings, ~ontana, into the park. He would have continued catching them in the drainage in the park, though his account does not explain clearly where all his party traveled. L

HAT BOY OF FIFTEEN ever had his dream of and A Trout and Salmon for Seventy-Five Years adventure and sport better fulfilled than I when my (1948). " father asked me to accompany him on a trip out This last title seemed, according to the authorities in the wWest in a private car to visit Yellowstone Park? At that time this i97os, to be his finest work, gathering the wisdom of Telling on was a complete wilderness which had not yet been opened to Trout and Secrets of the Salmon into one generous volume. I the publicl'l Thus the great fishing writer Edward Ringwood had to have it right away, and luckily there was a handy 1972 Hewitt, author of several acknowledged classics on trout and reprint edition. salmon fishing, began a childhood remembrance of his first At the time, I was learning about fly fishing mostly by just Yellowstone fishing trip. doing it, in Yellowstone National Park, where I worked inter- Hewitt's Yellowstone recollections were always of special mittently and played constantly. Imagine my surprise, then, interest to me. When I began reading about fly fishing, thirty when I opened Hewitt's masterwork and discovered that he, years ago, Edward Ringwood Hewitt was one of the most fre- too, had fished the park. Imagine my greater surprise when I quently invoked names-one of those people you just had to discovered that he didn't seem to have some of his facts quite read if you were going to understand fly fishing. He was by all straight. I think I mentally glossed over this for a long time, not accounts one of the most important and influential of fly-fish- quite willing to admit that a card-carrying "great" among ing writers during the first half of the twentieth century. angling writers could have gotten the simple details of this Among his many books, those most often mentioned were famous landscape so tangled up. Telling on the Trout (1926), Hewitti Handbook of Fly Fishing But over the years I have often thought about Hewitt's (1933), Nymph Fly Fishing (1934), Secrets of the Salmon (1922), Yellowstone stories. My own work as an ecological historian

THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER The Mammoth Hot Springs, which Hewitt believed to be "sadly differ- ent" on his 1914 visit than on his 1882 visit, is actually composed of dozens of active geothermal fea- tures, and the average pow of hot water from the entire area probably had not changed at all. Minerva Terrace, for example, shown here during one of its modern peaks of activity, sometimes dries up com- pletely; the water simply finds another outlet and continues to build limestone formations some- where else in the area.

has led me deep into the early literature of the park, and in I suppose that Hewitt's memory tended to magnify his own many ways Hewitt's reminiscence is much like those of count- importance, until his experiences and achievements were both less other early visitors to this magical place. After a couple heroic and unique. In reality and in the modern view, his decades of research in this grayest of gray literature, I came to achievements, especially his industrial-scale destruction of have a kinder, more forgiving feeling about the frequent short- fish, were a little embarrassing. It is especially regrettable, as comings of the memoirs of those lucky souls who pioneered well, that they were not unique; his behavior in those trout- travel in Yellowstone. After all, they were on vacation, or they rich days was all too . But let's follow little Edward on were busy with exploration, or they were just not qualified to his trip and learn more. He was without question correct that do any better. Who was I to judge them so harshly? it was a great adventure and that today not only boys of fifteen In that mood, I recently I went back to Hewitt's account of but people of all ages would be thrilled to go where he went Yellowstone, wondering if I might have calmed down over a and have the fishing he had, to say nothing of getting to see couple of decades. I found that his story was even more wrong and do all the other things he described. I wouldn't hesitate to than I remembered. His account of the boyhood trip, as well as go along. of a second visit in 1914, is a fascinating historical study, not GETTINGTO THE only for his enviable tales of catching truly extraordinary num- bers of wild trout, but also for what we might politely call his FISHING,1882 lapses of memory. Yellowstone National Park was created by Act of Congress In fact, in terms of historical accuracy, the whole thing is a and signed into existence by President Ulysses S. Grant on 1 mess. It's almost as if Hewitt unconsciously absorbed the tall- March 1872.~For its first few decades of existence, it was com- tale impulses of the mountain men who roamed that fantastic monly known as "Wonderland" for all the marvels of geology wilderness a few generations before he arrived. To Hewitt, and scenery that were found there. When Hewitt made his trip, reminiscing more than half a century after his trip, it all must the park had been "opened to the public" every summer since have seemed even more amazing than it had been. 1872 and had been receiving a small but steady flow of

WINTER 2003 3 Period map of Yellowstone Park from Forest and Stream, 28 April 1887.

visitors-probably not more than a few hundred a year at first, gles over the past ~o years have been repeatedly studied in but about 1,000 a year by the time Hewitt arrived in 1882.3 great detail-studies I have spent many years involved in There can be no doubt that when he arrived for his visit, the myself-I find no mention of Bayard as even a minor "player" park was already open for the summer season. in those events.5 But Hewitt's view of Bayard interests me, and Hewitt's confusion in thinking the park was not opened I intend to poke around in the records a little more and see if apparently came from his traveling conlpanions. I can't learn more about any possible connections he may have My father had invited his old friend Sir John Pender, who was the had with Yellowstone. leading owner of the Eastern Cable Co., to see something of our Hewitt didn't actually give a year for the trip. He was born great . Included in the party were Senator Bayard, in New York on 20 June 1866, so I reasoned that for him to be who was at the time Secretary of the Interior, Gen. Lloyd Bryce, fifteen, this trip probably occurred in 1881 or 1882.~A quick and Captain Gorringe. . . . Senator Bayard thought that he ought to check of the annual report of the superintendent of the park see the Park before he opened it to the public.4 for the year 1882 settled the question and gave me this tidbit According to the redoubtable Dictionary of American about the party's makeup: "United States Senator Bayard, of Biography, Delaware U.S. Senator Thomas Francis Bayard held Delaware; Commander Gorringe, of the United States Navy; that office from 1869 to 1885. He was never secretary of the Lloyd S. Bryce, of New York City; Mr. Fuller, of London, interior, though he was later secretary of state and ambassador England; and Mr. Merrill, of Philadelphia, with a cavalry to Great Britain; Hewitt was right to regard him as an impor- escort, composed the Senator's party."7 Hewitt himself, being a tant man. Precisely what role Bayard might have had in the young boy, apparently didn't merit mention in such distin- "opening" or management of Yellowstone National Park is guished company8 unclear. Contrary to Hewitt's apparent convictions that Bayard Today's fly-fishing enthusiast can leave his apartment in was somehow significant in Yellowstone's fortunes, the sub- New York City first thing in the morning and be standing in stantial aublished historical scholarshia on the aark is silent one of my favorite fishing spots in Yellowstone by late after- on Bayard. Though the park's various controversies and strug- noon. Before the coming of the railroads, the same trip toolc

4 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Hewitt reported shooting a bighorn sheep for camp food. This probably occurred in the northern portion of the park, where these animals were most readily found near the travel routes of the time.

months, and even in Hewitt's time, when rails had not reached They then bushwhacked through some rugged country, down the park, the trip was time-consuming and hard enough work the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River, arriving at what he to discourage many people. It took time to visit Yellowstone called "Billings Station," on the Yellowstone River, on August National Park, and if you were from the East, it took money; 31. They were now at or near the head of the rail line, and in a except for local visitors, the park's tourists tended to be upper- position to meet Hewitt's party, which, I assume, must have class people (the "democratization" of the park experience shown up at about the same time, in early September (Hewitt began in 1915, when automobiles were allowed to enter the does not say when during the summer his group visited).ll park; before that, most long-distance visitors arrived by train). Hewitt said that Billings, Montana, was "about three hun- According to Hewitt, the tracks had only reached a point in dred miles from Yellowstone Park."12 It is about 180 miles up eastern Montana, somewhere near Billings, "a small frontier the Yellowstone River Valley from Billings to the park's main post. There we found Gen. Phil Sheridan encamped with his (north) entrance, the way his party proceeded. troops, who were returning from one of the minor Indian wars According to Hewitt, Sheridan "insisted that it would be which he had just settled."9 unsafe to make the trip without an escort, as there might be What makes the study of Yellowstone history so delightful is roving bands of Indians which had not yet been returned to that events involving so famous a place are very well docu- their reservations. He provided us with an escort of thirty cav- mented. Excevt in the rarest of obscure situations. on a sur- alryman, together with two army supply wagons with four prising number of occasions it is possible to cross-check mules for each, and a buckboard with two horses for Senator someone's story (as I did by consulting the park superinten- Bayard."u By 1881 and 1882, the danger of Indian attack was rel- dent's report to find out when Hewitt visited). So it was easy to atively slight in the Yellowstone Valley, but the thought would establish that Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan was indeed have had wild romantic attraction to the boy Hewitt. If out west that summer. He wasn't settling Indian wars, howev- Sheridan did provide the escort for protection from Indians, er. He was on an "exploration" jaunt that took him through he almost certainly provided it as well as an expected courtesy much of the greater Yellowstone area, and he left us a nice day- to prominent citizens and government officials. In any case, I by-day report on it.lo suspect that these matters were all arranged well in advance, Unlike Bayard, Sheridan is known to have been a concerned rather than being a spur-of-the-moment decision by and influential participant in the early battles over the protec- Sheridan'4 tion of Yellowstone National Park. Ins~ectingV conditions in the Young Hewitt was having a ball. As the party proceeded up park was part of his mission that summer. He and his sizeable the Yellowstone Valley from Billings, they "camped near the party entered the greater Yellowstone area from the south, Yellowstone River, where I had a fine chance to fish for trout. working their way up through Jackson Hole past the Teton In those days the river teemed with fish, some of which I Range, then up through Yellowstone National Park, which they caught on a fly, but I soon found that grasshoppers made a left by way of what is now known as the Northeast Entrance. much more effective lure. I had to fish fast to get enough trout

WINTER 2003 5 Excelsior Geyser erupting in 1888, a photograph by the park's oficial photogra- pher, E 1. Haynes. For scale, notice the full-grown lodgepole pine trees on the low ridge behind the geyser. From John L. Stoddard, John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Volume Ten (Boston: Balch Brothers Company, 1905), 260.

for the camp of forty men. These trout seemed to run in size wonderful sight. When I visited them in 1914 they were sadly from two to four and a half pounds."l5 different and much smaller in extent and not so highly col- Hewitt rightly identified the fish as cutthroat trout, as no ored."l6 Actually, they entered the park through the North local stocking of nonnative trout had yet occurred. I doubt, Entrance, at the town of Gardiner, Montana, and then traveled however, that a well-provisioned military escort for a party of 5 miles to Mammoth Hot Springs. prominent citizens and government officials was in any risk of And the hot surin~sI " had not diminished. His bovhood running out of supplies if their fifteen-year-old dude angler memories, after thirty-odd years of gradual unconscious happened to get skunked. I assume they were happy to incor- enhancement, simply enlarged the wonders he saw. This hap- porate Hewitt's catch into their camp fare, though I also sus- pens all the time; in my experience it is the number-one ques- pect he was amplifying his role to say they would have wanted tion that repeat visitors have; they always remember the hot a meal of his trout every day for the whole trip. In short, these springs as bigger. In fact, the many, many outlets of the hot were seasoned professional travelers, already well acquainted springs at Mammoth do change dramatically, and move with the landscape and ready for all contingencies. They around, and rearrange themselves. This would have been rea- weren't depending on some kid, whatever he may later have son enough for Hewitt not to recognize what he thought he recalled or imagined. remembered. But the total flow of the springs, and the total It is worth pointing out that Hewitt's observations on the area covered by hot water (and thus by the colorful algae and efficacy of grasshoppers was a common view of early anglers bacteria that live in the water), would not have changed signif- in this region, many of whom seemed to readily abandon their icantly. Like many others since, Hewitt probably remembered artificial flies when the trout were in the least sullen and switch one or two outstanding thermal features that, upon his return, to grasshoppers. Also, the abundance of grasshoppers helps might even have dried up entirely; the water was simply date the trip. As I write this, in the first week of September in emerging elsewhere, and most visitors only see a few of the Yellowstone, the grasshoppers are thick and active along my active sfrings.17 local trout stream, and have been for quite some time (in fact, Once in the park, Hewitt continued his successful sport. "Of there seem more of them than usual this year, and my imita- course, we found the streams and lakes in the Park full of trout tions are working far worse than usual). and I had no difficulty in keeping the camp supplied. There can be little doubt that on this trip I did the first fly fishing ever REACHINGAND done in Yellowstone Park, and probably in the river."1s The earliest record of fly fishing in the present park area that FISHINGTHE PARK I have seen dates from 1870.~9Fly fishing was, in other words, It would have taken the party several days to cover the 180 going on in Yellowstone even before it was a park. Bozeman, miles to the park. Hewitt wrote that the party "finally entered Montana, the first sizeable community to develop near the the Park at Mammoth Hot Springs, which at that time were a park, had an active community of sportsmen, as well as com-

6 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER The Firehole River, flowing left to right (south to north) in this photograph, accepts the runofffrom the Midway Geyser Basin. It was here in 1882 that Hewitt and some of his com- panions witnessed an eruption of Excelsior Geyser. In this recent photograph, the large hot spring in the center of the photograph is Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the park (to help your sense of scale, Grand Prismatic Spring is somewhat larger than a football field). Between this thermal lake and the river is the steaming crater from which Excelsior Geyser long ago erupted to 300 feet in height, as described by Hewitt.

mercial outlets for sporting goods, by the early 1870s. The local Half Acre), for there he had a historically lucky break of the newspaper reported regular outings from Bozeman in the highest magnitude available to Yellowstone visitors. He got to Gallatin Valley over to the Yellowstone Valley to catch the see perhaps the most spectacular geyser anywhere in the famous and abundant trout. Why Hewitt would think that he world, then or now. was fishing in a social vacuum, and that there were no other Captain Gorringe and I saw the Imperial Geyser go off and nar- sportsmen in Montana and territories, is hard to rowly escaped being hit by falling rocks. The explosion seemed to guess, but I assume it's more of the magnification of memory go about three hundred feet in the air and the water column he seemed to enjoy. Imagined Indian scares and the idea that looked as if it were one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. This was the park was a wilderness not yet opened to the public were a most awesome sight. This geyser was much larger than anything great tools of that magnification. else in the Park and it only erupted for a few years and is now None of this is meant to take away from the incredible time extinct. We saw it by accident, early in the morning.21 that a visitor would have had in Yellowstone back then. From the details he provides, I would say that this is almost Hewitt's party apparently had their share of genuine outdoor certainly a description of Excelsior Geyser, an astonishingly adventures in the park. Hewitt said that a "grizzly bear nearly powerful feature that was active in the 1880s and did indeed got me," and that he did shoot a mountain sheep for camp experience such violent, huge eruptions (the only geyser food, but failed to get an elk.20 For reasons having nothing to named "Imperial" was elsewhere in the park and was not do with fishing history and everything to do with the analysis named until the 1920~1.~~, , of Yellowstone's wildlife history, I would love to find more I envy Hewitt this observation, and I am sure many of my details on those episodes. Yellowstone friends would agree. I would rather see Excelsior Hewitt doesn't give us enough information to follow his in its glory days than have the fishing he had on that trip. route through the park, but most visitors had a few primary Excelsior's eruption was by all accounts a thrilling and even goals. They all sought to see the Grand Canyon of the terrifying experience, and Hewitt was not exaggerating when Yellowstone and the larger geyser basins, and many wanted to he said they had to dodge rocks. This was a mighty hydrother- spend some time at Yellowstone Lake. Hewitt's account is so mal force at work, which is possibly one reason why it didn't brief that we just can't know where he went, but from last very long; it may have blown out its own "plumbing" sys- Mammoth Hot Springs he must have at least made his way tem with its tremendously powerful eruptions. down to the Midway Geyser Basin (then also known as Hell's He does give us an intriguing clue about his possible route

WINTER 2003 7 "Gulfof 'Excelsior' Geyser, and Overflow to Fire-Hole River," an 1888 drawing that appeared in the London Graphic, 18 August 1888. The men pictured appear to have climbed down into the actual crater of the geyser, a crazy thing to do even if an eruption is not imminent because of the unstable nature of the rock and the proximity of a churningpond of boiling water.

through the park, though it's not an especially certain one. His rage, of editorials in the sporting press, and of great interest in party encountered one of the groups of hide hunters that for the young conservation movement. Hunting, both for sport about a decade had been decimating the herds of large mam- and hides, was banned in Yellowstone in 1883 not because of mals in the upper Yellowstone Valley. The hide hunters tended Senator Bayard but because of all these forces, which were led to do most of their work in the park's northern section, so this by prominent eastern ~portsmen.~4 group of men could well have been anywhere across the park's "northern range," including the Lamar River Valley (which was MOREDEAD FISH off the main tourist route, but may have appealed to the Bayard party for fishing and hunting opportunities). They WESTOF THE PARK could have been in several other locations, as well. Hewitt's party left the park "on the western ~ide,"~5presum- It's an interesting bit of information that Hewitt gives us ably down the Madison Valley, crossing the park boundary here, in any case. Hide hunting, though against the rules (com- north of the present site of the town of West Yellowstone, mercial killing was distinguished from sport and subsistence Montana. He said they went that direction "to make our way killing, the latter being acceptable), had probably peaked in the to the railr~ad."~GI assume this meant that they were headed 1870s and was declining by 1882 as public sentiment, changing over Targhee Pass into Idaho, perhaps south to the rail line. markets, and other factors affected the activities of these com- West of the park, Hewitt continued to provide the party with mercial game harvesters. But Hewitt saw them at their success- trout, and on occasion caught huge numbers of additional fish ful worst. "They had a wagon piled six feet high with skins-I (as much as 400 or 500 pounds of cleaned fish a day) for other do not know how many. Senator Bayard put a stop to this as people the party encountered. He may have reached his peak soon as he returned to Washington. This was the last hunting as a trout killer during two days when he estimated he caught in the Park."23 "from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pounds of trout" for Here, Hewitt has again veered very near but not quite into a band of Indians the party en~ountered.~7 the truth. The self-important tone ("my pal the senator took These are shoclcing numbers to the modern ear. After read- care of this") is unfortunate, considering the true story of the ing even a few lines of his adolescent bragging about horse- ban on hunting in Yellowstone. This was a complicated effort, loads of dead trout, we want to yell, "Ed! Ed! Get a grip! Put involving many people over a several-year period. Hide hunt- some back!" But Hewitt's experiences have a context we have ing was a scandal in Yellowstone, the subject of regional out- lost in today's overpopulated, polluted world. When Hewitt

8 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Nat~o~ialPark Senv~cephoto

In the era between Hewitt's two visits, park visitors often enjoyed hooking afish and swinging it directly from the water into a hot spring to be cooked. Hewitt suggested that he wanted to do this in the Firehole River, which is lined with many hot springs, but the activity was perhaps most popular at Yellowstone Lake, at a spring known as Fishing Cone, shown here during that earlyperiod.

was making this trip, the conservation movement was young, trout rapidly decreased in most of these western ~treamsl'~9 the concept of the "fish hog" was hardly well known, and Right. So did the number of fish, though he did not mention though generations of sportsmen had condemned the whole- that effect. sale slaughter of game, things felt different to many travelers in the western wilderness.28 In that vast country, the fish seemed almost limitless. AND RAINBOWS,1914 There were practical concerns, too. Parties visiting Yellow- stone were in good part on their own. There were very few It is a little less easy to forgive Hewitt's similar behavior concessioners running hotels, stores, or restaurants to provide when he again visited the park, in 1914. By this time, the con- for any of their needs, and the few that existed were often pret- servation movement had advanced significantly, and the exces- ty poor. Visitors either had to acquire their supplies catch-as- sive takes of thoughtless sportsmen were a matter of consider- catch-can, or provide for themselves by hauling lots of food able attention and disapproval in sporting circles. But even along or by hunting. Hunting, for camp food, had been legal in though Hewitt again killed many fish in the park, it is true that the park until 1883 for that very reason. Hewitt's tremendous he was again apparently operating legally. Still, the ethical real- kills of fish may shock us today, but they were just how things ities were such that he might have known better when he were done in the Yellowstone area at the time. undertook a fishing contest with one of the park's commercial Of course even in 1882, there were plenty of people who fishermen. could see that the fish and wildlife resources were all too finite One day while we were stopping at the Old Faithful Inn I fished up (just as many Native Americans had seen, decades earlier), but the stream through the geyser basin, trying, as so many do, to catch we had better admit that Hewitt had a great deal of justifica- a trout in the brook and then turn and cook the fish in a hot spring tion for his behavior. After all, he was just a kid, being encour- before taking it off the hook. When I got above the geysers, there aged by prominent citizens with official government sanction, were plenty of good brown trout, and I caught a dozen or so which and he was breaking no laws. That it was enormous fun only I laid out in front of the hotel when I came back. A man came up made it better. and asked me where I got them and told him, above the hotel on a dry fly. He seemed incredulous and wanted to see it done. It seems And even Hewitt wasn't com~letelvoblivious. In his account L, he was the professional fisherman who supplied the hotel with of this trip, he concluded by pointing out that as soon as "a trout for the guests. He said he was going fishing the next morning serious amount of fishing took place, the average size of the and asked me to go with him to find out whether the dry fly or the "Great Fishing," a scene at Yellowstone Lake in the 18905, from John L. Stoddard, John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Volume Ten (Boston: Balch Brothers Company, 19051, 280. Hewitt's large kills of trout in Yellowstone were not unusual for the time.

wet fly was the better lure. In other words, he challenged me to a fantasize about fishing unsuppressed native fish populations, match-the only fishing match for numbers I ever took part in.3' or fishing the explosively successful nonnative created Hewitt said that they ..lefi early and went about six miles in yellowstone siarting in the 189os, we could imagine no more down the Madison River," which would have put them about perfect fishing trips than Hewitt took. On the other hand, that Young fish 21 river miles from Old Faithful.31 They fished hard until three in the afternoon, when they quit and counted fish. excessively in the 1880s, and again in 1914, is much more a statement about his times than it is about him. That the lead- When we returned to the Inn we laid out both catches on the ers of his party 120 years ago could be so insensitive to the ground and I found I had been beaten. He had 165 and I had 162, finite nature of fisheries populations is terribly revealing. Yet but the curious thing was that my fish talcen on a dry fly averaged they were the kind of men who did so much to protect places slightly larger than his. If the wind had not come I would certain- like Yellowstone from the abuses of unbridled public appetites. ly have gotten the most fish, as the dry fly is a better method of Notions of good behavior, ethical treatment of nature, and fishing such water than the wet fly. The professional was amazed that I could hold my own with him and said that I was the only moderate use of wild trout populations were all evolving then, Easterner he had ever met who really knew how to fish. I would as they are today. We should be grateful to Edward Hewitt for just like to try that man again on a still day.32 the reminder that in each generation even the most enlight- ened sportsmen and managers still have a lot to learn and , even for hotel dinners, became illegal in haven't achieved the understanding of natural resources that the park in 1917, though for many years after that (up even their descendants will require. until I began to work in the park, in i972), the hotel company provided the pleasant courtesy of preparing the angler's own catch for dinner at park restaurants.33 With that, Hewitt concluded his reminiscences of his old Compiling and analyzing this account has made me realize Yellowstone fishing days. He leaves us both envious and a little how much Hewitt's standing in the world of fly fishing has chagrined. We en* the amazing opportunities of such trips changed since I first read his book. When A Trout and Salmon during simpler, uncrowded times. Even in 1914, Yellowstone Fisherman for Seventy-Five Years was reprinted in 1972, it was received only about 20,000 visitors-fewer than it might see still full of advice that you couldn't come by in many other now on a single day in July.34 Whether as anglers we prefer to ways. The i97os, as the balder people among us may recall, was

10 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Natlonal Park Service ~hoto

Brown and rainbow trout caught from the Madison River in the early 1900s. Note of that era, with intermediate wraps and sheet-cork handle. Introduced repeatedly by managers in the park's early years, brown and rainbow trout quickly replaced the native cutthroat trout and grayling that inhabited the Madison River drainage when the park was established.

a time of great publishing energy in fly fishing, but as the the "current events" of our own life span, is not seen as an decade began there was a serious shortage of written advice on important commodity in the modern marketing of fly fishing. what we now consider basic topics, such as nymph fishing, or The question that always arises at this point is, of course, trout feeding behavior, or dry-fly techniques. Many of the who cares? If we've left their theoretical approach behind, or leading authorities considered Hewitt the father of nymph improved on it so much that we don't need to read them any- fishing in America, or "the American Skues," and this kind of way, what's the point of exhuming these musty old geezers and adulation suggests how important it was that we find and read reading stuff we're already beyond? The answers are the same his books. as always. We probably haven't left them behind at all; we just Now, by contrast, there are tons of books. Most major fly- don't know how much they matter. And, on a more funda- fishing areas, and many individual rivers, have books of their mental level, if you can only measure the worth of reading a own. Hewitt, who in the mid-1970s was still being offered to us book by its most superficial gimmee-value-by its capacity to as the specialist's specialist, would now be regarded as a gener- satisfy some short-term greed-then you probably don't alist. His books lack the local hatch charts, the dozens of care- understand reading, much less fly fishing, anyway, and I can't fully engineered local fly patterns, the rock-by-rock and pool- help you. by-pool maps, and all the other rarefied specifics that so many But the doubters might counter with this question: Haven't modern fly fishers thrive on. Hewitt's level of expertise has you just proved that Hewitt was kind of a blowhard and not been more or less superceded, or at least marginalized, by the very reliable? What kind of guy is that for us to spend time steady piling up of more and more information about more reading? and more places. I admit that there's something to that. Hewitt, I have shown, Like his longtime rival author, George LaBranche, and like often got it wrong. In his Yellowstone stories, he sounded way the great trout-fishing generalist Ray Bergman, Edward too proud of himself. But he still had something, and it's Ringwood Hewitt still has his admirers among the older something we can never match or capture without him. He angling readers, but for the most part his lessons and tales have was there, and I never read him without remembering that, been left behind, or built on so deeply that most people don't and being grateful that even for all his self-centered blather he even recognize that there is a foundation under what they are managed to leave me so much of his own memories of what it learning. A sense of history, even history so recent it is more was like, and why it all mattered. e

WINTER 2003 11 ENDNOTES 22. Lee Whittlesey, Yello~vstonePlace Names (Helena, Mont.: Montana Historical Society, lg88), 53, 75. Excelsior Geyser was active through most of the 1880s and apparently occasionally erupted in the 189os, until about 1901. I11 1. Edward Ringwood Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fishermarz for Seventy- the 1980s it erupted more modestly, to a height of a few feet, but has not Five Years (New York: Van Cortlandt Press, 1972), 15. The original edition was regained its explosive force of the 1880s. published in 1948 by Scribner's, but the Van Cortlandt edition is essentially The most complete history of Excelsior Geyser is Lee Whittlesey, "Monarch identical, so the page numbers are interchangeable. of All These Mighty Wonders: Tourists and Yellowstone's Excelsior Geyser, 2. The premier historical sources on Yellowstone National Park are Aubrey 1881-1890:' Montana: The Magazine of Western History (vol. 4, no. I), Spring Haines, The Yellowstone Story, two volumes (Boulder, Colo.: Colorado 1990, 2-15. Associated University Press and the Yellowstone Library and Museum Thanks to Yellowstone's park historian, Lee Whittlesey, we also know a little Association, 1977);Richard Bartlett, Nature's Yellowstone (Albuquerque, N. Mex.: bit more about the arrangements for the Bayard trip. Lee provided me with the University of New Mexico Press, 1974); and Yellowstone: A Wilderness Beseiged text of an article that was written by George L. Henderson, an early park assis- (Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, 1985). tant superintendent and the first serious naturalist-interpreter to work in 3. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, vol. 2, 478. Yellowstone. The article, "Park Notes," appeared in the Livingston [Montana] 4. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. Enterprise, 20 November 1886. In it, Henderson remiilisced as follows: "I wit- 5. In 1882, Henry M. Teller was secretary of the interior. nessed the eruption of Excelsior in 1882, when Admiral Gorringe of the U.S.N. 6. Edward Hewitt, Those Were the Days (New York: Duel1 Sloan & Pearce, was making his tour of the park." Henderson gives the impression that this 1943)>3. happened in September. Henderson could have been escorting the party in his 7. P. H. Conger, Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Yellowstone capacity of assistant superintendent, or he could have been working for the National Park to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1882 (Washington, party as a hired guide. In either case, his presence with Gorringe (and the D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882),9. unmentioned Edward Hewitt) further heightens my suspicion that the infor- 8. Hewitt's father and Sir John had not come all the way to the park; nei- mality that Hewitt implies about the planning of the trip was not real. ther of them "felt up to making this long, hard trip" (Hewitt, A Trout and Henderson, whether guiding them oficially or on his own time, was in fact the Salmon Fisherman, 15) from an army encampment far down the Yellowstone premier available nature guide in Yellowstone in the 1880s and 1890s; this was Valley. the beginning of that distinguished if forgotten career. The definitive portray- 9. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. al of Henderson's career in Yellowstone is Lee Whittlesey, "The First National lo. Lieutenant General P. H. Sheridan, Report of an Exploration of the Parts Park Interpreter: G. L. Henderson in Yellowstone, 1882-1902:' Montana: The of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana in August and September, 1882, Made by Lieut. Magazine of Western History (vol. 46, no. I), Spring 1996, 26-41. Gen. P H. Sheridan, Commanding the Military Division of the Missouri, with 23. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 17. the Itinerary of Col. Jas. E Gregory, and a Geological and Botanical Report by 24. Again, I have never seen Bayard's name associated with this key cam- Surgeon W H. Forwood (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882). paign in the early conservation movement, whereas other leading figures in n. The Sheridan party itinerary is described in detail in Sheridan, Report of the early conservation movement were known to have done the serious work an Exploration, 5-18. According to Carroll Van West, Capitalism on the Frontier: in bringing about this momentous change in Yellowstone management. And Billings & the Yellowstone Valley in the Nineteenth Century (Lincoln, Nebr.: again, though I will do some more looking into this question, I must assume University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 139, "the first Northern Pacific train that Hewitt was overimpressed with his party and their importance. In my pulled into Billings" on Tuesday, 22 August 1882. book, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness 12. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 68-88,I summarize this era in park wildlife U. Ibid., 15-16. management with particular attention to the slaughter of the large mammals 14. If it mattered more to the story, I assume that it would not be impossi- and the possible effects of that "ecological holocaust." The disallowing of pub- ble to track down the paperwork relating to this arrangement. A contingent of lic hunting in the park was one of the most far-reaching developments in the troops, sent off to escort a group of prominent citizens for several weeks, long and eventful history of the national park idea. It instantly created what would necessarily have left a substantial paper trail in U.S. Army records at any amounted to the world's foremost game reserve and forever changed the direc- one of several archival facilities. I don't think it matters more for the purpos- tion of national park management. Up to that point, Yellowstone's "impor- es of this essay, though. tant" resources were the static ones-the hydrothermal features, the scenery, 15. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 16. the recreational opportunities. Suddenly, the wildlife itself was a primary visi- 16. Ibid. tor attraction, and wildlife, being mobile, "fugitive resources," placed a whole 17. This is a common lament of visitors, and I suspect it is universal with new set of demands on managers, who have spent the entire 120 years since many kinds of attractions. After observing the Mammoth Hot Springs and then steadily refining their definition of how management should deal with other park features for thirty years, I've been at it long enough that T person- such fluid elements of the landscape. ally remember how they looked when a visitor complains that they are sadly Interestingly, it was sportsmen who led the campaign to stop all public different. Different they may be, but not smaller or less colorful. Very few vis- hunting in the park. Led by George Bird Grinnell (editor of Forest and Stream itors, in fact, take enough time to get a reasonable grasp of the entire several- and cofounder with Roosevelt of the Boone and Crockett Club) and acre complex of springs and formations; they aren't in a position to judge other like-minded sportsmen, they argued that as long as the park was pro- whether the total flow of water, or total area of active algae growth, has tected, it would serve perpetually as a "game reservoir" from which animals changed. Reality just can't measure up to their lovingly embroidered memo- would migrate to restock hunting lands beyond the park boundaries. ries. 25. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 17. 18. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 16. 26. Ibid. 19. Charles Brooks, "A Brief History of Fly Fishing in Yellowstone Park," 27. Ibid., 17-18. The American Fly Fisher (vol. 1, no. 4), Fall 1974, 2-6, reviewed some of the 28. For more on the bigger picture of the rise of a conservation conscious- most accessible historical sources on early fly fishing in the park, concluding ness in American sportsmen, see John Reiger, Amerlcan Sportsmen and the that the Earl of Dunraven, in 1874, was the first fly fisher. I am currently Origins of Conservation (Corvallis, Ore.: University of Oregon, third revised preparing a paper on the trout-fishing experiences of the Washburn- and expanded edition, 2001). Langford-Doane Expedition through Yellowstone in 1870 It appears that at 29. Hewitt, A Trotit and Salmon Fisherman, 18. least one if not several of them fly fished in park waters. I assume that quite 30. Ibid. The ghoulish practice of boiling live tish in park hot springs, which a few other visitors must have in the 1870s; they were on vacation trips, the Hewitt and other early visitors were so eager to experience, was finally out- park was already known for its hunting and fishing, and the fishing was easy. lawed in 1929. See Varley and Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes, 5. For more on the early and fisheries ~nanagement in 31. Ibid. I'm only guessing here that he meant that he traveled down the Yellowstone, see John D. Varley and Paul Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes: History, Firehole from Old Faithful 15 miles, to its junction with the Gibbon, where the Ecology, and Angling in the Park (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, lggX), and Madison begins, and then traveled down the Madison another 6 miles. It is John Byorth, "Trout Shangri-La: Remaking the Fishing in Yellowstone also possible that he thought that the river that flowed past Old Faithful, which National Park,'' Montana, the Magazine of Western History (vol. 52, no. 2), was actually the Firehole, was itself the Madison. Summer zoo2,38-47. 32. Ibid. 20. Hewitt, A Trout and Salnlon Fishernzan, 16. 33. Varley and Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes, 93. 21. Ibid. 34. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, vol. 2, 478

12 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Fly Fishing for Pike in Britain and Ireland by Frederick Buller

This engraving made from the drawing of a pike fly presented to H. Cholmondeley-Pennell by Martin Kelly of Dublin was published in Cholmondeley-Pennell's The Book of the Pike (London: Robert Hardwick, 1865, facing page 232).

With such a fly, scarlet bodied, two big bright beads for eyes, wings of flaunting peacock's feathers, and carrying at its tail sauce piquant, in the shape of enor- mous hooks, you will on auspicious days and in good pike water, have rare sport. From Charles Richard Weld's Vacation in Ireland (London: Longmans, 1857)

ISHERMEN USUALLY associ- a needless curiosity; those fish being compress Venables's statement into "He ate fly fishing for pike with the taken much easier (especially the Pike) takes all sorts of baits, except ~ly:'4 F Victorians and may be surprised to by other wayes . . ."2 These statements thereby saving two words. learn that the method is, at the time of are contradictory, but one of them Richard Brookes, in The Art ofAngling writing, at least 341 years old. In the first points to the existence, during the (1740), most assuredly stole from edition of The Experience'd Angler Waltonian period, of anglers-albeit Venables when he wrote, "He will take (1662), Robert Venables, in different sec- perhaps only a few-who fly fished for any sort of Bait, except a Fly,"5 and John tions of his book, made two statements pike. Williamson, in The British Angler, also about the pike and its response to the That systematic plagiarism was wide- published in 1740, followed up with, fly-fishing method. First, "The pike ly practiced among the old angling writ- "The Pike takes all Sorts of Baits, except takes all sorts of baits, save the fly,"l and ers is evident when we look to see what Fly? Richard Bowlker, in The Art of second. " . . . exceDt the fish named. I those who followed Venables had to say Angling (ca. 1747), weighed in with "He know not any sort or kind that will on the subject. Twelve years after the takes all Sorts of Baits, except Fliesl'7 (ordinarily and freelvl rise at the flie. original ten-word statement on the However, R(obert) H(owlett), in The though I know also &me do angle fo; pike's response to the fly-fishing meth- Anglers Sure Guide (1706), noted that Bream and Pike with artificial flies, but I od, Nicholas Cox, in The Gentleman's pike could be taken on a fly: " . . . I have judge the labour lost, and the knowledge Recreation (1674), juggled with Vena- been assured the Pike will take the great bles's words and gave us: pike will bite An earlier version of this manuscript, condensed "A long Salmon-flie . . ."" and without illustrations, was published as "Fly- at all baits, excepting the fly3 James It wasn't until Samuel Taylor's book, Fishing for Pike" in the Flyfishers' Club Centenary Chetham, in The Angler's Vade Mecum, Angling in All Its Branches (I~oo),was Book (1984) and is reproduced with permission. published seven years later, managed to published that we have an author con-

WINTER 2003 13 Scotland's largest pike weighed 72 pounds. It was caught in 1774 on Loch Ken on a 3-inch fly made from a peacock's feather by John Murray, gamekeeper to Viscount Kenmure (see a full account on pp. 253-60 in Bulleri The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike [London: Stanley Paul, 19791). Its skull was preserved and a drawing of it was made in 1798 together with a draw- ing of the lower jawbone of a 25-pound pike to show the comparative jaw lengths. This engraving of both drawings was published (albeit upside down) in the Sporting Magazine in July 1798.

Alternative dressings of the old-fashioned pike fly. These are very old and now virtually untraceable.

firm that he had himself caught pike on twist, and two small black or blue beads others for use, completely fitted up to the the fly. Taylor was also the first to give us for the eyes. The body must be made sportsman's hand.' rough, full, and round; the wings not part- a dressing for a fly that was meant to be A year later and without acknowledg- used specifically for pike. ed, but to stand upright on the back, and some smaller feathers continued thence all ment, the Reverend W. B. Daniel used Another way [of catching pike], is by arti- down the back, to the end of the tail; so Taylor's description of the pike-fly ficial fly fishing, though many assert that that where you finish, they may be left a dressing for his own book, Rural Sports they are not to be taken with a fly at all; I little longer than the hook, and the whole (i~ol),but never having caught a pike have, however, taken many this way. The to be about the size of a Wren. In this on the fly himself, prudently backed fly must be made upon a double hook manner I make this sort of fly, which will both horses in the two-horse race with formed of one piece of wire fastened to a often take Pike when other baits avail the statement, "Another way of taking good link of gimp. It must be composed of nothing; it is chiefly used in dark windy Pike is with an artificial fly: many have very gaudy materials; such as Pheasant's, days; and you must move the fly quick asserted that they are not to be caught at Peacock's or Mallard's feathers, &c with when in the water, to keep it on the surface the brown and softest part of Bear's fur, if possible. There are several sorts of these all with the fly."lo Nevertheless, Daniel's the reddish part of that of a Squirrel, with flies to be had at the fishing-tackle shops tacit approval of the effectiveness of the a little yellow mohair for the body. The both in town and country, as well as of the method is shown in his description of head is formed of a little fur, some gold hooks and tackle before described, and all the capture in 1774 in Loch Ken of a 72- This drawing was published in the Fishing Gazette to accompany a description of an incident witnessed by H. Band in 1883.

uound monster uike " . . . with a com account published in the Fishing Gazette about again-the other bird was missing, mon fly-made of the Peacock's feath- (1883). The curious incident represents a and now only one remained, balancing er."ll scene from real life is described bv Mr. itself with difficulty on the swinging Edward Fitzgibbon, in A Handbook of H. Band, who witnessed it near Leipzig, branch. That the thief was a pike was quite Angling (1847), said: "I have seen nonde- Germany. Mr. Band was fishing in the evident. I stuck my rod-butt into the soft bank, and quietly approached the spot, script large gaudy flies kill pike well, and Mulde, near Castle Zschepplin. soon finding a convenient place from Mr. Blacker, of Dean Street, Soho, is the which to reconnoiter. Steadily, I watched best dresser of them I know. An imita- A few paces below me I noticed three young sand-martins perched on a bough for a long time. The final dash of the pike tion of the sand-martin or swallow, which over-hung the water. They could occurred so violently, so suddenly-and dressed by means of feathers on a large hardly fly, and the old ones were fluttering this time from the side where I had been hook, will prove an attractive bait for about them. My float lay motionless on sitting-that I could only get an instant's pike in the seasons last mentioned."12 the surface. Suddenly there was a tremen- view of what had happened. The third Fitzgibbon, or "Ephemera" as he was dous splash in the water directly down sand-martin was gone. The swaying known to his readers. seems to be the under the withie bough, which swung up bough grew still again, and all was over.li first writer to define what a pike fly is and down. One bird was still on the In 1847, Thomas Tod Stoddart, in The supposed to convey to a hungry pike. bough, and another, after fluttering about Angler's Companion, commented on the As previously stated, Fitzgibbon rec- a little, again settled down on it. I looked subject of practical fly fishing for pike: on in amazement; the waves, caused by the ommended anglers go to Blacker (the splash, spread over the river, the surface "With regard to fly-fishing for pike, I most famous of all English fly dressers) became smooth and still again, but one used to practice it, many years ago, with to tie their pike flies in imitation of the bird was missing. tolerable success, in a shallow loch in sand-martin or swallow. Readers who A bite at my line recalled my attention Fife."l4 Stoddart found that pike would think that such a dressing is a bit far- to fishing; but presently there was another only take the fly in shallow or shoal fetched should dwell on the following splash under the bough, which swayed waters, and then only on dull and windy

WINTER 2003 15 Hutchinson's pike fly was illustrated in color, and he gave instructions to load thefly with lead to give it " weight." Illustration from Hutchinson, Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water (London: Van Voorst, 1851).

days. Of flies, he said, "Pike flies ought to ing his imagination rather than speaking when Gage was fishing the famous be big and gaudy, the wings formed each from experience. Houghton Club waters on the River of the eye of a peacock's tail-feather-the George Rooper in Thames and Tweed Test, he evidently preferred to fly fish for body plentifully bedizened with dyed (ca. 1870) boldly stated that a pike takes pike, which an entry in the Chronicles of wool, bright hackles, and tinsels. a pike fly for a newly hatched waterfowl. Houghton Fishing Club proves: "On 15 Bead-eves also. are held in estimation. We have, however, little doubt that the March 1848, Lord Gage came down to and gimp or wire arming is of course so-called fly used in fishing for pike is fish the Peat Pits, and on 16thIl7th essential." taken by that voracious monster for a caught 14 jack weighing 83 lb., 9 oz., The author of Fly-Fishing in Salt and newly-hatched moor-hen, dabchick, or with a small red fly, ribbed yellow and Fresh Water (1851), usually assigned to duck, for which he has decided predilec- gold."21 Hutchinson, must have wanted his fly to tion, clearing off, one by one, a whole It may not be inappropriate to point imitate a full-grown duck because the brood of the twittering, unconscious, out that just two years before Gage dressing he described had to be finished helpless victims. No doubt the increase of caught his fine bag of pike on fly, water-fowl is greatly kept in check by the some 14 inches long. The problems asso- ravages of the pike. No sooner is a brood the Houghton Fishing Club's annual ciated with the casting of such a large fly launched upon the waves of life, and of report indicated a most interesting indicates that the fly should have been their native element, then, by some tele- analysis of fish caught during the season trailed, rather than cast, by an angler, graphic means of which we are ignorant, by members. although according to Hutchinson, "You the fact seems to be communicated to the 99 Trout weighing 201 lb., 14 oz.-average throw much in the same wav as vou do biggest jack in the neighbourhood, who , , weight 2 lb., % oz. the gorge, only it is not necessary to let immediately commences to "decimating" 73 Grayling 129 lb., 13 oz.-average weight the fly sink so deep."16 them after an Irish fashion, that is, eating 1 lb., 1 oz. Eight years after receiving Ephemera's nine out of ten of the downy morsels.18 By keepers-eels weighing 1,511 lb., and recommendation, William Blacker, in Rooper had the notion that the sport 345 jack weighing 360% lb.22 his own book, Blacker's Art of Fly Making of fly fishing for pike was invented by (1855),made a statement that suggests he the late George Gage, "who has practised This catch indicates that some of the was merely retelling a story told to him it successfullv for uuwards of thirtv most valuable water on the River Test by some crackpot purchaser of his pike years in the large pieces of artificial was producing three and a half pike flies. "The pike take the larger double water in his uark at Firle. near Lewes."'9 (albeit small ones) and probably twenty hook gaudy fly, in deep running places, I am sure that Rooper was right, not in eels for every rod-caught trout, and it bevond the weeds. when there is a stiff the sense that Gage was the first to catch also indicates at an early date what mod- breeze blowing and small close rain pike on a fly (pike must have been grab- ern researchers have discovered since: falling, and at no other time will he look bing flies meant for other kinds of fish that if you cull pike selectively-i.e., kill at a fly; it is useless to try unless in a since the inception of the fly-fishing the big ones-then small pike proliferate. rapid stream, which is an unusual place method), but that he was the first to John Bickerdyke, in his Book of the for him to haunt in general."l7 Here I am catch them in significant numbers by All-Round Angler (1888), is also specific sure Blacker or his informant is exercis- design rather than by accident.20 Even as to what the pike fly could represent. Flyfishing for pike in Norfolk (the earliest illustration of an anglerflyfishing for pike that the author has been able to find). According to a correspondent writing in The Field (24 July 18651, the pike fly was in frequent use in the Norfolk Broads and would attract good pike when natural baits would "tempt nothing over 6 lbs."

To be fair, he did offer an alternative It was getting on in September, the trout My spinning gear was at an end, and so I dressing of the pike fly: fishing in both the lochs, Tummel and certainly concluded was my sport; but a Rannoch, was practically over, and friend thought struck me. A year or two before I In Lough Derg (Ireland) on hot days, Tommy and I were not of the fortunate had been presented with a marvelous when the pike lay near the surface, I have ones who had a grouse moor in the neigh- insect, a thing of beauty, a work of art known them to take a fly well, even where bourhood. We had spent the entire sum- indeed, which I had been told was a the water was very deep. An old Irish fish- mer trout fishing, from the inns of the pike-fly. I used to contemplate it every erman of Banagher told me that a fly Tummel, Tummel Bridge and Kinloch now and then with admiration, mingled made out of the tail of a brown calf was Rannoch; but even after such a spell of it, with awe, and show it as a curiosity. In its very killing, and that he had taken many we were loath to leave that lovely country wing was no inconsiderable portion of the fish on such a one in a weedy backwater of and return to smoky London town. One tail of a peacock, and the wool of various the Shannon. Only the tip of the tail is evening we were reluctantly discussing shades, which along with hackles of gor- used. It no doubt represents a rat. PLke this ultimate necessity, when somebody geous hue and foot or two of the very probably take the usual pike-fly for a happened to say "Why don't you have a go broadest tinsel, formed its body, would bird.'? at the pike on Loch Chon (Con) before have stuffed a moderate-sized pillow. But you leave?"Why not, indeed?24 the leading features of this remarkable Before I attempt to bring the story of insect were its eyes, formed of two enor- fly fishing for pike into the present cen- The companions fished with success mous glass beads, and calculated, as I tury, I would like to relate the experience until the correspondent eventually thought to strike terror into the breast of of a London game fisherman that took exhausted his complete stock of natural any fish which caught sight of it; even place in Scotland in 1889. and artificial baits. phlegmatic Donald (the gillie) fetched a

WINTER 2003 17 Ted Trueblood's bucktailfly (top). Ted, former associate editor of Field & Stream, tied this pikefly (approximately 6 inches long) with black and white bucktail. The middle and lower flies (one white and the other yellow) are based on Keys tarpon streamerpies, but instead of being tied with bucktail as the Keys flies are, they are dressed on a long shank hook with a "Palmer style" neck hackle and a streamer with six cock hackles. The finished length is approximately 5 inches. Photo courtesy of Frederick J. Taylor.

longer breath, and took an even larger tal sport, and a lot of excitement. Indeed, fishing for pike are the Buckinghamshire pinch of snuff when he saw it. As, howev- he gave us just a little too much of that, for brothers Frederick James Taylor and the er, it was the only thing in the shape of a Donald, whose spell it was then at the late Kenneth Taylor, who usually fished bait I had left, I cast it with a mighty effort pumps, ceased doing his duty for a few from a boat retrieving big bucktail flies, on the bosom of the waters, on which it seconds to contemplate the performance, streamer flies, or their own special con- arrived with a terrific splash; two seconds and, in consequence, we very nearly went had not elapsed before it was grabbed down all standing. The big single hook coctions with a slow jerky retrieve. In from below the surface, but after a little tore away, and we saw master jack again no late summer and in the autumn months. play the fish fell off. Over him I at once m0re.~6 they generally fish shallow weedy areas threw the fly again (as I suppose I must of lakes with a floatine" or sink-tir, line. call it), and he came at it like a shot, and in Coming closer to modern times, but concede that fast-sinking lines Maior G. L. Ashlev Dodd in A due course of time joined his former allies would be essential for fishing ', deer, on dry land. Fisherman's Log (1929) gave his own waters-especially during the winter sea- My insect proved altogether a great suc- dressing for a pike fly. son. They use a leader with a specially cess. Mounted on strong gimp, it defied strengthened tip (1 foot of 20-pound BS the best efforts of the Loch Chon pike, and I have a wonderful creature I once tied by at the end of a good day's sport it retired the waterside, and on which I have caught nylon or Thin Troll wire) to prevent triumphant, after numerous fights, into a good many pike at one time or another. bite-offs. his own proper recess in a tin box, with the Its body is half a claret cork whipped Finally, may I draw your attention to loss of only one eye. About six o'clock I round with red and yellow wool (talien those rather nice old lines excerpted at foregathered with Tommy; he also had from a rug in a farmhouse); hackle a piece the beginning of this article. When you had good sport, and killed a lot of fish, but of emu feather which came out of the guid have reread them, may I suggest that you nothing over 5 lb., and had lost all his wife's hat, and two peacock's "eyes" as dress such a fly yourself. When made, wings, reluctantly given up by a peacocli phantoms except two. On reckoning up attach vour creation to an armored our joint bag we found that we had killed after a stern chase. The tying silk used was a bit of unravelled string off my packet of leader of the modern kind, which you fifty-two fish, weighing in the aggregate then nail-knot to a sink-tip of turquoise 236 lb., a very fair day's work on such a sandwiches, which string I had waxed with piece of water, as we both thought, and a cobbler's wax I always and privet green-a line of such weight as will, in deft hands, flex a carbon rod good share of which had fallen to my I suspect, but cannot say with certain- much laughed at fly.2, of some 15 feet with almost sensual ty, that fly fishing for pike with the tradi- rhythm. Then given a light breeze on a The next day, although sport was less tional double-handed fly rod and the suitable day, a day mixed with cloud and furious, it did include this one memo- classic patterned pike fly has died out, sunshine, preferably in September, you rable experience. which is not to say that fly fishing for may be converted from a worshipper of One grand run I had from certainly the pike per se has died out. A few stalwarts fish with an adipose fin to one who also largest sized fish I had seen; he rose at the in Britain and a few more in Canada and worshi~s those fish whom Po~e fly just like a salmon in the middle of the the United States-notably Leon Martuch described as "tyrants of the watery loch, sending the water flying on all sides and the late Ted Trueblood-have kept plain." of him, and the next instant I was fast; he the art alive. remained on for five minutes, giving capi- Among Britons who rediscovered fly

18 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Ephemera (Edward Fitzgibbon), in A Handbook of Angling, said, "In the late sum- mer months and fine days in autumn, when the deeps are curled by a fine breeze, pike are to be taken very pleasantly by means of a fly The best imitation is a very large dragon fly . . . " (p. 343). Or, use a modern pike fly like any one of those illustrated above, dreamed up by the late Ted Trueblood. Photo courtesy of Frederick J. Taylor.

ENDNOTES lo. Reverend W. B. Daniel, Rural Sports Gage constructed '"artificial birds'-rather than (London: Bunney & Gold, 1801), 320. flies-varying from the size of a wren to that of a 1. Robert Venables, The Experience2 Angler 11. Ibid., 320-21. young duck, and composed of all manner of gaudy (London: Richard Marriot, 1662; reproduced in 12. Ephemera [Edward Fitzgibbon], A feathers, silk, and tinsel. . .when this bait is worked facsimile by Antrobus Press, London, 1969),32. Handbook of Angling (London: Longman, 1847), a little under the surface-just as they play a 2. Ibid., lo. 195. salmon fly on the Shannon-its movements appear 3. Nicholas Cox, The Gentleman's Recreation U. H. Band, Fishing Gazette (1883). exceedingly like those of a young water-fowl when (London: E. Flesher, 1674))48. 14. Thomas Tod Stoddart, The Angler's diving." 4. James Chetham, The Angler? Vade-Mecum, Companion (Edinburgh & London: Blackwood, 21. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Chronicles of 2nd ed. (London: Thos. Bassett, 1689), 150. 18471, 215. Houghton Fishing Club (London: Houghton 5. Richard Broolzes, The Art of Angling 15. Ibid. Fishing Club, 19o8), 69. (London: John Watts, 174o),147. 16. Hutchinson, Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh 22. Houghton Fishing Club, Annual Report 6. John Williamson, The British Angler Water (London: Van Voorst, 1851),33. (London: Houghton Fishing Club, 1846). (London: J. Hodges, 1740))159. 17. William Blacker, Blacker's Art of Fly Making 23. John Bickerdyke, Book of the All-Round 7. Richard Bowlker, The Art of Angling (London: William Blaclier, 1855), 221. Angler (London: Upcott Gill, 1888), yi. (Worcester: M. Olivers, ca. 1747), 13. 18. George Rooper, Thames and Tweed 24. The Field (London, 1889). 8. R(obert) H(owlett), The Anglers Sure Guide (London: Cassell, ca. 1870)~85. 25. Ibid. (London: E. Conyers, 1706), 132. 19. Ibid., 86. 26. Ibid. 9. Samuel Taylor, Anglir~gin All Its Branches 20. In Knox's Game Birds and Wild Fowl: Their 27. Major G. L. Ashley Dodd, A Fishernzani Log (London: Longman & Rees, 1800), 167. Friends and Their Foes (1850), we read that Lord (London: Constable, 192y), 97.

WINTER 2003 19 Chouinard Honored with 2002 Heritage Award

R. Valentine Atkinson

AMFF Board President David Walsh (left) and Executive Director Gary Tanner (right) present the zoo2 Heritage Award plaque to Yvon Chouinard.

Established in 1997 to honor individuals whose commitment to the Museum, the sport of fly fishing, and natural resources conservation sets standards to which we all should aspire.

on Chouinard, founder of the lowing is excerpted from his comments: doing good. He taught us all that using Patagonia company, was selected less resources improves the bottom line, What an honor it is for me to introduce both for the planet and the company. as recipient of the Museum's 2002 Y-" the honoree, an amazing man who all of Yvon is a complicated and anxious guy. Heritage Award for his commitment to you either know personally-having He is a reluctant businessman- an "acci- natural resources conservation. Past climbed, fished, or surfed with him-or to dental businessman" he once told me. He honorees include Leigh H. Perkins, whom you've probably said campfire started his career as a blacksmith, forging Gardner L. Grant, Bud Lilly, Nathaniel prayers to, thanking the man who invent- steel petons that he recognized were Pryor Reed, George W. Harvey, Lewis W. ed the gear that protected you and kept destructive, then replacing them with alu- Coleman, and Foster Bam. The award you warm. And if that's still not the case, minum wedges. He was the first to climb like all of us, you and your children will be the north face of El Capitan, he has caught was presented November 22 at the Cal- the beneficiaries of a slightly more intact more steelhead and bonefish per day than ifornia Academy of Sciences. world, saved in part by the direct action of most mortal anglers, and the list goes on. Dr. John McCosker of the California Yvon, his company, his support of aggres- He got into the environmental rag trade Academy of Sciences introduced his sive conservation actions, or by other and invented Synchilla. He has tithed and longtime friend Mr. Chouinard. The fol- companies that have learned to do well by given millions of dollars as a result of his

20 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Guests survey the auction offerings. Mr. Chouinard making his acceptance remarks.

R Valentine Atlunson

I John McCosker and Nelson Ishiyama enjoy The ambience within the California Academy of the social hour preceding dinner. Sciences was perfect for the award dinner. conscience and good fortune. doctorate from Yale University. To that like to thank Gallo of Sonoma for sup- Some of us here tonight are from the you may now add the American Museum plying the wine for the evening.And last, nonprofit world and have heard that of Fly Fishing's Heritage Award, given to but certainly not least, we extend our Yvon's an easy touch. . . . Recognizing that an individual in recognition of his or her we all have a role to play in the solution to thanks to our auction donors, Trustee conservation activities, for support of the Walter Matia and the Orvis Company. the world's overpopulation and biodiver- mission of the Museum, and for demon- sity crisis, Patagonia has generously assist- This Heritage Award dinner was the ed the academy in the publication of edu- strated love for and skill as an angler. You second joint benefit we've hosted with cational material about salmon and has certainly fit the bill,Yvon, and honor us in the California Academy of Sciences in dressed our rather shabby aquarium staff accepting this award. Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It in years gone by. And you've sure made Many folks helped make this event a was a pleasure to work with the staff at others stand up and take notice of the problems of life on earth. success. We would like to express our the academy. We salute Deidre Kernan, Yvon has received numerous awards sincere thanks to sponsors Foster Barn John McCosker, Judy Prokupek, Selena throughout his career, such as Time maga- and Sallie Baldwin and the Gordon and Shadle, and Cynthia Tirado for all their zine's Hero of the Planet and an honorary Betty Moore Foundation. We would also help on the "western front"! ro,

WINTER 2003 21 ~~~~~ BOOK REVIEW ~~~~~ J. I. Merritt's Trout Dreams: Gallery of Fly-Fishing Profiles by Paul Schullery

. I. MERRITT,A SPORTING historian and journalist (and an The other is a rumination on what the late Norman Maclean, occasional contributor to this journal), has had the envi- author of the famous novella, A River Runs Through It (1976), able experience of fishing with many of the modern era's would have made of Robert Redford's film based on the book mostJ prominent and influential fly fishers. In Trout Dreams, he (Merritt concludes that Maclean would have been satisfied that has turned these opportunities into a book that today's readers Redford preserved the fundamental intergrity of the story). will enjoy and tomorrow's historians will be grateful for. But most chapters are about the sport's hard-driving, In the long literary tradition of celebrating the angling per- quirky, or otherwise intriguing "stars," including Adirondack sonality-a tradition that stretches at least from William Fran Betters, hatch-matcher A1 Cauci, fly and material Trotter Porter and Fred Mather in the nineteenth century up king Dennis Black, Catskill master angler Ed Van Put, Penn- to Arnold Gingrich in the 1960s and 1970s-Merritt has sought sylvania's fishing professor Joe Humphreys, eastern trans- out, interviewed, and perhaps best of all fished with a dozen or plant-Montanan Al Troth, and the prolific yet consistently so American anglers. His profiles are lively and helpful, not accessible outdoor writer Charley Waterman. In many cases, only in explaining what each person has contributed to the Merritt makes a special effort to relate his own experiences sport but also what makes them tick as individuals. fishing with these people, not just to show off how lucky he has Two of the most engaging "profiles" involve deceased people been to fish with them, but to reveal the advice and wisdom whom Merritt never had a chance to meet. One is a charming they shared with him about their own fishing methods. speculation on the fishing style and enthusiasms of Silas I found myself wondering, each time I finished a chapter: Goodrich, reportedly the most ardent angler on the Lewis and how is it that most of the sport's celebrities and theorists seem Clark expedition. Merritt brings unusual credentials to this to be such driven overachievers? Most of these guys fish at a pace exercise: he has for some years been the editor of We Proceeded and under circumstances that would do in the mere mortals On, the splendid scholarly journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail among us. Those of us who tend to bumble around out there, Heritage Foundation. sort of lazing through our fishing days, owe these restless souls much. But many of us have no interest in being like them, not if Trout Dreams: Gallery of Fly-Fishing Profiles, by J. I. Merritt we have to work that hard. Mavbe that's vart of the avveal1 L and Lanham, Maryland and New York, The Derrydale Press, 2000, $24.95 durability of the hero cult-just knowing they're out there 198 pages, black and white photographs working so hard at it relieves us of the need to do the same.

22 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER - The new Trident nu 905. Available in mid-flex and lip-flex. First choose the rod, then choose the action. Whether you prefer the distance and accuracy of the I tip-flex, or the versatility and superior tippet protection of the mid-flex, you'll - I T,,rlent TL enjoy the lightest, most responsive five-weight Orvis has ever built. 905 is available in either mid- or YOU'V~got 10 l2St these rods. That's the only way you'll fully appreciate just how tip-flex. 5470. light these rods really are. High-modulus graphite combined with an exclusive compound taper means less material in a stronger rod - lighter than any five- weight we've ever made. You'll also benefit from the vibration reduction of the exclusive Trident grip- damping technology that increases your distance and accuracy on every cast. Visit YOUP Orvis dealer. With its distinct green blank, handsome gold anodized and rnaplc hurl reel seat, and sleek titanium carbonitride guides, the Trident TL 905 is as stunning as it is light. Come see for yourself. Visit your local Orvis is proud to support Orvis dealer for a test cast. Or two. OR^ The American A SPORTING TRADITION SINCE 1856 Museum of WWW.OPV~S.~O~ Ny Fishing

Historic Route 7A, Manchesrer, Vern~ont05254 Call toll free 1-800-333-1550eNt. 802 for further ,nf(>nnationon our dealers a,orld-widc or for a free Fishing Catalog.

WINTER 2003 23 The 1 American Museum 1 of Fly Fishing Box 42, Manchester,Vermont 05254 Tel: 802-362-3300. Fax: 802-362-3308 EMAIL: [email protected]

JOIN! Membership Dues (per annum) INDIVIDUAL Associate $35 Sustaining $60 Benefactor $125 Patron $250 GROUP Club $50 Trade $50 Membership dues include four issues of The American Fly Fisher. Please send your payment to the Membership Director and include your mailing address. The Museum is a member of the American Association of Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, the New England Association of Museums, The Miner Family Vineyard in Oakville, Cal$ornia, site of this year's winery event. the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance, and the International Association of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame. We Trustee Meeting DinnerIAuctions are a nationally accredited, nonprofit, edu- cational institution chartered under the The Annual Members Meeting and Philadelphia. Offering guests a new laws of the state of Vermont. concomitant Board of Trustees meeting site for the event, dinner chair Lynn were held November 2. William Dreyer, Hitschler arranged an evening at the SUPPORT! John Rano, Roger Riccardi, Ernest Vesper Boat Club on Boat House Row As an independent, nonprofit institution, Schwiebert, Walter Matia, Robert Scott, on October lo. A Tuscan-style feast was the American Museum of Fly Fishing James Spendiff, Michael Bakwin, prepared for our sixty guests, and two relies on the generosity of public-spirited Gardner Grant, Arthur Kaemmer, Leigh large tables, each seating thirty, were individuals for substantial support. We beautifully decorated by the committee. ask that you give our museum serious Perkins, and Woods King were reelected consideration when planning for gifts and to three-year terms. William McMaster, Our caterer for the evening, Feast Your bequests. M.D. from Orange County, California, Eyes, served up a terrific meal was elected as a new trustee to a three- A special thanks to our sponsors, year term as well. Gerald and Beverly Hayes, as well as to Available at $4 per copy: In other business, the board wel- Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Hitschler for pro- Volume 6, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 comed Jim Mirenda of Manchester, viding a terrific raffle prize-a trip to Volume 7, Number 3 Vermont, as its new treasurer. He their beautiful home in Jackson Hole, Volume 8, Number 3 replaces Jim Carey, who retired after Wyoming-and for supplying the table Volume 9, Numbers 1,2,3 many years of strong service to the wine for our guests. We also would like Volume lo, Number 2 Museum and its board of trustees. to thank the Delaware Valley Women's Volume 11, Numbers I, 2,3,4 But it was not all work and no play for Fly Fishing Association for selling raffle Volume 13, Number 3 the board. To express our sincere thanks tickets. Volume 15, Number 2 for their efforts in raising $1.5 million for Our live auction would not have been Volume 16, Numbers 1, 2, 3 our new property, the Museum invited so successful without the generosity of Volume 17, Numbers 1, 2, 3 them to "An Evening in Tuscany," a six- the following donors: John Affleck, Volume 18, Numbers 1,2,4 course Italian meal at the Wilburton James Baker, E. M. Bakwin, Thomas Volume 19, Numbers i,2,3, 4 Inn. Innkeepers Albert and Georgette Baltz, Donny Beaver, Jay Dixon, William Volume 20, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Levis and their able staff put forth a ter- Earle, Eyler's Flyshop, Gerald Hayes, Volume 21, Numbers I, 2,3,4 rific meal, each course matched with Curtis Hill, Ben Hayward Jr., Lynn and Volume 22, Numbers 1,2,3,4 wine. Tony Hitschler, Mary Kuss, the Lyons Volume 23, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4 A cocktail party the previous evening, Press, Theodore McKenzie, the Orvis Volume 24, Numbers i,4 also hosted by the Wilburton Inn, saw a Company, Jay Tolson, Vermont Country Volume 25, Numbers 1,2,3,4 good turnout. Once again, they took Birdhouses, and West Bank Anglers. Volume 26, Numbers 1, 2, 4 great care to see that our trustees were Executive Director Gary Tanner Volume 27, Numbers 1,2,3,4 well fed and happy! We thank Georgette played auctioneer for the evening. The Volume 28, Numbers 1,2,3,4 and Albert for being the perfect hosts. auction raised significant funds for the

24 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER d'oeuvres, a crab and shrimp cocktail as a starter, fire-roasted tenderloin of beef, and apple tart with whipped cream for dessert. The Miners matched each course with suitable wines, and Gallo of Sonoma offered a superb dessert wine to complete our meal. Of course, we were there to raise funds for the Museum. An impressive deluxe silent auction was made possible by varied artists, sculptors, and rodmak- ers. We wish to thank the following donors: Tony Lyons and the Lyons Press, John Betts, North River Winery of

Collections Manager Yoshi Akiyama (right) hams it up with Trustees displayed, and with on$ forty guests, we Woods King (center) and Steve Peet (left) at the November trustees dinner. sold the entire lot and called it an evening. Winerv dinner chairman and Mu- Museum. This success was due in great Plourde's impressively tied seum ~r;stee Roger Riccardi deserves part to Eleanor Peterson's time and mounted with a Pleissner print did very kudos for this event. Our committee of effort in obtaining numerous local fish- well at auction. C. Gary Andrus, Edward Beddow, and ing trips. Special thanks must also go to Our regards and thanks to our auc- Jon Rosell easily filled half the seats with Donny Beaver of Spring Ridge Club in tion donors: John Betts; Phil Castleman; their friends and co-workers, and we Bellwood, Pennsylvania, who not only Peter Corbin; Tony Lyons and the Lyons raise our wineglasses to their efforts. The extended the first trip he offered by Press; Mulligan's of Manchester, Ver- entire staff at Miner was a pleasure to another day and night but also sponta- mont; William Morgan and the Reel work with, and our guests had a rousing neously offered a second trip to his Creel; John Mundt Jr.; the Orvis evening. Our applause for a job well establishment. Company, Avon, Connecticut; Michael done! Last, but certainly not least, our sin- Osborne; George Pardee; Roger Plourde; cere thanks to Philadelphia dinner chair River Meadow Farm, Manchester, Ver- Lynn Hitschler and her committee mont; James Spendiff; and Karl Van Recent Donations members: Dr. Jane Griffith, Curtis Hill, Valkenburg. Dr. Charles T. Lee of Philadelphia Ted McKenzie, Eleanor Peterson, Lee Winery Dinner. Our Annual Winery donated A Sportsman's Hand Book by Pierson, and Henry Windsor. We would Dinner was held at Miner Family Ivan Turgenev (London: The Cresset also like to thank the Vesper Boat Club Vineyards in Oakville, California, on Press, 1950), Rod Building Manual and for hosting our event. November 16, and this year it was a sell- Manufacturer's Guide by George Hartford. The Hartford Dinner and out event. Leonard Herter (Waseca, Minn.: Her- Sporting Auction was held November 7 Dining in the "cave" at a vineyard is ters, Inc., 1949); Fly Tiers, Rod Builders, at Avon Old Farms Inn in Avon, always a wonderful experience. My first Materials, and Tools by Herter's Inc. Connecticut. We "beefed up the dinner thought as I [Diana] enter these caves is (Waseca, Minn.: Herters, Inc., 1950); this year, serving grilled pork tenderloin usually, "Don't want to be here if an Caught on the Fly by Arthur Newberry -a good choice, judging from the faces earthquake hits." After I get over that, I around the room. The inn did an excel- can't help but be impressed by the sur- lent job hosting our dinner. rounding aroma and the fact that a cave The evening was not only fun but also storing thousands of barrels of wine has a success for the Museum. We would like been tastefully turned into an intimate to thank dinner chair John Mundt Jr. setting suitable for entertaining. and his committee- Bannock, Owners Dave and Emily Miner unfor- Museum of Fly Fishing Sporting Aaroll Borden, Phil Castleman, Jack tunately could not join us because of an Coyle, David Egan, David Foley, Larry East Coast engagement, but Dave's par- Johnson, Steve Massell, R. Tracy Page, ents, Ed and Norma, filled in as perfect Roger Plourde, Vincent Ringrose, and hosts. Our evening began in the tasting Ed Ruestow-for their efforts in rallying room, where we sampled an assortment the troops and soliciting auction items. of Miner wines. The night was fairly Mike Tomasiewicz acted as auction- warm (for November), so we were able eer. As usual, he delighted the crowd to enjoy the deck off the tasting room, past several years. We look forward with his sense of humor and managed to which sports a magnificent view of the t~ working with. them to bring as raise some dollars for the Museum in the vines across the Silverado Trail. We then "my as two kh&ed antiqw iind process. Some highlights were two day moved across the property to the cave, sporting collectibles ddem to trips-one to the Limestone Trout Club set for the auction and dinner, with one Manchester. Mark your calendms. and another to the Potatuck Club--as very large table seating our forty guests. well as a weekend in Vermont fishing our Dinner was a four-course "experi- lovely rivers. Committee member Roger ence:' beginning with some great hors

WINTER 2003 25 Sporting Auctions

New York DinnerlAuction

Cleveland DinnerIAuction Chagrin Valley Hunt Club Gates Mills, Ohio

Heritage Award Dinner honoring

Jim Mirenda and his wife Holly are all smiles at Jim's election as treasurer of the Board of Trustees.

(Stone Harbor, N.J.: Meadow Press, Header, Estaz Borski Shrimp, Kirby's 1989); Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Kosmic Killer, Scates Shrimp, Texas Maxwell, 8th printing (New York: E. P. Trout Fly, Middle Bay Eel. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1961); Pools and Pete Hauser of Canton, Connecticut, Ripples by Bliss Perry (Boston: Little, donated his collection of 0. Mustad & Brown and Co., 1927); and The American Son hooks from Oslo, Norway: sneck Sportsman, vols. 1, 2, and 3 (Fall 1968, hooks, #3336, no. 1-no. 8, no. 210, 710; Winter 1969, Summer 1969, Fall 1969, Carlisle hooks, #3201, no. 1-no. 6, no. Winter 1970, Spring 1970, Summer 1970, 110-310; Cincinnati bass hooks, #3751, Fall 1970). no. 15-no. 23; Kinsey hooks, #3926A, no. arin County Conven 9-no. 13; Kinsey hooks, #3451, no. 12-no. John Kauffmann of Yarmouth, n Rafael, California Maine, donated a nine-piece, 6%-foot fly 18; American trout hooks, #5959, no. and bait combination pack rod (maker 1-no. 6, no. 110; New York trout hooks, unknown). #3431, no. 2; sproat hooks, #3371, no. Don Phillips of Marco Island, 1-no. 8; Aberdeen hooks, #3731, no. 2, 4, Florida, donated five handcrafted land- 6; treble hooks, #3601, no. 2,4,6,8; treble ing nets by Art Leclair: a lakelshore net, hooks, #3556, no. 4, 6; centripetal hooks, a boat net, a canoe net, a large trout net, #3836, no. 5, 6; Carlisle minnow hooks, boo Rodmakers; Dave Hughes's Taking and a small trout net. He also sent us #3714, no. 1, 2, 8; Viking hooks, #7948A, Trout: Good, Solid, Practical Advice for forty-two saltwater flies from his book no. 16; and Viking hooks, #9671, no. 14. Fly Fishing Streams and Stillwaters; John Saltwater Fly Fishing from Maine to Texas Jim Lee of Manchester, Vermont, Judy's Slack Line: Strategies for Fly (Marco Island, Fla.: Frank Amato Publi- donated Favorite Flies and Their History Fishing (first paperback edition); Gary cations, Inc., 2001): Grocery Fly (A), by Mary Orvis Marbury (Cambridge, Borger's Naturals: A Guide to Food Moriches Mouthful, Barry's Holy Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1892, fourth Organisms of the Trout (first paperback Mackerel, KZ Squid, Monomoy Float- impression). edition); Peter O'Reilly's Flyfishing in wing, Sar-Mul-Mac, Haag's Glimmer There was an error in the Summer Ireland (first published in Great Britain Bunker, Roccus Rattle (B), Rhody Flat 2002 issue of The American Fly Fisher. by Merlin Unwin Books, 2000); Ed Wing, Al's Glass Minnow, Cave's Rattlin Carl E. Andersen of Thompson, Mitchell's Fly Rodding the Coast (first Minnow, Express, Connecticut, donated Reniger camp paperback edition); Jon Rounds's (edi- Chesapeake Fly, FJ's Sparkle Fly, Dave's flies, a display case, and an original tor) Basic : All the Skills and Wide Side, Copperhead, Phantom watercolor done by Paul Starrett Sample; Tools You Need to Get Started; and Dave Mullet, Cactus Striper, Craft Fur Shrimp, however, the donor's last name and Hughes's Trout from Small Streams. Chernobyl Crab, Barry's Dundrum, name of artist were misspelled. Our sin- Frank Amato Publications, Inc. sent Matt's 40, Eat-Em, Greenan's Shrimp, cere apologies to Mr. Andersen. us Jeff Bright's Found in a River: Red-Hot Rat Tail, Lenny's Tarpon Steelhead Q Other Revelations and Shane Shrimp, Clouser Deep Minnow (N), In the Library Stalcup's Mayflies "Top to Bottom": Clouser Deep Minnow (M), Clouser Expert Fly Tying and Innovation. Deep Minnow (C), Clouser Deep Min- Thanks to the following publishers for The Derrydale Press sent us J. I. now (I), Clouser Deep Minnow (G), their donations of recent titles that have Merritt's Trout Dreams: A Gallery of Fly- Clouser Deep Minnow (P), Clouser become part of our collection (all pub- Fishing Profiles (2000). And Great Deep Minnow (F), Clouser Deep lished in 2002 unless otherwise noted): Northwest Book Promotion sent us Minnow (E), Clouser Deep Minnow (B), Stackpole Books sent us Ed Engle's Carol J. Morrison's Catching On: Love Dave's Seminole Clouser, Phillip's Splitting Cane: Conversations with Bam- with an Avid F2y Fisher (2001). -

26 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER - New From Frank ma to Publications:

S~GI~T-FISI~INGFOR I

$28.00

d H.B. ,::",; ,::",; $39.95 Palla,

S.B. $19.95 H.B. $29.9 "r ""a- For a description of the above books, plus many others, check out our web site at www.amatobooks.com. I Order from fly shops, book stores, our web site, or call: 800-541-9498 8-5 Mom-mi.., PST www.amatobooks.com Frank Amato Publications. Inc. Portland. Oreaon I

WINTER 2003 27 The Friends of Corbin Shoot rouse Poi Peter Cnrhin A,,,A,Aik useum Trustee and well- known sporting artist Peter M Corbin came up with a great solution to the ever-present problem of raising money for Museum opera- A quarterly tions. He provided a great group of his friends and clients an opportunity for publication two fine late October days of sporting clays and pheasant shooting, gourmet devoted solely meals, and delightful lodging. As part of the cost of attending the event, I those friends in turn made strong financial contributions to the Museum. The shooting events and meals were hosted by the Tamarack Preserve in Millbrook, New York, with accommo- dations at the nearby 600-acre I Troutbeck executive retreat. Each par- ticipant also got one ticket for a ipe- cial raffle on a Corbin original paint- Tamarack's guides and dogs are all top-shelf: ing, Tamarack Double ?valued at $io,ooo), as well as a framed giclke reproduction of that painting. The old saying "A good time was had by all" certainly fits this special event, and it raised more than $20,000 net dollars for Museum operations. Peter is hosting this event again October 15 and 16 (thank you, Peter!). Call Gary Tanner at Museum headquarters for more information if you are interest- ed in attending the 2003 edition of the Friends of Corbin shoot. We are limited to twenty-five guests; admission is only $5,000. e

form and fashion.

Guides comparing notes on springers versus labs for retrieving.

28 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER STRENGTH POWER LIGH 3 VI;RSATlIlTY~PORTARII,

hallmark of TWS new

-- . .:-m

ur nearest retailer or writefor a copy of ourful-color catalogue omas &Thomas 627 Barton Road Greenfield, MA 01301 774-5436 Fax: (413) 774-5437 www.thomasandthomas.com CONTRIBUTORS

Paul Schullery was executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing from 1977 to 1982. He is an adjunct pro- fessor of American Studies at the University of Wyoming and an affiliate professor of history at Montana State University. His many books include 1 Fishing . Hunting American Fly Fishing: A History (1987), Mountain Time (1984), Searching for Specializing in rare and Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness (1997), and Royal out-of-print sporting Coachman: The Lore and Legends of Fly books with one of the largest Fishing (1998). His work as an ecological historian has most recently resulted in inventories in the U.S. Real Alaska: Finding Our Way in the Wild Country (zooi), and Lewis and Clark Fresh and salt water Among the Grizzlies: Legend and Legacy in the American West (2002). His most recent article in these pages was "History and Mr. Gordon," which appeared in fly fishing Fly tying the Winter 2002 issue. He also writes occasional book reviews for us. Upland game Big game Sporting dogs etc. Frederick Buller, a London gunmaker, has spent most of his spare time during the last forty years Two 72-page catalogs researching angling history. He is the author of issued each year with no nine books, the most recent of which-Dame title repeated for three Juliana: The Angling Treatyse and Its Mysteries, coauthored by the late Hugh Falkus- was pub- catalogs. Subscription lished in 2001 by the Flyfishers Classic Library. His price is $5.00 for two years. most recent contribution to this journal was "Some Notes on the Evolution of Sport and Sport Fishing during the Middle Ages,'' which appeared We are always interested in the Spring 2002 issue. in buying single books or entire sporting libraries.

Appraisals done for estate and insurance purposes. A Gift forI--, - the. Angler Judith Bowman Books i I 98 Pound Ridge Road Flag T-shirt Bedford, NY 10506 A bestseller since (9 14) 234-7543 (phone) 1998, the flag t-shirt (914) 234-0122 (fax) is The item that flies off the shelf. With trout for stars and the look of an oil painting, this all-cotton

shirt makes a ugreat Ugift. In beige or grey. Sizes M, L, XL, and XXL.

$18.%(plus Shipping) Call (802) 362-3300 "The Ut~cagedWoman" to order. U*..C,+/*T/

30 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Back in Print by Popular Demand!

Call (802) 362-3300 A Treasury of Reels

Available once again from the American Museum of Fly Fishing, A Treasury of Reels chronicles one of the largest and finest public collections of fly reels in the world. Brought together in this richly diverse and popular book, which includes more than 750 reels spanning nearly two centuries of British and American reel- making, are antique, classic, and modern reels; those owned by presidents, enter- tainers, novelists, angling luminaries, and reels owned and used by everyday anglers.

Accompanied by Bob O'Shaughnessy's expert photography, author Jim Brown details the origins of this fascinating piece of technology, from a 13th century Chinese painting depicting a fisherman using a rod and reel to later craftsmen like Vom Hofe, Billinghurst, and Leonard.

Out of print for almost ten years, A Treasury of Reels is a must-have for collec- tors and enthusiasts alike. It can be ordered for $29.95, plus postage and han- dling, either through our website at www.amff.com or by contacting the Museum at (802) 362-3300. Proceeds from the sale of this book directly benefit the Museum.

WINTER 2003 31 Club members enjoy private access to over six miles of Spruce Creek, Penns Creek, Warriors Mark Run and the Little Juniata River as well as use of exclusive streamside cabins and cottages. The Ways of Attachment

Gordon Wickstrom, John Betts, and Gary Tanner man the Museum2 booth at the Denver Fly Fishing Show.

he Denver Fly Fishing Show is one of my favorite events There have always been some people of this kind in the world. of the year because John Betts and Gordon Wickstrom If there were very many of them the world would probably spend the entire three-day show with me in the booth cease to revolve. T They are the old men of the sea, the heavy weights whom the (well, most of the three days-they are popular guys out there, workers have to carry along with them. and when they go for a walk around the show, it can take them But the other way of honoring the past is kind and generous awhile to get back to home base). Over the course of the event, and beautiful. we solve most of the world's problems, enjoy Betty Wick- It pays tribute to the beauty that has faded, and the glory that strom's fresh-baked gooseberry pie, and chat with a veritable lives only in remembrance. Who's Who and Who's Who Wannabes of the fly-fishing world It preserves the good things of former days from oblivion, and as they stroll by the booth. praises the excellent of earth by keeping their memory green. During the weekend, the booth becomes a little community It is faithf~~land true, willing to learn, but not willing to for- with a life all its own, a temporary American Museum of Fly get. Fishing. (One nice lady asked if we three were the Museum's Fortunate is the community in which this spirit prevails: for artifacts. Really a funny lady.) there the old and the young are in harmony, though not in uni- son, and the bright hopes of the future are mellowed by contact But more seriously-and to my point-some time ago with the loyal memories of the past. Trustee Emeritus Dick Finlay sent me the following thoughts from Henry van Dyke's Six Days of the Week (Charles We are fortunate ill having so many friends, like Gordon and Scribner's Sons, 1924): John, that personify "the other way" of honoring the past: kind- ly, generously, and beautifully. They, and so many others, are Remembrance and Progress what make the Museum the uniaue institution it has become There are two ways of showing attachment to the past. over the past thirty-five years. One is by sneering at the present, finding fault with every new effort, holding back from every new enterprise, and making odi- ous comparisons an excuse for inaction. THEAMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING, a nationally accredited, nonprofit, education- al institution dedicated to preserving the rich heritage of fly fishing, was founded in Manchester, Vermont, in 1968. The Museum serves as a repository for, and conservator to, the world's largest collection of angling and angling-related objects. The Museum's col- lections and exhibits provide the public with thorough documentation of the evolution of fly fishing as a sport, art form, craft, and in- dustry in the United States and abroad from the sixteenth century to the present. Rods, reels, and flies, as well as tackle, art, books, manuscripts, and photographs form the ma- jor components of the Museum's collections. The Museum has gained recognition as a unique educational institution. It supports a publications program through which its na- tional quarterly journal, The Amertcan Fly Fisher, and books, art prints, and catalogs are regularly offered to the public. The Museum's traveling exhibits program has made it possi- ble for educational exhibits to be viewed across the United States and abroad. The Museum also provides in-house exhibits, related interpretive programming, and research services for members, visiting schol- ars, authors, and students. The Museum is an active, member-orient- ed nonprofit institution. For information please contact: The American Museum of Fly Fishing, P. 0. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254,802-362-3300.