amerimn of fishing · 2016-09-26 · yellowstone fishing trip. hewitt's yellowstone...

Journal of the Amerimn Museum of Fly Fishing W I N T E R 2 ~ 0 3 VOLUME 19 N U M B E R I

Trout Memories and Pike Tales

I caught and released my first trout in April 1989 on the Beaverlull. My memory of this is pretty good, I think, although 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 actually 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 fly fishing in Yellowstone National Park thirty years ago when he first began reading about the sport's history. On the must-read list was Edward R. Hewitt, who, it turned out, had written quite the account of fishing the park in the early 1880s. Schullery was surprised to find that some of Hewitt's "facts" weren't exactly right. When he went back to those writings more recently, he found the account even more wrong than he remembered. Of course, Hewitt wrote about his trip more than thirty years after the fact.

Because the history of Yellowstone is so well documented, it's fairly easy to check people's stories. Schullery has done this, and he presents some of his findings in "Edward in Wonderland: Yellowstone Recollections of an Angling Great." The article begins on page 2.

Pike talUTimothv Achor-Hoch

By noting the first published claim of pike not taking the artificial fly as bait (Robert Venables, The Experience'd Angler, 1662), Frederick Buller makes the argument that people have obviously been trying the method for at least 341 years. His article cites the many instances of claims against this method of catching pike, most of which he considers a passing along of misinformation from authority to authority. It wasn't until 1800, with Samuel Taylor's Angling in All Its Branches, that an author made a personal claim of having caught a pike on the fly. Buller also reviews some mentions of dressings of pike flies. A particularly amusing reaction to one of these flies was noted by a correspondent to the Field, who wrote, "But the leadng features of this remarkable insect were its eyes, formed of two enormous glass beads, and calculated, as I thought to strike terror into the breast of any fish which caught sight of it; even phlegmatic Donald (the gillie) 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?

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING

Preserving the Heritage of Fly Fishing T R U S T E E S

E. M. Dakwin William C. McMaster, M.D. Michael Hakwin Iohn Mundt

Foster Ram 1)avid Nichols Pamcla Bates Wayne Nordberg

Steven Benardete Michacl B. Osborne I'aul Bofinger Stephen M. I'eet

Duke Buchan 111 Leigh H. Perkins Pcter Corbin Allan K. I'oole

William 1. Dreyer John Ra~io George R. Gibson III Roger liiccardi

Gardner L. GI-ant William Salladin James Hardman Ernest Schwiebert

Lynn L. Hitschler Robcrt G. Scott Arthur Kaemnier, M.D. James A. Spendiff

\Voods King 111 John Swan Ja~iies E. Lutton 111 Richard G. Tisch

Walter T. Matia David 14. Walsh James C. Woods

T R U S T E E S E M E R I T I Charles R. Eichel llavid H. Lcdlie

G. Dick Finlay Leon L. Martuch W. Michael Fitzgerald Keith C. Russell

William Herrick Paul Scliullery Robert N. Johnson Stephen Sloan

O F F I C E R S Cllnirnlnr~ oJrhe Boord Robert G. Scott

Presirfeilt [)avid H. Walsh Vice Presidents Lynn I,. Hitschler

Michael B. Osborne James A. Spendiff

Treas~irer James Mirenda Sccretnr~, James '2. Woods

S T A F F Excclrtil~e Director Gary F~nnt?r

Everlfs ei ~Vf[vr~bers/zip Iliana Sicbold Art Director John I'rice

Specin1 Projects Sara ~ ' i l cox Collecriotl Mntznger Yoslii Akiyama

T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R Editor Kathleen Achor

Desip~ 6 Prodt~ction John Price Copy Editol- Sarah May Clarkson

American Fly Fisher

Journal of t h e A m e r i c a n M u s e u m of Fly Fishing W I N T E R 2 0 0 3 V O L U M E 2 9 N U M B E R 1

Edward in Wonderland: Yellowstone Recollections of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . an Angling Great 2

Paul Schullery

Fly Fishing for Pike in Britain and Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . 13 Frederick Buller

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002 Heritage Award. 20

Book Review: J. I. Merritt's Trout Dreams: Gallery of Fly-Fishing Profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Paul Schullery

Museum News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Friends of Corbin Shoot. 28

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0

ON THE COVER: Yellowstone Lake's hot spring known as Fishing Cone, where former park visitors enjoyed a n activity no longer practiced today. From "Edward in Wonderland," which begins on page 2. National Park Service photo.

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Edward in Wonderland: Yellowstone Recollections of an Angling Great

by Paul Schullery

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 Valley from~illings, ~ o n t a n a , into the park. He would have continued catching

them in the Yellowstone River drainage in the park, though his account does not explain clearly

where all his party traveled. L " w HAT B O Y O F F I F T E E N ever had his dream of

adventure and sport better fulfilled than I when my father asked me to accompany him on a trip out

West in a private car to visit Yellowstone Park? At that time this was a complete wilderness which had not yet been opened to the publicl'l Thus the great fishing writer Edward Ringwood Hewitt, author of several acknowledged classics on trout and salmon fishing, began a childhood remembrance of his first Yellowstone fishing trip.

Hewitt's Yellowstone recollections were always of special interest to me. When I began reading about fly fishing, thirty years ago, Edward Ringwood Hewitt was one of the most fre- quently invoked names-one of those people you just had to read if you were going to understand fly fishing. He was by all accounts one of the most important and influential of fly-fishing writers during the first half of the twentieth century. Among his many books, those most often mentioned were Telling on the Trout (1926), Hewitti Handbook of Fly Fishing (1933), Nymph Fly Fishing (1934), Secrets of the Salmon (1922),

and A Trout and Salmon Fisherman for Seventy-Five Years (1948).

This last title seemed, according to the authorities in the i97os, to be his finest work, gathering the wisdom of Telling on Trout and Secrets of the Salmon into one generous volume. I had to have it right away, and luckily there was a handy 1972 reprint edition.

At the time, I was learning about fly fishing mostly by just doing it, in Yellowstone National Park, where I worked inter- mittently and played constantly. Imagine my surprise, then, when I opened Hewitt's masterwork and discovered that he, too, had fished the park. Imagine my greater surprise when I discovered that he didn't seem to have some of his facts quite straight. I think I mentally glossed over this for a long time, not quite willing to admit that a card-carrying "great" among angling writers could have gotten the simple details of this famous landscape so tangled up.

But over the years I have often thought about Hewitt's Yellowstone stories. My own work as an ecological historian

T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R

has led me deep into the early literature of the park, and in many ways Hewitt's reminiscence is much like those of count- less other early visitors to this magical place. After a couple decades of research in this grayest of gray literature, I came to have a kinder, more forgiving feeling about the frequent short- comings of the memoirs of those lucky souls who pioneered travel in Yellowstone. After all, they were on vacation, or they were busy with exploration, or they were just not qualified to do any better. Who was I to judge them so harshly?

In that mood, I recently I went back to Hewitt's account of Yellowstone, wondering if I might have calmed down over a couple of decades. I found that his story was even more wrong than I remembered. His account of the boyhood trip, as well as of a second visit in 1914, is a fascinating historical study, not only for his enviable tales of catching truly extraordinary numbers of wild trout, but also for what we might politely call his lapses of memory.

In fact, in terms of historical accuracy, the whole thing is a mess. It's almost as if Hewitt unconsciously absorbed the tall- tale impulses of the mountain men who roamed that fantastic wilderness a few generations before he arrived. To Hewitt, reminiscing more than half a century after his trip, it all must have seemed even more amazing than it had been.

The Mammoth Hot Springs, which Hewitt believed to be "sadly different" on his 1914 visit than on his 1882 visit, is actually composed of dozens of active geothermal features, 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 somewhere else in the area.

I suppose that Hewitt's memory tended to magnify his own importance, until his experiences and achievements were both heroic and unique. In reality and in the modern view, his achievements, especially his industrial-scale destruction of fish, were a little embarrassing. It is especially regrettable, as well, that they were not unique; his behavior in those trout- rich days was all too common. But let's follow little Edward on his trip and learn more. He was without question correct that it was a great adventure and that today not only boys of fifteen but people of all ages would be thrilled to go where he went and have the fishing he had, to say nothing of getting to see and do all the other things he described. I wouldn't hesitate to go along.

GETTING TO THE FISHING, 1882

Yellowstone National Park was created by Act of Congress and signed into existence by President Ulysses S. Grant on 1 March 1872.~ For its first few decades of existence, it was com- monly known as "Wonderland" for all the marvels of geology and scenery that were found there. When Hewitt made his trip, the park had been "opened to the public" every summer since 1872 and had been receiving a small but steady flow of

W I N T E R 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, but about 1,000 a year by the time Hewitt arrived in 1882.3 There can be no doubt that when he arrived for his visit, the park was already open for the summer season.

Hewitt's confusion in thinking the park was not opened apparently came from his traveling conlpanions.

My father had invited his old friend Sir John Pender, who was the leading owner of the Eastern Cable Co., to see something of our great United States. Included in the party were Senator Bayard, who was at the time Secretary of the Interior, Gen. Lloyd Bryce, and Captain Gorringe. . . . Senator Bayard thought that he ought to see the Park before he opened it to the public.4

According to the redoubtable Dictionary of American Biography, Delaware U.S. Senator Thomas Francis Bayard held that office from 1869 to 1885. He was never secretary of the interior, though he was later secretary of state and ambassador to Great Britain; Hewitt was right to regard him as an important man. Precisely what role Bayard might have had in the "opening" or management of Yellowstone National Park is unclear. Contrary to Hewitt's apparent convictions that Bayard was somehow significant in Yellowstone's fortunes, the substantial aublished historical scholarshia on the aark is silent on Bayard. Though the park's various controversies and strug-

gles over the past ~o years have been repeatedly studied in great detail-studies I have spent many years involved in myself-I find no mention of Bayard as even a minor "player" in those events.5 But Hewitt's view of Bayard interests me, and I intend to poke around in the records a little more and see if I can't learn more about any possible connections he may have had with Yellowstone.

Hewitt didn't actually give a year for the trip. He was born in New York on 20 June 1866, so I reasoned that for him to be fifteen, this trip probably occurred in 1881 or 1882.~ A quick check of the annual report of the superintendent of the park for the year 1882 settled the question and gave me this tidbit about the party's makeup: "United States Senator Bayard, of Delaware; Commander Gorringe, of the United States Navy; Lloyd S. Bryce, of New York City; Mr. Fuller, of London, England; and Mr. Merrill, of Philadelphia, with a cavalry escort, composed the Senator's party."7 Hewitt himself, being a young boy, apparently didn't merit mention in such distinguished company8

Today's fly-fishing enthusiast can leave his apartment in New York City first thing in the morning and be standing in one of my favorite fishing spots in Yellowstone by late afternoon. Before the coming of the railroads, the same trip toolc

4 T H E A M E R I C A N F L Y F I S H E R

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 the park, the trip was time-consuming and hard enough work to discourage many people. It took time to visit Yellowstone National Park, and if you were from the East, it took money; except for local visitors, the park's tourists tended to be upper- class people (the "democratization" of the park experience began in 1915, when automobiles were allowed to enter the park; before that, most long-distance visitors arrived by train).

According to Hewitt, the tracks had only reached a point in eastern Montana, somewhere near Billings, "a small frontier post. There we found Gen. Phil Sheridan encamped with his troops, who were returning from one of the minor Indian wars which he had just settled."9

What makes the study of Yellowstone history so delightful is that events involving so famous a place are very well documented. Excevt in the rarest of obscure situations. on a sur- prising number of occasions it is possible to cross-check someone's story (as I did by consulting the park superintendent's report to find out when Hewitt visited). So it was easy to establish that Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan was indeed out west that summer. He wasn't settling Indian wars, however. He was on an "exploration" jaunt that took him through much of the greater Yellowstone area, and he left us a nice day- by-day report on it.lo

Unlike Bayard, Sheridan is known to have been a concerned and influential participant in the early battles over the protection of Yellowstone National Park. Ins~ecting conditions in the V

park was part of his mission that summer. He and his sizeable party entered the greater Yellowstone area from the south, working their way up through Jackson Hole past the Teton Range, then up through Yellowstone National Park, which they left by way of what is now known as the Northeast Entrance.

They then bushwhacked through some rugged country, down the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River, arriving at what he called "Billings Station," on the Yellowstone River, on August 31. They were now at or near the head of the rail line, and in a position to meet Hewitt's party, which, I assume, must have shown up at about the same time, in early September (Hewitt does not say when during the summer his group visited).ll

Hewitt said that Billings, Montana, was "about three hundred miles from Yellowstone Park."12 It is about 180 miles up the Yellowstone River Valley from Billings to the park's main (north) entrance, the way his party proceeded.

According to Hewitt, Sheridan "insisted that it would be unsafe to make the trip without an escort, as there might be roving bands of Indians which had not yet been returned to their reservations. He provided us with an escort of thirty cav- alryman, together with two army supply wagons with four mules for each, and a buckboard with two horses for Senator Bayard."u By 1881 and 1882, the danger of Indian attack was rel- atively slight in the Yellowstone Valley, but the thought would have had wild romantic attraction to the boy Hewitt. If Sheridan did provide the escort for protection from Indians, he almost certainly provided it as well as an expected courtesy to prominent citizens and government officials. In any case, I suspect that these matters were all arranged well in advance, rather than being a spur-of-the-moment decision by Sheridan'4

Young Hewitt was having a ball. As the party proceeded up the Yellowstone Valley from Billings, they "camped near the Yellowstone River, where I had a fine chance to fish for trout. In those days the river teemed with fish, some of which I caught on a fly, but I soon found that grasshoppers made a much more effective lure. I had to fish fast to get enough trout

W I N T E R 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 from two to four and a half pounds."l5

Hewitt rightly identified the fish as cutthroat trout, as no local stocking of nonnative trout had yet occurred. I doubt, however, that a well-provisioned military escort for a party of prominent citizens and government officials was in any risk of running out of supplies if their fifteen-year-old dude angler happened to get skunked. I assume they were happy to incor- porate Hewitt's catch into their camp fare, though I also suspect he was amplifying his role to say they would have wanted a meal of his trout every day for the whole trip. In short, these were seasoned professional travelers, already well acquainted with the landscape and ready for all contingencies. They weren't depending on some kid, whatever he may later have recalled or imagined.

It is worth pointing out that Hewitt's observations on the efficacy of grasshoppers was a common view of early anglers in this region, many of whom seemed to readily abandon their artificial flies when the trout were in the least sullen and switch to grasshoppers. Also, the abundance of grasshoppers helps date the trip. As I write this, in the first week of September in Yellowstone, the grasshoppers are thick and active along my local trout stream, and have been for quite some time (in fact, there seem more of them than usual this year, and my imita- tions are working far worse than usual).

REACHING AND FISHING THE PARK

It would have taken the party several days to cover the 180 miles to the park. Hewitt wrote that the party "finally entered the Park at Mammoth Hot Springs, which at that time were a

wonderful sight. When I visited them in 1914 they were sadly different and much smaller in extent and not so highly col- ored."l6 Actually, they entered the park through the North Entrance, at the town of Gardiner, Montana, and then traveled 5 miles to Mammoth Hot Springs.

And the hot sur in~s had not diminished. His bovhood I "

memories, after thirty-odd years of gradual unconscious enhancement, simply enlarged the wonders he saw. This hap- pens all the time; in my experience it is the number-one question that repeat visitors have; they always remember the hot springs as bigger. In fact, the many, many outlets of the hot springs at Mammoth do change dramatically, and move around, and rearrange themselves. This would have been reason enough for Hewitt not to recognize what he thought he remembered. But the total flow of the springs, and the total area covered by hot water (and thus by the colorful algae and bacteria that live in the water), would not have changed significantly. Like many others since, Hewitt probably remembered one or two outstanding thermal features that, upon his return, might even have dried up entirely; the water was simply emerging elsewhere, and most visitors only see a few of the active sfrings.17

Once in the park, Hewitt continued his successful sport. "Of course, we found the streams and lakes in the Park full of trout 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 done in Yellowstone Park, and probably in the river."1s

The earliest record of fly fishing in the present park area that I have seen dates from 1870.~9 Fly fishing was, in other words, going on in Yellowstone even before it was a park. Bozeman, Montana, the first sizeable community to develop near the park, had an active community of sportsmen, as well as com-


The Firehole River, flowing left to right (south to north) in this photograph, accepts the runofffrom the Midway Geyser Basin. I t was here in 1882 that Hewitt and some of his companions witnessed a n 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 newspaper reported regular outings from Bozeman in the Gallatin Valley over to the Yellowstone Valley to catch the famous and abundant trout. Why Hewitt would think that he was fishing in a social vacuum, and that there were no other sportsmen in Montana and Wyoming territories, is hard to guess, but I assume it's more of the magnification of memory he seemed to enjoy. Imagined Indian scares and the idea that the park was a wilderness not yet opened to the public were great tools of that magnification.

None of this is meant to take away from the incredible time that a visitor would have had in Yellowstone back then. Hewitt's party apparently had their share of genuine outdoor adventures in the park. Hewitt said that a "grizzly bear nearly got me," and that he did shoot a mountain sheep for camp food, but failed to get an elk.20 For reasons having nothing to do with fishing history and everything to do with the analysis of Yellowstone's wildlife history, I would love to find more details on those episodes.

Hewitt doesn't give us enough information to follow his route through the park, but most visitors had a few primary goals. They all sought to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the larger geyser basins, and many wanted to spend some time at Yellowstone Lake. Hewitt's account is so brief that we just can't know where he went, but from Mammoth Hot Springs he must have at least made his way down to the Midway Geyser Basin (then also known as Hell's

Half Acre), for there he had a historically lucky break of the highest magnitude available to Yellowstone visitors. He got to see perhaps the most spectacular geyser anywhere in the world, then or now.

Captain Gorringe and I saw the Imperial Geyser go off and nar- rowly escaped being hit by falling rocks. The explosion seemed to go about three hundred feet in the air and the water column looked as if it were one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. This was a most awesome sight. This geyser was much larger than anything else in the Park and it only erupted for a few years and is now extinct. We saw it by accident, early in the morning.21

From the details he provides, I would say that this is almost certainly a description of Excelsior Geyser, an astonishingly powerful feature that was active in the 1880s and did indeed experience such violent, huge eruptions (the only geyser named "Imperial" was elsewhere in the park and was not named until the 1 9 2 0 ~ 1 . ~ ~ , ,

I envy Hewitt this observation, and I am sure many of my Yellowstone friends would agree. I would rather see Excelsior in its glory days than have the fishing he had on that trip. Excelsior's eruption was by all accounts a thrilling and even terrifying experience, and Hewitt was not exaggerating when he said they had to dodge rocks. This was a mighty hydrothermal force at work, which is possibly one reason why it didn't last very long; it may have blown out its own "plumbing" sys- tem with its tremendously powerful eruptions.

He does give us an intriguing clue about his possible route

W I N T E R 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 party encountered one of the groups of hide hunters that for about a decade had been decimating the herds of large mammals in the upper Yellowstone Valley. The hide hunters tended to do most of their work in the park's northern section, so this group of men could well have been anywhere across the park's "northern range," including the Lamar River Valley (which was off the main tourist route, but may have appealed to the Bayard party for fishing and hunting opportunities). They could have been in several other locations, as well.

It's an interesting bit of information that Hewitt gives us here, in any case. Hide hunting, though against the rules (commercial killing was distinguished from sport and subsistence killing, the latter being acceptable), had probably peaked in the 1870s and was declining by 1882 as public sentiment, changing markets, and other factors affected the activities of these commercial game harvesters. But Hewitt saw them at their successful worst. "They had a wagon piled six feet high with skins-I do not know how many. Senator Bayard put a stop to this as soon as he returned to Washington. This was the last hunting in the Park."23

Here, Hewitt has again veered very near but not quite into the truth. The self-important tone ("my pal the senator took care of this") is unfortunate, considering the true story of the ban on hunting in Yellowstone. This was a complicated effort, involving many people over a several-year period. Hide hunting was a scandal in Yellowstone, the subject of regional out-

rage, of editorials in the sporting press, and of great interest in the young conservation movement. Hunting, both for sport and hides, was banned in Yellowstone in 1883 not because of Senator Bayard but because of all these forces, which were led by prominent eastern ~portsmen.~4

MORE DEAD FISH WEST O F T H E PARK

Hewitt's party left the park "on the western ~ide,"~5 presum- ably down the Madison Valley, crossing the park boundary north of the present site of the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. He said they went that direction "to make our way to the railr~ad."~G I assume this meant that they were headed over Targhee Pass into Idaho, perhaps south to the rail line. West of the park, Hewitt continued to provide the party with trout, and on occasion caught huge numbers of additional fish (as much as 400 or 500 pounds of cleaned fish a day) for other people the party encountered. He may have reached his peak as a trout killer during two days when he estimated he caught "from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pounds of trout" for a band of Indians the party en~ountered.~7

These are shoclcing numbers to the modern ear. After reading even a few lines of his adolescent bragging about horse- loads of dead trout, we want to yell, "Ed! Ed! Get a grip! Put some back!" But Hewitt's experiences have a context we have lost in today's overpopulated, polluted world. When Hewitt


Nat~o~ial Park Senv~ce photo

In the era between Hewitt's two visits, park visitors often enjoyed hooking af ish and swinging i t 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, the concept of the "fish hog" was hardly well known, and though generations of sportsmen had condemned the whole- sale slaughter of game, things felt different to many travelers in the western wilderness.28 In that vast country, the fish seemed almost limitless.

There were practical concerns, too. Parties visiting Yellow- stone were in good part on their own. There were very few concessioners running hotels, stores, or restaurants to provide for any of their needs, and the few that existed were often pretty poor. Visitors either had to acquire their supplies catch-as- catch-can, or provide for themselves by hauling lots of food along or by hunting. Hunting, for camp food, had been legal in the park until 1883 for that very reason. Hewitt's tremendous kills of fish may shock us today, but they were just how things were done in the Yellowstone area at the time.

Of course even in 1882, there were plenty of people who could see that the fish and wildlife resources were all too finite (just as many Native Americans had seen, decades earlier), but we had better admit that Hewitt had a great deal of justifica- tion for his behavior. After all, he was just a kid, being encour- aged by prominent citizens with official government sanction, and he was breaking no laws. That it was enormous fun only made it better.

And even Hewitt wasn't com~letelv oblivious. In his account L ,

of this trip, he concluded by pointing out that as soon as "a serious amount of fishing took place, the average size of the

trout rapidly decreased in most of these western ~treamsl '~9 Right. So did the number of fish, though he did not mention that effect.

AND RAINBOWS, 1914 It is a little less easy to forgive Hewitt's similar behavior

when he again visited the park, in 1914. By this time, the conservation movement had advanced significantly, and the exces- sive takes of thoughtless sportsmen were a matter of consider- able attention and disapproval in sporting circles. But even though Hewitt again killed many fish in the park, it is true that he was again apparently operating legally. Still, the ethical real- ities were such that he might have known better when he undertook a fishing contest with one of the park's commercial fishermen.

One day while we were stopping at the Old Faithful Inn I fished up the stream through the geyser basin, trying, as so many do, to catch a trout in the brook and then turn and cook the fish in a hot spring before taking it off the hook. When I got above the geysers, there were plenty of good brown trout, and I caught a dozen or so which I laid out in front of the hotel when I came back. A man came up 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 he was the professional fisherman who supplied the hotel with trout for the guests. He said he was going fishing the next morning 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 fisheries 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. 21 river miles from Old Faithful.31 They fished hard until three On the other hand, that Young fish 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 ground and I found I had been beaten. He had 165 and I had 162, but the curious thing was that my fish talcen on a dry fly averaged slightly larger than his. If the wind had not come I would certainly have gotten the most fish, as the dry fly is a better method of 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 Easterner he had ever met who really knew how to fish. I would just like to try that man again on a still day.32

Commercial fishing, even for hotel dinners, became illegal in the park in 1917, though for many years after that (up even 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 Yellowstone fishing days. He leaves us both envious and a little chagrined. We en* the amazing opportunities of such trips during simpler, uncrowded times. Even in 1914, Yellowstone received only about 20,000 visitors-fewer than it might see now on a single day in July.34 Whether as anglers we prefer to

ers of his party 120 years ago could be so insensitive to the finite nature of fisheries populations is terribly revealing. Yet they were the kind of men who did so much to protect places like Yellowstone from the abuses of unbridled public appetites. Notions of good behavior, ethical treatment of nature, and moderate use of wild trout populations were all evolving then, as they are today. We should be grateful to Edward Hewitt for the reminder that in each generation even the most enlight- ened sportsmen and managers still have a lot to learn and haven't achieved the understanding of natural resources that their descendants will require.

Compiling and analyzing this account has made me realize how much Hewitt's standing in the world of fly fishing has changed since I first read his book. When A Trout and Salmon Fisherman for Seventy-Five Years was reprinted in 1972, it was still full of advice that you couldn't come by in many other ways. The i97os, as the balder people among us may recall, was


Natlonal Park Service ~ h o t o

Brown and rainbow trout caught from the Madison River in the early 1900s. Note bamboo fly rod 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 decade began there was a serious shortage of written advice on what we now consider basic topics, such as nymph fishing, or trout feeding behavior, or dry-fly techniques. Many of the leading authorities considered Hewitt the father of nymph fishing in America, or "the American Skues," and this kind of adulation suggests how important it was that we find and read his books.

Now, by contrast, there are tons of books. Most major fly- fishing areas, and many individual rivers, have books of their own. Hewitt, who in the mid-1970s was still being offered to us as the specialist's specialist, would now be regarded as a generalist. His books lack the local hatch charts, the dozens of care- fully engineered local fly patterns, the rock-by-rock and pool- by-pool maps, and all the other rarefied specifics that so many modern fly fishers thrive on. Hewitt's level of expertise has been more or less superceded, or at least marginalized, by the steady piling up of more and more information about more and more places.

Like his longtime rival author, George LaBranche, and like the great trout-fishing generalist Ray Bergman, Edward Ringwood Hewitt still has his admirers among the older angling readers, but for the most part his lessons and tales have been left behind, or built on so deeply that most people don't even recognize that there is a foundation under what they are learning. A sense of history, even history so recent it is more

the "current events" of our own life span, is not seen as an important commodity in the modern marketing of fly fishing.

The question that always arises at this point is, of course, who cares? If we've left their theoretical approach behind, or improved on it so much that we don't need to read them anyway, what's the point of exhuming these musty old geezers and reading stuff we're already beyond? The answers are the same as always. We probably haven't left them behind at all; we just don't know how much they matter. And, on a more fundamental level, if you can only measure the worth of reading a book by its most superficial gimmee-value-by its capacity to satisfy some short-term greed-then you probably don't understand reading, much less fly fishing, anyway, and I can't help you.

But the doubters might counter with this question: Haven't you just proved that Hewitt was kind of a blowhard and not very reliable? What kind of guy is that for us to spend time reading?

I admit that there's something to that. Hewitt, I have shown, often got it wrong. In his Yellowstone stories, he sounded way too proud of himself. But he still had something, and it's something we can never match or capture without him. He was there, and I never read him without remembering that, and being grateful that even for all his self-centered blather he managed to leave me so much of his own memories of what it was like, and why it all mattered. e

W I N T E R 2003 11

E N D N O T E S

1. Edward Ringwood Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fishermarz for Seventy- Five Years (New York: Van Cortlandt Press, 1972), 15. The original edition was published in 1948 by Scribner's, but the Van Cortlandt edition is essentially identical, so the page numbers are interchangeable.

2. The premier historical sources on Yellowstone National Park are Aubrey Haines, The Yellowstone Story, two volumes (Boulder, Colo.: Colorado Associated University Press and the Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, 1977); Richard Bartlett, Nature's Yellowstone (Albuquerque, N. Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 1974); and Yellowstone: A Wilderness Beseiged (Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, 1985).

3. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, vol. 2, 478. 4. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. 5. In 1882, Henry M. Teller was secretary of the interior. 6. Edward Hewitt, Those Were the Days (New York: Duel1 Sloan & Pearce,

1943)>3. 7. P. H. Conger, Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Yellowstone

National Park to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1882 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882), 9.

8. Hewitt's father and Sir John had not come all the way to the park; nei- ther of them "felt up to making this long, hard trip" (Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15) from an army encampment far down the Yellowstone Valley.

9. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. lo. Lieutenant General P. H. Sheridan, Report of an Exploration of the Parts

of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana in August and September, 1882, Made by Lieut. Gen. P H. Sheridan, Commanding the Military Division of the Missouri, with the Itinerary of Col. Jas. E Gregory, and a Geological and Botanical Report by Surgeon W H. Forwood (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882).

n. The Sheridan party itinerary is described in detail in Sheridan, Report of an Exploration, 5-18. According to Carroll Van West, Capitalism on the Frontier: Billings & the Yellowstone Valley in the Nineteenth Century (Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 139, "the first Northern Pacific train pulled into Billings" on Tuesday, 22 August 1882.

12. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 15. U. Ibid., 15-16. 14. If it mattered more to the story, I assume that it would not be impossi-

ble to track down the paperwork relating to this arrangement. A contingent of troops, sent off to escort a group of prominent citizens for several weeks, would necessarily have left a substantial paper trail in U.S. Army records at any one of several archival facilities. I don't think it matters more for the purposes of this essay, though.

15. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 16. 16. Ibid. 17. This is a common lament of visitors, and I suspect it is universal with

many kinds of attractions. After observing the Mammoth Hot Springs and other park features for thirty years, I've been at it long enough that T personally remember how they looked when a visitor complains that they are sadly different. Different they may be, but not smaller or less colorful. Very few visitors, in fact, take enough time to get a reasonable grasp of the entire several- acre complex of springs and formations; they aren't in a position to judge whether the total flow of water, or total area of active algae growth, has changed. Reality just can't measure up to their lovingly embroidered memories.

18. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 16. 19. Charles Brooks, "A Brief History of Fly Fishing in Yellowstone Park,"

The American Fly Fisher (vol. 1, no. 4), Fall 1974, 2-6, reviewed some of the most accessible historical sources on early fly fishing in the park, concluding that the Earl of Dunraven, in 1874, was the first fly fisher. I am currently preparing a paper on the trout-fishing experiences of the Washburn- Langford-Doane Expedition through Yellowstone in 1870 It appears that at least one if not several of them fly fished in park waters. I assume that quite a few other visitors must have in the 1870s; they were on vacation trips, the park was already known for its hunting and fishing, and the fishing was easy. For more on the early history of fishing and fisheries ~nanagement in Yellowstone, see John D. Varley and Paul Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes: History, Ecology, and Angling in the Park (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, lggX), and John Byorth, "Trout Shangri-La: Remaking the Fishing in Yellowstone National Park,'' Montana, the Magazine of Western History (vol. 52, no. 2), Summer zoo2,38-47.

20. Hewitt, A Trout and Salnlon Fishernzan, 16. 21. Ibid.

22. Lee Whittlesey, Yello~vstone Place 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 the 1980s it erupted more modestly, to a height of a few feet, but has not regained its explosive force of the 1880s.

The most complete history of Excelsior Geyser is Lee Whittlesey, "Monarch of All These Mighty Wonders: Tourists and Yellowstone's Excelsior Geyser, 1881-1890:' Montana: The Magazine of Western History (vol. 4, no. I), Spring 1990, 2-15.

Thanks to Yellowstone's park historian, Lee Whittlesey, we also know a little bit more about the arrangements for the Bayard trip. Lee provided me with the text of an article that was written by George L. Henderson, an early park assistant superintendent and the first serious naturalist-interpreter to work in Yellowstone. The article, "Park Notes," appeared in the Livingston [Montana] Enterprise, 20 November 1886. In it, Henderson remiilisced as follows: "I witnessed the eruption of Excelsior in 1882, when Admiral Gorringe of the U.S.N. was making his tour of the park." Henderson gives the impression that this happened in September. Henderson could have been escorting the party in his capacity of assistant superintendent, or he could have been working for the party as a hired guide. In either case, his presence with Gorringe (and the unmentioned Edward Hewitt) further heightens my suspicion that the infor- mality that Hewitt implies about the planning of the trip was not real. Henderson, whether guiding them oficially or on his own time, was in fact the premier available nature guide in Yellowstone in the 1880s and 1890s; this was the beginning of that distinguished if forgotten career. The definitive portray- al of Henderson's career in Yellowstone is Lee Whittlesey, "The First National Park Interpreter: G. L. Henderson in Yellowstone, 1882-1902:' Montana: The Magazine of Western History (vol. 46, no. I), Spring 1996, 26-41.

23. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 17. 24. Again, I have never seen Bayard's name associated with this key cam-

paign in the early conservation movement, whereas other leading figures in the early conservation movement were known to have done the serious work in bringing about this momentous change in Yellowstone management. And again, though I will do some more looking into this question, I must assume that Hewitt was overimpressed with his party and their importance. In my book, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 68-88,I summarize this era in park wildlife management with particular attention to the slaughter of the large mammals and the possible effects of that "ecological holocaust." The disallowing of public hunting in the park was one of the most far-reaching developments in the long and eventful history of the national park idea. It instantly created what amounted to the world's foremost game reserve and forever changed the direction of national park management. Up to that point, Yellowstone's "important" resources were the static ones-the hydrothermal features, the scenery, the recreational opportunities. Suddenly, the wildlife itself was a primary visitor attraction, and wildlife, being mobile, "fugitive resources," placed a whole new set of demands on managers, who have spent the entire 120 years since then steadily refining their definition of how management should deal with such fluid elements of the landscape.

Interestingly, it was sportsmen who led the campaign to stop all public hunting in the park. Led by George Bird Grinnell (editor of Forest and Stream and cofounder with Theodore Roosevelt of the Boone and Crockett Club) and other like-minded sportsmen, they argued that as long as the park was protected, it would serve perpetually as a "game reservoir" from which animals would migrate to restock hunting lands beyond the park boundaries.

25. Hewitt, A Trout and Salmon Fisherman, 17. 26. Ibid. 27. Ibid., 17-18. 28. For more on the bigger picture of the rise of a conservation conscious-

ness in American sportsmen, see John Reiger, Amerlcan Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation (Corvallis, Ore.: University of Oregon, third revised and expanded edition, 2001).

29. Hewitt, A Trotit and Salmon Fisherman, 18. 30. Ibid. The ghoulish practice of boiling live tish in park hot springs, which

Hewitt and other early visitors were so eager to experience, was finally out- lawed in 1929. See Varley and Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes, 5.

31. Ibid. I'm only guessing here that he meant that he traveled down the Firehole from Old Faithful 15 miles, to its junction with the Gibbon, where the Madison begins, and then traveled down the Madison another 6 miles. It is also possible that he thought that the river that flowed past Old Faithful, which was actually the Firehole, was itself the Madison.

32. Ibid. 33. Varley and Schullery, Yellowstone Fishes, 93. 34. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, vol. 2, 478


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 enormous 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)

F I S H E R M E N U S U A L L Y associ- a te fly fishing for pike with the Victorians and may be surprised to

learn that the method is, at the time of writing, at least 341 years old. In the first edition of The Experience'd Angler (1662), Robert Venables, in different sec- tions of his book, made two statements about the pike and its response to the fly-fishing method. First, "The pike takes all sorts of baits, save the fly,"l and second. " . . . exceDt the fish named. I know not any sort or kind that will (ordinarily and freelvl rise at the flie. though I know also &me do angle fo; Bream and Pike with artificial flies, but I judge the labour lost, and the knowledge An earlier version of this manuscript, condensed and without illustrations, was published as "Fly- Fishing for Pike" in the Flyfishers' Club Centenary Book (1984) and is reproduced with permission.

a needless curiosity; those fish being taken much easier (especially the Pike) by other wayes . . ."2 These statements are contradictory, but one of them points to the existence, during the Waltonian period, of anglers-albeit perhaps only a few-who fly fished for pike.

That systematic plagiarism was wide- ly practiced among the old angling writers is evident when we look to see what those who followed Venables had to say on the subject. Twelve years after the original ten-word statement on the pike's response to the fly-fishing method, Nicholas Cox, in The Gentleman's Recreation (1674), juggled with Vena- bles's words and gave us: "A pike will bite at all baits, excepting the fly3 James Chetham, in The Angler's Vade Mecum, published seven years later, managed to

compress Venables's statement into "He takes all sorts of baits, except ~ly:'4 thereby saving two words.

Richard Brookes, in The Art ofAngling (1740), most assuredly stole from Venables when he wrote, "He will take any sort of Bait, except a Fly,"5 and John Williamson, in The British Angler, also published in 1740, followed up with, "The Pike takes all Sorts of Baits, except Fly? Richard Bowlker, in The Art of Angling (ca. 1747), weighed in with "He takes all Sorts of Baits, except Fliesl'7 However, R(obert) H(owlett), in The Anglers Sure Guide (1706), noted that pike could be taken on a fly: " . . . I have been assured the Pike will take the great long Salmon-flie . . .""

It wasn't until Samuel Taylor's book, Angling in All Its Branches ( I ~ o o ) , was published that we have an author con-

W I N T E R 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 drawing 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 the fly. Taylor was also the first to give us a dressing for a fly that was meant to be used specifically for pike.

Another way [of catching pike], is by artificial fly fishing, though many assert that they are not to be taken with a fly at all; I have, however, taken many this way. The fly must be made upon a double hook formed of one piece of wire fastened to a good link of gimp. It must be composed of very gaudy materials; such as Pheasant's, Peacock's or Mallard's feathers, &c with the brown and softest part of Bear's fur, the reddish part of that of a Squirrel, with a little yellow mohair for the body. The head is formed of a little fur, some gold

twist, and two small black or blue beads for the eyes. The body must be made rough, full, and round; the wings not part- ed, but to stand upright on the back, and some smaller feathers continued thence all down the back, to the end of the tail; so that where you finish, they may be left a little longer than the hook, and the whole to be about the size of a Wren. In this manner I make this sort of fly, which will often take Pike when other baits avail nothing; it is chiefly used in dark windy days; and you must move the fly quick when in the water, to keep it on the surface if possible. There are several sorts of these flies to be had at the fishing-tackle shops both in town and country, as well as of the hooks and tackle before described, and all

others for use, completely fitted up to the sportsman's hand.'

A year later and without acknowledg- ment, the Reverend W. B. Daniel used Taylor's description of the pike-fly dressing for his own book, Rural Sports ( i ~ o l ) , but never having caught a pike on the fly himself, prudently backed both horses in the two-horse race with the statement, "Another way of taking Pike is with an artificial fly: many have asserted that they are not to be caught at all with the fly."lo Nevertheless, Daniel's tacit approval of the effectiveness of the method is shown in his description of 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 mon fly-made of the Peacock's feather."ll

Edward Fitzgibbon, in A Handbook of Angling (1847), said: "I have seen nonde- script large gaudy flies kill pike well, and Mr. Blacker, of Dean Street, Soho, is the best dresser of them I know. An imitation of the sand-martin or swallow, dressed by means of feathers on a large hook, will prove an attractive bait for pike in the seasons last mentioned."12 Fitzgibbon, or "Ephemera" as he was known to his readers. seems to be the first writer to define what a pike fly is supposed to convey to a hungry pike.

As previously stated, Fitzgibbon rec- ommended anglers go to Blacker (the most famous of all English fly dressers) to tie their pike flies in imitation of the sand-martin or swallow. Readers who think that such a dressing is a bit far- fetched should dwell on the following

account published in the Fishing Gazette (1883). The curious incident represents a scene from real life is described bv Mr. H. Band, who witnessed it near Leipzig, Germany. Mr. Band was fishing in the Mulde, near Castle Zschepplin.

A few paces below me I noticed three young sand-martins perched on a bough which over-hung the water. They could hardly fly, and the old ones were fluttering about them. My float lay motionless on the surface. Suddenly there was a tremendous splash in the water directly down under the withie bough, which swung up and down. One bird was still on the bough, and another, after fluttering about a little, again settled down on it. I looked on in amazement; the waves, caused by the splash, spread over the river, the surface became smooth and still again, but one bird was missing.

A bite at my line recalled my attention to fishing; but presently there was another splash under the bough, which swayed

about again-the other bird was missing, and now only one remained, balancing itself with difficulty on the swinging branch. That the thief was a pike was quite evident. I stuck my rod-butt into the soft bank, and quietly approached the spot, soon finding a convenient place from which to reconnoiter. Steadily, I watched for a long time. The final dash of the pike occurred so violently, so suddenly-and this time from the side where I had been sitting-that I could only get an instant's view of what had happened. The third sand-martin was gone. The swaying bough grew still again, and all was over.li

In 1847, Thomas Tod Stoddart, in The Angler's Companion, commented on the subject of practical fly fishing for pike: "With regard to fly-fishing for pike, I used to practice it, many years ago, with tolerable success, in a shallow loch in Fife."l4 Stoddart found that pike would only take the fly in shallow or shoal waters, and then only on dull and windy

W I N T E R 2003 15

Hutchinson's pike fly was illustrated in color, and he gave instructions to load thefly with lead to give it "casting weight." Illustration from Hutchinson,

Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water (London: Van Voorst, 1851).

days. Of flies, he said, "Pike flies ought to be big and gaudy, the wings formed each of the eye of a peacock's tail-feather-the body plentifully bedizened with dyed wool, bright hackles, and tinsels. Bead-eves also. are held in estimation. and gimp or wire arming is of course essential."

The author of Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water (1851), usually assigned to Hutchinson, must have wanted his fly to imitate a full-grown duck because the dressing he described had to be finished some 14 inches long. The problems associated with the casting of such a large fly indicates that the fly should have been trailed, rather than cast, by an angler, although according to Hutchinson, "You throw much in the same wav as vou do , , the gorge, only it is not necessary to let the fly sink so deep."16

Eight years after receiving Ephemera's recommendation, William Blacker, in his own book, Blacker's Art of Fly Making (1855), made a statement that suggests he was merely retelling a story told to him by some crackpot purchaser of his pike flies. "The pike take the larger double hook gaudy fly, in deep running places, bevond the weeds. when there is a stiff breeze blowing and small close rain falling, and at no other time will he look at a fly; it is useless to try unless in a rapid stream, which is an unusual place for him to haunt in general."l7 Here I am sure Blacker or his informant is exercis-

ing his imagination rather than speaking from experience.

George Rooper in Thames and Tweed (ca. 1870) boldly stated that a pike takes a pike fly for a newly hatched waterfowl.

We have, however, little doubt that the so-called fly used in fishing for pike is taken by that voracious monster for a newly-hatched moor-hen, dabchick, or duck, for which he has decided predilec- tion, clearing off, one by one, a whole brood of the twittering, unconscious, helpless victims. No doubt the increase of water-fowl is greatly kept in check by the ravages of the pike. No sooner is a brood launched upon the waves of life, and of their native element, then, by some tele- graphic means of which we are ignorant, the fact seems to be communicated to the biggest jack in the neighbourhood, who immediately commences to "decimating" them after an Irish fashion, that is, eating nine out of ten of the downy morsels.18 Rooper had the notion that the sport

of fly fishing for pike was invented by the late George Gage, "who has practised it successfullv for uuwards of thirtv years in the large pieces of artificial water in his uark at Firle. near Lewes."'9 I am sure that Rooper was right, not in the sense that Gage was the first to catch pike on a fly (pike must have been grab- bing flies meant for other kinds of fish since the inception of the fly-fishing method), but that he was the first to catch them in significant numbers by design rather than by accident.20 Even

when Gage was fishing the famous Houghton Club waters on the River Test, he evidently preferred to fly fish for pike, which an entry in the Chronicles of Houghton Fishing Club proves: "On 15 March 1848, Lord Gage came down to fish the Peat Pits, and on 16thIl7th caught 14 jack weighing 83 lb., 9 oz., with a small red fly, ribbed yellow and gold."21

It may not be inappropriate to point out that just two years before Gage caught his fine bag of pike on fly, the Houghton Fishing Club's annual report indicated a most interesting analysis of fish caught during the season by members.

99 Trout weighing 201 lb., 14 oz.-average weight 2 lb., % oz.

73 Grayling 129 lb., 13 oz.-average weight 1 lb., 1 oz.

By keepers-eels weighing 1,511 lb., and 345 jack weighing 360% lb.22

This catch indicates that some of the most valuable water on the River Test was producing three and a half pike (albeit small ones) and probably twenty eels for every rod-caught trout, and it also indicates at an early date what modern researchers have discovered since: that if you cull pike selectively-i.e., kill the big ones-then small pike proliferate.

John Bickerdyke, in his Book of the All-Round Angler (1888), is also specific 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 dressing of the pike fly:

In Lough Derg (Ireland) on hot days, when the pike lay near the surface, I have known them to take a fly well, even where the water was very deep. An old Irish fisherman of Banagher told me that a fly made out of the tail of a brown calf was very killing, and that he had taken many fish on such a one in a weedy backwater of the Shannon. Only the tip of the tail is used. It no doubt represents a rat. PLke probably take the usual pike-fly for a bird.'?

Before I attempt to bring the story of fly fishing for pike into the present century, I would like to relate the experience of a London game fisherman that took place in Scotland in 1889.

It was getting on in September, the trout fishing in both the lochs, Tummel and Rannoch, was practically over, and friend Tommy and I were not of the fortunate ones who had a grouse moor in the neighbourhood. We had spent the entire summer trout fishing, from the inns of the Tummel, Tummel Bridge and Kinloch Rannoch; but even after such a spell of it, we were loath to leave that lovely country and return to smoky London town. One evening we were reluctantly discussing this ultimate necessity, when somebody happened to say "Why don't you have a go at the pike on Loch Chon (Con) before you leave?" Why not, indeed?24

The companions fished with success until the correspondent eventually exhausted his complete stock of natural and artificial baits.

My spinning gear was at an end, and so I certainly concluded was my sport; but a thought struck me. A year or two before I had been presented with a marvelous insect, a thing of beauty, a work of art indeed, which I had been told was a pike-fly. I used to contemplate it every now and then with admiration, mingled with awe, and show it as a curiosity. In its wing was no inconsiderable portion of the tail of a peacock, and the wool of various shades, which along with hackles of gor- geous hue and foot or two of the very broadest tinsel, formed its body, would have stuffed a moderate-sized pillow. But the leading features of this remarkable insect were its eyes, formed of two enormous glass beads, and calculated, as I thought to strike terror into the breast of any fish which caught sight of it; even phlegmatic Donald (the gillie) fetched a

W I N T E R 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 pinch of snuff when he saw it. As, however, it was the only thing in the shape of a bait I had left, I cast it with a mighty effort on the bosom of the waters, on which it arrived with a terrific splash; two seconds had not elapsed before it was grabbed from below the surface, but after a little play the fish fell off. Over him I at once threw the fly again (as I suppose I must call it), and he came at it like a shot, and in due course of time joined his former allies on dry land.

My insect proved altogether a great success. Mounted on strong gimp, it defied the best efforts of the Loch Chon pike, and at the end of a good day's sport it retired triumphant, after numerous fights, into his own proper recess in a tin box, with the loss of only one eye. About six o'clock I foregathered with Tommy; he also had had good sport, and killed a lot of fish, but nothing over 5 lb., and had lost all his phantoms except two. On reckoning up our joint bag we found that we had killed fifty-two fish, weighing in the aggregate 236 lb., a very fair day's work on such a piece of water, as we both thought, and a good share of which had fallen to my much laughed at fly.2,

The next day, although sport was less furious, it did include this one memo- rable experience.

One grand run I had from certainly the largest sized fish I had seen; he rose at the fly just like a salmon in the middle of the loch, sending the water flying on all sides of him, and the next instant I was fast; he remained on for five minutes, giving capi-

tal sport, and a lot of excitement. Indeed, he gave us just a little too much of that, for Donald, whose spell it was then at the pumps, ceased doing his duty for a few seconds to contemplate the performance, and, in consequence, we very nearly went down all standing. The big single hook tore away, and we saw master jack again no m0re.~6

Coming closer to modern times, Maior G. L. Ashlev Dodd in A Fisherman's Log (1929) gave his own dressing for a pike fly.

I have a wonderful creature I once tied by the waterside, and on which I have caught a good many pike at one time or another. Its body is half a claret cork whipped round with red and yellow wool (talien from a rug in a farmhouse); hackle a piece of emu feather which came out of the guid wife's hat, and two peacock's "eyes" as wings, reluctantly given up by a peacocli after a stern chase. The tying silk used was a bit of unravelled string off my packet of sandwiches, which string I had waxed with cobbler's wax I always

I suspect, but cannot say with certain- ty, that fly fishing for pike with the tradi- tional double-handed fly rod and the classic patterned pike fly has died out, which is not to say that fly fishing for pike per se has died out. A few stalwarts in Britain and a few more in Canada and the United States-notably Leon Martuch and the late Ted Trueblood-have kept the art alive.

Among Britons who rediscovered fly

fishing for pike are the Buckinghamshire brothers Frederick James Taylor and the late Kenneth Taylor, who usually fished from a boat retrieving big bucktail flies, streamer flies, or their own special con- coctions with a slow jerky retrieve. In late summer and in the autumn months. they generally fish shallow weedy areas of lakes with a floatine or sink-tir, line. " but concede that fast-sinking lines would be essential for fishing deer, ', waters-especially during the winter season. They use a leader with a specially strengthened tip (1 foot of 20-pound BS nylon or Thin Troll wire) to prevent bite-offs.

Finally, may I draw your attention to those rather nice old lines excerpted at the beginning of this article. When you have reread them, may I suggest that you dress such a fly yourself. When made, attach vour creation to an armored leader of the modern kind, which you then nail-knot to a sink-tip of turquoise and privet green-a line of such weight as will, in deft hands, flex a carbon rod of some 15 feet with almost sensual rhythm. Then given a light breeze on a suitable day, a day mixed with cloud and sunshine, preferably in September, you may be converted from a worshipper of fish with an adipose fin to one who also worsh i~s those fish whom P o ~ e described as "tyrants of the watery plain."

18 T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R

Ephemera (Edward Fitzgibbon), in A Handbook of Angling, said, "In the late summer 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.

E N D N O T E S

1. Robert Venables, The Experience2 Angler (London: Richard Marriot, 1662; reproduced in facsimile by Antrobus Press, London, 1969), 32.

2. Ibid., lo. 3. Nicholas Cox, The Gentleman's Recreation

(London: E. Flesher, 1674)) 48. 4. James Chetham, The Angler? Vade-Mecum,

2nd ed. (London: Thos. Bassett, 1689), 150. 5. Richard Broolzes, The Art of Angling

(London: John Watts, 174o), 147. 6. John Williamson, The British Angler

(London: J. Hodges, 1740)) 159. 7. Richard Bowlker, The Art of Angling

(Worcester: M. Olivers, ca. 1747), 13. 8. R(obert) H(owlett), The Anglers Sure Guide

(London: E. Conyers, 1706), 132. 9. Samuel Taylor, Anglir~g in All Its Branches

(London: Longman & Rees, 1800), 167.

lo. Reverend W. B. Daniel, Rural Sports (London: Bunney & Gold, 1801), 320.

11. Ibid., 320-21. 12. Ephemera [Edward Fitzgibbon], A

Handbook of Angling (London: Longman, 1847), 195.

U. H. Band, Fishing Gazette (1883). 14. Thomas Tod Stoddart, The Angler's

Companion (Edinburgh & London: Blackwood, 18471, 215.

15. Ibid. 16. Hutchinson, Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh

Water (London: Van Voorst, 1851), 33. 17. William Blacker, Blacker's Art of Fly Making

(London: William Blaclier, 1855), 221. 18. George Rooper, Thames and Tweed

(London: Cassell, ca. 1870)~ 85. 19. Ibid., 86. 20. In Knox's Game Birds and Wild Fowl: Their

Friends and Their Foes (1850), we read that Lord

Gage constructed '"artificial birds'-rather than flies-varying from the size of a wren to that of a young duck, and composed of all manner of gaudy feathers, silk, and tinsel. . .when this bait is worked a little under the surface-just as they play a salmon fly on the Shannon-its movements appear exceedingly like those of a young water-fowl when diving."

21. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Chronicles of Houghton Fishing Club (London: Houghton Fishing Club, 19o8), 69.

22. Houghton Fishing Club, Annual Report (London: Houghton Fishing Club, 1846).

23. John Bickerdyke, Book of the All-Round Angler (London: Upcott Gill, 1888), yi.

24. The Field (London, 1889). 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27. Major G. L. Ashley Dodd, A Fishernzani Log

(London: Constable, 192y), 97.

W I N T E R 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.

E s t a b l i s h e d i n 1997 t o h o n o r i n d i v i d u a l s w h o s e c o m m i t m e n t t o t h e M u s e u m , t h e s p o r t of fly f i sh ing , a n d n a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s c o n s e r v a t i o n s e t s s t a n d a r d s to w h i c h we a l l s h o u l d a s p i r e .

on Chouinard, founder of the Patagonia company, was selected as recipient of the Museum's 2002 Y-"

Heritage Award for his commitment to natural resources conservation. Past honorees include Leigh H. Perkins, Gardner L. Grant, Bud Lilly, Nathaniel Pryor Reed, George W. Harvey, Lewis W. Coleman, and Foster Bam. The award was presented November 22 at the Cal- ifornia Academy of Sciences.

Dr. John McCosker of the California Academy of Sciences introduced his longtime friend Mr. Chouinard. The fol-

lowing is excerpted from his comments: What an honor it is for me to introduce the honoree, an amazing man who all of you either know personally-having climbed, fished, or surfed with him-or to whom you've probably said campfire prayers to, thanking the man who invented the gear that protected you and kept you warm. And if that's still not the case, like all of us, you and your children will be the beneficiaries of a slightly more intact world, saved in part by the direct action of Yvon, his company, his support of aggres- sive conservation actions, or by other companies that have learned to do well by

doing good. He taught us all that using less resources improves the bottom line, both for the planet and the company.

Yvon is a complicated and anxious guy. He is a reluctant businessman- an "acci- dental businessman" he once told me. He started his career as a blacksmith, forging steel petons that he recognized were destructive, then replacing them with alu- minum wedges. He was the first to climb the north face of El Capitan, he has caught more steelhead and bonefish per day than most mortal anglers, and the list goes on. He got into the environmental rag trade and invented Synchilla. He has tithed and given millions of dollars as a result of his


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. Some of us here tonight are from the

nonprofit world and have heard that Yvon's an easy touch. . . . Recognizing that we all have a role to play in the solution to the world's overpopulation and biodiver- sity crisis, Patagonia has generously assist- ed the academy in the publication of educational material about salmon and has dressed our rather shabby aquarium staff in years gone by. And you've sure made others stand up and take notice of the problems of life on earth.

Yvon has received numerous awards throughout his career, such as Time magazine's Hero of the Planet and an honorary

doctorate from Yale University. To that you may now add the American Museum of Fly Fishing's Heritage Award, given to an individual in recognition of his or her conservation activities, for support of the mission of the Museum, and for demon- strated love for and skill as an angler. You certainly fit the bill,Yvon, and honor us in accepting this award.

Many folks helped make this event a success. We would like to express our sincere thanks to sponsors Foster Barn and Sallie Baldwin and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. We would also

like to thank Gallo of Sonoma for supplying the wine for the evening. And last, but certainly not least, we extend our thanks to our auction donors, Trustee Walter Matia and the Orvis Company.

This Heritage Award dinner was the second joint benefit we've hosted with the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was a pleasure to work with the staff at the academy. We salute Deidre Kernan, John McCosker, Judy Prokupek, Selena Shadle, and Cynthia Tirado for all their help on the "western front"! ro,

W I N T E R 2003 21

~~~~~

B O O K R E V I E W ~~~~~

J. I. Merritt's Trout Dreams: Gallery of Fly-Fishing Profiles

by Paul Schullery

J . I. MERRITT, A SPORTING historian and journalist (and an occasional contributor to this journal), has had the enviable experience of fishing with many of the modern era's

most prominent and influential fly fishers. In Trout Dreams, he has turned these opportunities into a book that today's readers will enjoy and tomorrow's historians will be grateful for.

In the long literary tradition of celebrating the angling per- sonality-a tradition that stretches at least from William Trotter Porter and Fred Mather in the nineteenth century up to Arnold Gingrich in the 1960s and 1970s-Merritt has sought out, interviewed, and perhaps best of all fished with a dozen or so American anglers. His profiles are lively and helpful, not only in explaining what each person has contributed to the sport but also what makes them tick as individuals.

Two of the most engaging "profiles" involve deceased people whom Merritt never had a chance to meet. One is a charming speculation on the fishing style and enthusiasms of Silas Goodrich, reportedly the most ardent angler on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Merritt brings unusual credentials to this exercise: he has for some years been the editor of We Proceeded On, the splendid scholarly journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

Trout Dreams: Gallery of Fly-Fishing Profiles, by J. I . Merritt Lanham, Maryland and New York, The Derrydale Press, 2000, $24.95 198 pages, black and white photographs

The other is a rumination on what the late Norman Maclean, author of the famous novella, A River Runs Through It (1976), would have made of Robert Redford's film based on the book (Merritt concludes that Maclean would have been satisfied that Redford preserved the fundamental intergrity of the story).

But most chapters are about the sport's hard-driving, quirky, or otherwise intriguing "stars," including Adirondack fly tyer Fran Betters, hatch-matcher A1 Cauci, fly and material king Dennis Black, Catskill master angler Ed Van Put, Penn- sylvania's fishing professor Joe Humphreys, eastern trans- plant-Montanan Al Troth, and the prolific yet consistently accessible outdoor writer Charley Waterman. In many cases, Merritt makes a special effort to relate his own experiences fishing with these people, not just to show off how lucky he has been to fish with them, but to reveal the advice and wisdom they shared with him about their own fishing methods.

I found myself wondering, each time I finished a chapter: how is it that most of the sport's celebrities and theorists seem to be such driven overachievers? Most of these guys fish at a pace and under circumstances that would do in the mere mortals among us. Those of us who tend to bumble around out there, 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 we have to work that hard. Mavbe that's vart of the avveal and

1 L

durability of the hero cult-just knowing they're out there working so hard at it relieves us of the need to do the same.

2 2 T H E A M E R I C A N F L Y F I S H E R

- 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 , , r l e n t 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 t i p - f l e x . 5 4 7 0 . 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 OR^ Orvis is proud to support

Orvis dealer for a test cast. Or two. The American A SPORTING T R A D I T I O N SINCE 1856 Museum of

W W W . O P V ~ S . ~ O ~ Ny Fishing

Historic Route 7A, Manchesrer, Vern~ont 05254 Call toll free 1-800-333-1550 eNt. 802 for further ,nf(>nnation on our dealers a,orld-widc or for a free Fishing Catalog.

W I N T E R 2003 23

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

J O I N ! Membership Dues (per annum)

I N D I V I D U A L Associate $35 Sustaining $60 Benefactor $125 Patron $250

G R O U P 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 Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance, and the International Association of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame. We are a nationally accredited, nonprofit, educational institution chartered under the laws of the state of Vermont.

S U P P O R T ! As an independent, nonprofit institution, the American Museum of Fly Fishing relies on the generosity of public-spirited individuals for substantial support. We ask that you give our museum serious consideration when planning for gifts and bequests.

Available at $4 per copy: Volume 6, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 Volume 7, Number 3 Volume 8, Number 3 Volume 9, Numbers 1,2,3 Volume lo, Number 2 Volume 11, Numbers I, 2,3,4 Volume 13, Number 3 Volume 15, Number 2 Volume 16, Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 17, Numbers 1, 2, 3 Volume 18, Numbers 1,2,4 Volume 19, Numbers i,2,3, 4 Volume 20, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 21, Numbers I, 2,3,4 Volume 22, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 23, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4 Volume 24, Numbers i ,4 Volume 25, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 26, Numbers 1, 2, 4 Volume 27, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 28, Numbers 1,2,3,4

The Miner Family Vineyard in Oakville, Cal$ornia, site of this year's winery event.

Trustee Meeting DinnerIAuctions The Annual Members Meeting and

concomitant Board of Trustees meeting were held November 2. William Dreyer, John Rano, Roger Riccardi, Ernest Schwiebert, Walter Matia, Robert Scott, James Spendiff, Michael Bakwin, Gardner Grant, Arthur Kaemmer, Leigh Perkins, and Woods King were reelected to three-year terms. William McMaster, M.D. from Orange County, California, was elected as a new trustee to a three- year term as well.

In other business, the board wel- comed Jim Mirenda of Manchester, Vermont, as its new treasurer. He replaces Jim Carey, who retired after many years of strong service to the Museum and its board of trustees.

But it was not all work and no play for the board. To express our sincere thanks for their efforts in raising $1.5 million for our new property, the Museum invited them to "An Evening in Tuscany," a six- course Italian meal at the Wilburton Inn. Innkeepers Albert and Georgette Levis and their able staff put forth a terrific meal, each course matched with wine.

A cocktail party the previous evening, also hosted by the Wilburton Inn, saw a good turnout. Once again, they took great care to see that our trustees were well fed and happy! We thank Georgette and Albert for being the perfect hosts.

Philadelphia. Offering guests a new site for the event, dinner chair Lynn Hitschler arranged an evening at the Vesper Boat Club on Boat House Row on October lo. A Tuscan-style feast was prepared for our sixty guests, and two large tables, each seating thirty, were beautifully decorated by the committee. Our caterer for the evening, Feast Your Eyes, served up a terrific meal

A special thanks to our sponsors, Gerald and Beverly Hayes, as well as to Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Hitschler for pro- viding a terrific raffle prize-a trip to their beautiful home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming-and for supplying the table wine for our guests. We also would like to thank the Delaware Valley Women's Fly Fishing Association for selling raffle tickets.

Our live auction would not have been so successful without the generosity of the following donors: John Affleck, James Baker, E. M. Bakwin, Thomas Baltz, Donny Beaver, Jay Dixon, William Earle, Eyler's Flyshop, Gerald Hayes, Curtis Hill, Ben Hayward Jr., Lynn and Tony Hitschler, Mary Kuss, the Lyons Press, Theodore McKenzie, the Orvis Company, Jay Tolson, Vermont Country Birdhouses, and West Bank Anglers.

Executive Director Gary Tanner played auctioneer for the evening. The auction raised significant funds for the


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 rodmakers. 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 Woods King (center) and Steve Peet (left) at the November trustees dinner.

Museum. This success was due in great part to Eleanor Peterson's time and effort in obtaining numerous local fishing trips. Special thanks must also go to Donny Beaver of Spring Ridge Club in Bellwood, Pennsylvania, who not only extended the first trip he offered by another day and night but also sponta- neously offered a second trip to his establishment.

Last, but certainly not least, our sincere thanks to Philadelphia dinner chair Lynn Hitschler and her committee members: Dr. Jane Griffith, Curtis Hill, Ted McKenzie, Eleanor Peterson, Lee Pierson, and Henry Windsor. We would also like to thank the Vesper Boat Club for hosting our event.

Hartford. The Hartford Dinner and Sporting Auction was held November 7 at Avon Old Farms Inn in Avon, Connecticut. We "beefed up the dinner this year, serving grilled pork tenderloin -a good choice, judging from the faces around the room. The inn did an excellent job hosting our dinner.

The evening was not only fun but also a success for the Museum. We would like to thank dinner chair John Mundt Jr. and his committee-Jerry Bannock, Aaroll Borden, Phil Castleman, Jack Coyle, David Egan, David Foley, Larry Johnson, Steve Massell, R. Tracy Page, Roger Plourde, Vincent Ringrose, and Ed Ruestow-for their efforts in rallying the troops and soliciting auction items.

Mike Tomasiewicz acted as auctioneer. As usual, he delighted the crowd with his sense of humor and managed to raise some dollars for the Museum in the process. Some highlights were two day trips-one to the Limestone Trout Club and another to the Potatuck Club--as well as a weekend in Vermont fishing our lovely rivers. Committee member Roger

Plourde's impressively tied Jock Scott fly mounted with a Pleissner print did very well at auction.

Our regards and thanks to our auction donors: John Betts; Phil Castleman; Peter Corbin; Tony Lyons and the Lyons Press; Mulligan's of Manchester, Ver- mont; William Morgan and the Reel Creel; John Mundt Jr.; the Orvis Company, Avon, Connecticut; Michael Osborne; George Pardee; Roger Plourde; River Meadow Farm, Manchester, Ver- mont; James Spendiff; and Karl Van Valkenburg.

Winery Dinner. Our Annual Winery Dinner was held at Miner Family Vineyards in Oakville, California, on November 16, and this year it was a sell- out event.

Dining in the "cave" at a vineyard is always a wonderful experience. My first thought as I [Diana] enter these caves is usually, "Don't want to be here if an earthquake hits." After I get over that, I can't help but be impressed by the sur- rounding aroma and the fact that a cave storing thousands of barrels of wine has been tastefully turned into an intimate setting suitable for entertaining.

Owners Dave and Emily Miner unfor- tunately could not join us because of an East Coast engagement, but Dave's par- ents, Ed and Norma, filled in as perfect hosts. Our evening began in the tasting room, where we sampled an assortment of Miner wines. The night was fairly warm (for November), so we were able to enjoy the deck off the tasting room, which sports a magnificent view of the vines across the Silverado Trail. We then moved across the property to the cave, set for the auction and dinner, with one very large table seating our forty guests.

Dinner was a four-course "experience:' beginning with some great hors

displayed, and with on$ forty guests, we sold the entire lot and called it an evening.

Winerv dinner chairman and Mu- seum ~r;stee Roger Riccardi deserves kudos for this event. Our committee of C. Gary Andrus, Edward Beddow, and Jon Rosell easily filled half the seats with their friends and co-workers, and we raise our wineglasses to their efforts. The entire staff at Miner was a pleasure to work with, and our guests had a rousing evening. Our applause for a job well done!

Recent Donations Dr. Charles T. Lee of Philadelphia

donated A Sportsman's Hand Book by Ivan Turgenev (London: The Cresset Press, 1950), Rod Building Manual and Manufacturer's Guide by George Leonard Herter (Waseca, Minn.: Her- ters, Inc., 1949); Fly Tiers, Rod Builders, Materials, and Tools by Herter's Inc. (Waseca, Minn.: Herters, Inc., 1950); Caught on the Fly by Arthur Newberry

Museum of Fly Fishing Sporting

past several years. We look forward t~ working with. them to bring as

"my as two kh&ed antiqw iind sporting collectibles d d e m to Manchester. Mark your calendms.

W I N T E R 2003 25

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, 1989); Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell, 8th printing (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1961); Pools and Ripples by Bliss Perry (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1927); and The American Sportsman, vols. 1, 2, and 3 (Fall 1968, Winter 1969, Summer 1969, Fall 1969, Winter 1970, Spring 1970, Summer 1970, Fall 1970).

John Kauffmann of Yarmouth, Maine, donated a nine-piece, 6%-foot fly and bait combination pack rod (maker unknown).

Don Phillips of Marco Island, Florida, donated five handcrafted land- ing nets by Art Leclair: a lakelshore net, a boat net, a canoe net, a large trout net, and a small trout net. He also sent us forty-two saltwater flies from his book Saltwater Fly Fishing from Maine to Texas (Marco Island, Fla.: Frank Amato Publi- cations, Inc., 2001): Grocery Fly (A), Moriches Mouthful, Barry's Holy Mackerel, KZ Squid, Monomoy Float- wing, Sar-Mul-Mac, Haag's Glimmer Bunker, Roccus Rattle (B), Rhody Flat Wing, Al's Glass Minnow, Cave's Rattlin Minnow, Woolly Bugger Express, Chesapeake Fly, FJ's Sparkle Fly, Dave's Wide Side, Copperhead, Phantom Mullet, Cactus Striper, Craft Fur Shrimp, Chernobyl Crab, Barry's Dundrum, Matt's 40, Eat-Em, Greenan's Shrimp, Red-Hot Rat Tail, Lenny's Tarpon Shrimp, Clouser Deep Minnow (N), Clouser Deep Minnow (M), Clouser Deep Minnow (C), Clouser Deep Min- now (I), Clouser Deep Minnow (G), Clouser Deep Minnow (P), Clouser Deep Minnow (F), Clouser Deep Minnow (E) , Clouser Deep Minnow (B) , Dave's Seminole Clouser, Phillip's

Header, Estaz Borski Shrimp, Kirby's Kosmic Killer, Scates Shrimp, Texas Trout Fly, Middle Bay Eel.

Pete Hauser of Canton, Connecticut, donated his collection of 0 . Mustad & Son hooks from Oslo, Norway: sneck hooks, #3336, no. 1-no. 8, no. 210, 710; Carlisle hooks, #3201, no. 1-no. 6, no. 110-310; Cincinnati bass hooks, #3751, no. 15-no. 23; Kinsey hooks, #3926A, no. 9-no. 13; Kinsey hooks, #3451, no. 12-no. 18; American trout hooks, #5959, no. 1-no. 6, no. 110; New York trout hooks, #3431, no. 2; sproat hooks, #3371, no. 1-no. 8; Aberdeen hooks, #3731, no. 2, 4, 6; treble hooks, #3601, no. 2,4,6,8; treble hooks, #3556, no. 4, 6; centripetal hooks, #3836, no. 5, 6; Carlisle minnow hooks, #3714, no. 1, 2, 8; Viking hooks, #7948A, no. 16; and Viking hooks, #9671, no. 14.

Jim Lee of Manchester, Vermont, donated Favorite Flies and Their History by Mary Orvis Marbury (Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1892, fourth impression).

There was an error in the Summer 2002 issue of The American Fly Fisher. Carl E. Andersen of Thompson, Connecticut, donated Reniger camp flies, a display case, and an original watercolor done by Paul Starrett Sample; however, the donor's last name and name of artist were misspelled. Our sincere apologies to Mr. Andersen.

In the Library Thanks to the following publishers for

their donations of recent titles that have become part of our collection (all published in 2002 unless otherwise noted):

Stackpole Books sent us Ed Engle's Splitting Cane: Conversations with Bam-

Sporting Auctions

New York DinnerlAuction

Cleveland DinnerIAuction Chagrin Valley Hunt Club Gates Mills, Ohio

Heritage Award Dinner honoring

arin County Conven n Rafael, California

boo Rodmakers; Dave Hughes's Taking Trout: Good, Solid, Practical Advice for Fly Fishing Streams and Stillwaters; John Judy's Slack Line: Strategies for Fly Fishing (first paperback edition); Gary Borger's Naturals: A Guide to Food Organisms of the Trout (first paperback edition); Peter O'Reilly's Flyfishing in Ireland (first published in Great Britain by Merlin Unwin Books, 2000); Ed Mitchell's Fly Rodding the Coast (first paperback edition); Jon Rounds's (editor) Basic Fly Tying: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started; and Dave Hughes's Trout from Small Streams.

Frank Amato Publications, Inc. sent us Jeff Bright's Found in a River: Steelhead Q Other Revelations and Shane Stalcup's Mayflies "Top to Bottom": Expert Fly Tying and Innovation.

The Derrydale Press sent us J. I. Merritt's Trout Dreams: A Gallery of Fly- Fishing Profiles (2000). And Great Northwest Book Promotion sent us Carol J. Morrison's Catching On: Love with an Avid F2y Fisher (2001). -


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The Friends of Corbin Shoot Peter Cnrhin

M useum Trustee and well- known sporting artist Peter Corbin came up with a great

solution to the ever-present problem of raising money for Museum operations. He provided a great group of his friends and clients an opportunity for two fine late October days of sporting clays and pheasant shooting, gourmet 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- I dations at the nearby 600-acre Troutbeck executive retreat. Each participant 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 interested 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.


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C O N T R I B U T O R S

Paul Schullery was executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing from 1977 to 1982. He is an adjunct professor of American Studies at the University of Wyoming and an affiliate professor of history at Montana State University. His many books include American Fly Fishing: A History (1987), Mountain Time (1984), Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness (1997), and Royal Coachman: The Lore and Legends of Fly Fishing (1998). His work as an ecological historian has most recently resulted in Real Alaska: Finding Our Way in the Wild Country (zooi), and Lewis and Clark

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 the Winter 2002 issue. He also writes occasional book reviews for us.

Frederick Buller, a London gunmaker, has spent most of his spare time during the last forty years researching angling history. He is the author of nine books, the most recent of which-Dame Juliana: The Angling Treatyse and Its Mysteries, coauthored by the late Hugh Falkus- was published in 2001 by the Flyfishers Classic Library. His most recent contribution to this journal was "Some Notes on the Evolution of Sport and Sport Fishing during the Middle Ages,'' which appeared in the Spring 2002 issue.

A Gift for I--, - the . Angler i I

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A Treasury of Reels A v a i l a b l e o n c e a g a i n f r o m t h e A m e r i c a n M u s e u m of F l y F i s h i n g , A T r e a s u r y of

R e e l s c h r o n i c l e s o n e of t h e l a r g e s t a n d f i n e s t p u b l i c c o l l e c t i o n s of f l y r e e l s in t h e w o r l d . B r o u g h t t o g e t h e r i n t h i s r i c h l y d i v e r s e a n d p o p u l a r b o o k , w h i c h i n c l u d e s m o r e t h a n 750 r e e l s s p a n n i n g n e a r l y t w o c e n t u r i e s of B r i t i s h a n d A m e r i c a n reel - m a k i n g , a r e a n t i q u e , c l a s s i c , a n d m o d e r n r e e l s ; t h o s e o w n e d b y p r e s i d e n t s , en te r - t a i n e r s , n o v e l i s t s , a n g l i n g l u m i n a r i e s , a n d r e e l s o w n e d a n d u s e d b y e v e r y d a y a n g l e r s .

A c c o m p a n i e d b y B o b O ' S h a u g h n e s s y ' s e x p e r t p h o t o g r a p h y , a u t h o r J i m B r o w n d e t a i l s t h e o r i g i n s of t h i s f a s c i n a t i n g p i e c e of t e c h n o l o g y , f r o m a 1 3 t h c e n t u r y C h i n e s e p a i n t i n g d e p i c t i n g a f i s h e r m a n u s i n g a r o d a n d r e e l t o l a t e r c r a f t s m e n l i k e V o m H o f e , B i l l i n g h u r s t , a n d L e o n a r d .

O u t o f p r i n t f o r a l m o s t t e n y e a r s , A T r e a s u r y of R e e l s i s a m u s t - h a v e f o r co l l ec - t o r s a n d e n t h u s i a s t s a l i k e . I t c a n b e o r d e r e d f o r $ 2 9 . 9 5 , p l u s p o s t a g e a n d han- d l i n g , e i t h e r t h r o u g h o u r w e b s i t e a t w w w . a m f f . c o m o r by c o n t a c t i n g t h e M u s e u m a t ( 8 0 2 ) 3 6 2 - 3 3 0 0 . P r o c e e d s f r o m t h e s a l e o f t h i s b o o k d i r e c t l y b e n e f i t t h e M u s e u m .

W I N T E R 2 0 0 3 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.

T he Denver Fly Fishing Show is one of my favorite events of the year because John Betts and Gordon Wickstrom spend the entire three-day show with me in the booth

(well, most of the three days-they are popular guys out there, and when they go for a walk around the show, it can take them awhile to get back to home base). Over the course of the event, we solve most of the world's problems, enjoy Betty Wick- strom's fresh-baked gooseberry pie, and chat with a veritable Who's Who and Who's Who Wannabes of the fly-fishing world as they stroll by the booth.

During the weekend, the booth becomes a little community with a life all its own, a temporary American Museum of Fly Fishing. (One nice lady asked if we three were the Museum's artifacts. Really a funny lady.)

But more seriously-and to my point-some time ago Trustee Emeritus Dick Finlay sent me the following thoughts from Henry van Dyke's Six Days of the Week (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924):

Remembrance and Progress

There are two ways of showing attachment to the past. 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.

There have always been some people of this kind in the world. If there were very many of them the world would probably

cease to revolve. They are the old men of the sea, the heavy weights whom the

workers have to carry along with them. But the other way of honoring the past is kind and generous

and beautiful. It pays tribute to the beauty that has faded, and the glory that

lives only in remembrance. It preserves the good things of former days from oblivion, and

praises the excellent of earth by keeping their memory green. It is faithf~~l and true, willing to learn, but not willing to for-

get. Fortunate is the community in which this spirit prevails: for

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 with the loyal memories of the past.

We are fortunate ill having so many friends, like Gordon and John, that personify "the other way" of honoring the past: kind- ly, generously, and beautifully. They, and so many others, are what make the Museum the uniaue institution it has become over the past thirty-five years.

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING, a nationally accredited, nonprofit, educational 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 collections 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 major components of the Museum's collections.

The Museum has gained recognition as a unique educational institution. It supports a publications program through which its national 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 possible 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.

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