Voices from the Past: Ernest McGaffey (1910)

Ernest McGaffey was a popular writer and sometimes poet in the sporting magazines of the early 20th century. Here's an epistle fitting for this time of year...

Muskellunge

by Ernest McGaffey

Then suddenly the lithe rod bends,
And swift the tense, taut line extends
As all at once from watery lair
A watchful pickerel lurking there
Drops like a panther on the prey,
Strikes, feels the hook and darts away.

Then all at once a mighty fish upsprings,
The rod bends double and the bright reel sings,
As from the depths a giant muskellunge
Vaults and vanishes with a sudden plunge.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: Ernest McGaffey (1882)

Here is a charming angling poem from one of my favorite Victorian poets, Ernest McGaffey, from his 1882 book Poems of Gun and Rod.


THE ROD

by Ernest McGaffey

A Rod for bass and wall-eyed pike
When over sandy shoals they throng,
Adapted both to "cast" or "strike,"
Of split bamboo and lithe and long,
With pliant tip that wavers like
Some shivering aspen slim and strong.

And at the butt the clicking reel 

With braided silken line is wound,
A miniature of fortune's wheel
When a good fish the lure has found,
And in your nervous grip you feel 

Its shining circle whirl around.

A good plain rod by all that's fair, 

And whips the water like a thong,
In Northern lakes all lonely where 

The muskalunge and bass belong ;
Supple and straight beyond compare,

And worthy of a better song.

-- Dr. Todd