Fishing for History: The History of Fishing and Fishing Tackle

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This week we feature a cool shot of some trout and a classic 1930s salmon rod and reel. Probably Pacific Northwest, and it looks like a Pflueger reel...

-- Dr. Todd

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The Waltco Ny-O-Lite --”It's Fabulous DuPont Nylon”

I usually like to start this column with the particular ad in question. But this time I want to start with a couple of pictures of two beautiful Ny-O-Lite spinning reels These pictures are provided by California collector Kip Gomez. Thank you Kip.

The ad below is from the May 1953 issue of Sports Afield. It is the introductory ad for this unusual reel. Whatever else you might think of it, once you have seen a Ny-O-Lite you probably won't forget it.

Nylon was developed by DuPont in 1935 and it was just beginning to be popular with the public when Word War ll caused its use to expand exponentially. After the War many entrepreneurs attempted to ride the popularity of “Fabulous DuPont Nylon.” Waltco Products of Illinois, a small time tackle manufacturer, took this to a new level with their “all Nylon” spinning reel, the Ny-O-Lite. In the The Old Reel Collectors Association's (ORCA) September 2009 issue of Reel News, ORCA member Charlie Tanner wrote a fine history of the Waltco Ny-O-Lite reel. With Charlie and ORCA's permission I would like to quote that article here.

“The Ny-O-Lite was in the market from 1953 to 1959.........This company must have had some serious marketing problems. It operated on a direct sales model, advertising in newspapers and magazines. While the reel had a list price of $13.50 in the mid 1950's, Waltco was running ads for $8.50 in 1953 and $6.75 in 1957. The ads stated that these were strictly promotional sales prices, just to spread the word about the reel. No more than five persons from each county were eligible for this special price. I don't think they made their quota. If the company sold one reel in each county in the U.S.,they would have been sitting pretty.”

Now I have an admission to make. I actually fished briefly with the Ny-O-Lite in 1957. I had just purchased a Shakespeare #1755 spinning reel to go with my seven foot Hiawatha Rod from the local Gambles store. Boy, was I proud of that reel. I think I've mentioned before that a Shakespeare representative visited our little town and put on a casting demonstration. Following that he allowed folks to come down and try out the different outfits. After he patiently show me how to use it, I knew that hang-down, closed -faced spinning reel was just what I needed, and I saved up my lawn-mowing money and bought one.

We were fishing at the local stone quarry. Ray, who was the older brother of my best friend, was the only one old enough to drive so he provided the transportation. On that day he showed up with his new Ny-O-Lite spinning reel. I made the mistake of bragging about my Shakespeare and he followed with a sales pitch on his new Ny-O-Lite that would have made Waltco proud --- “indestructible” ---- “never needs lubrication” --- “last reel he would ever have to buy” --- etc etc. He offered to let me use it just to see how much better his reel was than mine.

After a few cast, I knew that I had made the better choice. Despite Waltco's claim that the reel “Operates as smoothly and quietly as a canoe through water” the reel was nether smooth nor quiet. It sounded like one of those small grinders my mother used to chop nuts. Did I point out all the faults of his reel to Ray ---- Heck No! --- He was four years older, bigger, and stronger with little sense of humor--- and it was a long walk home!

-- Wild Bill Sonnett

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Video of the Week

A nifty video of Buck Perry fishing.

12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them

This Langley Target in the box is a nice reel.

This Winchester Titan braid is a sweet line spool.

A Deep-o-Bob in the box is an incredible find.

Oh man, is this Vom Hofe Commander Ross reel rare!

This Yamasa Sportsman is a really cool reel.

This is the nicest Manitou Minnow I have ever seen.

An Eger Grass Frog in the box is a lovely Florida lure.

This is a wonderful old hand-blown glass minnow trap.

Oh, the iconic Chippewa -- the coolest lure ever made.

Who wouldn't desire this silver spoon made by legendary reelsmith B.F. Meek?

This Spindiver 3000 in the box is a great combo.

Weller doesn't get the respect it deserves; this Pike is a nifty bait!

As always, have a great weekend, and be nice to each other -- and yourself.

-- Dr. Todd

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Hey, guess what time of year it is? Lang's Auction Time! It's like Christmas come early for the collecting world.

The on-line catalog is now available -- here the links to the October 20, 2012 and October 21, 2012 auction catalogs. As always, I'm going to offer you the 15 Things I Would Like To Buy from the Lang's Auction.

This is an exceptional Stan Bogdan Anniversary set of reels.

Nothing will beat this Philbrook & Paine marbleized salmon reel.

This is an incredibly rare George Snyder Kentucky reel.

This Penn Prototype spinning reel is incredible.

A 9' Garrison salmon rod is beyond rare.

This Wing Tip Leather Creel is superb.

A very large Ideal Float would make the centerpiece of a great float collection.

A 1909 Bristol Horton calendar is one of many such treasures in this auction.

Wow. This is an incredible Fly-Oreno 12-Pack!

A Charmer Underwater Minnow is a true classic.

Who wouldn't want these two Creek Chub Factory Prototypes?

A Joliet Spinner in the picture box is a great find.

Who wouldn't like this Moonlight Floating Bait No. 1 ?

This Live Action Frog display is incredible!

This 12 pack Shur Katch display is beautiful.

So make sure to register for Live Auctioneers if you haven't already and go find your own gems in the 2-day extravaganza! For first time bidders, if you see something you really, really want, make sure to put in a phone bid. To learn more go to the Lang's Auction home page.

-- Dr. Todd

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Fishing for Laughs, Part III

While researching this series of articles I found some things that were very funny, but a great many more that were not. What follows is the single worst example of fishing humor I could find, from the author of "The Elements of Conversation, or, Talking Made Easy" in The New Monthly Magazine for 1836. Here is what our anonymous author has to say about fishing jokes:

It is allowable, when you have run a subject dry in English, to hitch in a bit of any other language which may sound to your liking. For instance, on a fishing party. You say fishing is out of your line; yet, if you did not keep a float, you would deserve a rod; and if anybody affects to find fault with your joke, exclaim " Oh, vous bete!" There you have line, rod, float, and bait ready to your hand. Call two noodles from the city in a punt, endeavouring to catch small fry, " East Angles;" or, if you please, observe that " the punters are losing the fish," "catching nothing but a cold," or that " the fish are too deep for them." Call the Thames a " tidy" river; but say you prefer the Isis in hot weather.

HILARIOUS. Oh, but wait -- it gets better.

Let me try to put this into perspective for you. This is an author who believes that nothing, and I mean nothing, should stand between you and a pun. Read on for his recommendation on how to respond to a friend who writes you about the death of a loved one:

If a mail is pathetically describing the funeral of his mother or sister, or wife, it is quite allowable to call it a " black-drowning party," or to talk of a "fit of coffin;" a weeping relative struggling to conceal his grief may be likened to a commander of "private tears;" throw in a joke about the phrase of "funerals performed," and a rehearsal; and wind up with the anagram real-fun, funeral. I give this instance first, in order to explain that nothing, however solemn the subject, is to stand in the way of a pun.

And there you have it. The worst fishing joke from perhaps the worst human being of the nineteenth century.

Not much else to say here. I award this zero fish out of five for set up and one fish out of five for delivery, if nothing else because he spelled "vous bete" correctly.
-- Finn

Finn Featherfurd is the pseudonym of a sad and lonely retired professor and newspaper columnist who has spent the better part of the past four decades (unsuccessfully) chasing fish in the Lower 48. A long-time collector of vintage fishing tackle of all kinds, he is currently fascinated by pre-1920 children's fishing reels (40 yards and smaller). When the spirit moves him, he will contribute occasional pieces and essays to the Fishing for History Blog. He can be reached at finnfeatherfurd@yahoo.com.

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The following article, entailed "Fishing in the West: A Favorite Place With Former President Harrison for Casting a Line," was first published in the Chicago Record and reprinted by various organs, including the San Francisco Call for November 13, 1899. It details the favorite fishing haunts of President Harrison.

Such streams as the Fox River in Illinois, the White or Tippecanoe of Indiana afford at times even to-day very good sport for the fly rod.

Ex-President Harrison and a few chosen friends often make a fly-fishing trip for bass along the Tippecanoe, which was once a famous bass water, and even yet is not quite shorn of its ancient glory. These gentlemen would as soon think of grand larceny or highway robbery as to entertain the idea of using anything but the flyon the small mouths of the Tippecanoe. This stream may be waded on many of its best reaches, though it is best to take along a boat, and some anglers prefer to fish it from a boat all the way.

The bass of this river are very good fighters, and show the leaping instinct of the small-mouth species, sometimes springing out higher than one's head as one stands playing the fish. The average run is a pound or thereabouts, though often one will take a fish much heavier. The bucktail flies are good on the Tippecanoe, though this seems to be also a water where one may with profit indulge in his notions for bright colored millinery in laying out one's supply of flies.

The Ferguson and the Silver Doctor are sometimes used effectively, and the Seth Green, with a cinnamon wing, has been found good upon occasion, though as to these matters it is not well to set forth dogma. There is no ultimate truth discoverable in the matter of bass flies in stream fishing. This method we may as well call "broad fishing," since it is followed at all times of the day and on all parts of the water. This is late spring and summer fishing, when the bass are lying about in the weedy pockets, under logs or close to sharp banks, and this method, of course, ends when the cold weather comes and the bass behind to congregate in the deep holes.

The Fox River in the summer time offers an occasional evening of good fly fishing at such points as the reefs near Clintonville or Elgin, when the bass are taking the natural fly in the cooler part of the day, and on this river, as well as the Kankakee, one may now and then pick out a bass from midstream even in the middle of the day, while the fish are lying pretty well down and only looking up lazily at the panorama which sails past them outlined against the sky. This sort of fly fishing, not restricted absolutely to any part of the water, but intended for any fish that may happen to be lying about loose, is the most common form of fly fishing, and is sometimes very successful when the bass are in the humor.

-- Dr. Todd

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THE MONDAY 10: The Ten Fishing Stories of the Week You Need to Know

The Big Lead: Bill Oyster, bamboo rod maker, gets some nice press.

Shimano expands operations in Charleston County.

Will a Libertarian fishing tackle shop owner play spoiler in the Montana senate race?

Build a custom composite rod with Batson Enterprises.

America's best soccer player's favorite hobby is fishing.

I have no idea who Dappy is but he's a big music celebrity in Britain and a dedicated angler.

Two Texas anglers will teach class at university on saltwater fly angling.

Chinese angling writer goes fishing in Malaysia.

One angler achieves nirvana -- a permit on a fly rod.

FInishing with a Flourish: Fly fishing with Chef Joseph Lenn.

-- Dr. Todd

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Conrad's famous Surprise Box!

I got an email the other day from Dr Todd along with the following ad for the “Fishing Tackle Grab Bag.” It is from the February,1969 issue of Field & Stream.

Dr Todd says he can remember “begging and I mean begging” his dad to send away for this box of tackle that seemed too good to be true, His father never did, so when he saw a complete “Fishing Tackle Grab Bag” on eBay he fulfilled his childhood dream and bought it. Needless to say his father was right all along.

The "Grab Bag" consisted of a rubber worm, K-58 mono spool, hooks, and a comically oversized catalog.

Told you it was comically oversized -- that's a full sized magazine in the left corner!

I'm somewhat older than Dr Todd and his tale immediately brought to mind Conrad's Famous Surprise Box. The following ad is from the July 1957 issue of Outdoor Life and is typical of their advertising which was to be seen in many issues of outdoor magazines at the time.

I had a paper route in 1957 with 63 customers. After delivering the paper six days a week, I got paid 10 cents for each customer. $6.30 a week put me on “easy street.” This new found wealth and a fairly empty tackle box was just the combination that the Conrad Company was looking for. With my own finances I sent off for the 99 cent “Junior Surprise Box”. When the day came that it arrived in the mail, I went up to my bedroom and opened the box. WOW! --- All I recall was a bunch of fishing related stuff such as swivel snaps, wire leaders, hooks, feathers and some things I'd never seen before, but I was sure they would come in handy so they went into my formerly empty tackle box. One item remains sharp in my mind and is represented in the drawing at the top of the ad. It was a carded coil of silk gut leader. I'm not sure what pound test it was but it looked like it would hold a Tuna fish and was chartreuse colored. Unless it was soaked in warm water for several minutes it was as stiff as uncooked spaghetti.

I have to smile these days when I see a young boy fishing with a bobber and a heavy cable leader above the hook. That was me, except I also added about 30 inches of real silk gut leader above an array of snaps, swivels and wire leader. I was ready for anything. Even at that time I thought the small ABU Reflex lure looked tiny at the end of all that terminal tackle. I proudly showed this “outfit” to my Dad who was kind enough not to burst out laughing.

After sizing up the possibilities, I decided that if I was going to be like Jason Lucas I would need a really full tackle box. This seemed like one of keys to success. I sent off for the $1.95 “SENIOR SURPRISE BOX” with great expectations. A long time passed and I did not receive the expected package. Finally, one day a letter came telling me that the Conrad Company had gone bankrupt and they would not be able to fill my order, but they would be sending me an item of equal or better value in its place.

Months later a fillet knife arrived in the mail. It had an easy-to-sharpen carbon steel blade and proved to be the best fillet knife I ever owned. It had an over-sized wooden handle which I understood was to make the knife float if accidentally dropped in the water. Some years later my High School fishing buddy Clarence and I were fishing from shore when he commented to me that he really liked the knife but didn't care much for the handle. I carefully explained the purpose of the handle to him. His immediate reaction was, “there is no way that knife will float.” My immediate reaction was, want to make a bet -- watch this and I dropped it into the murky waters of Indian Lake where it sank out of sight like a stone.

-- Wild Bill Sonnett

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The Video of the Week

A charming video of old-style fishing in Norway.

12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them

This Grampus Hydrospin spinning reel in the box is superb.