The News of the Week: February 11, 2013

Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!

THE MONDAY 10: The Ten Fishing Stories of the Week You Need to Know
The Big Lead: Homemade jigs and lures are a growing hobby.



How to catch a musky while playing Frisby.

The Fly Rod Chronicles with Curtis Fleming enters its tenth season.

Fly angler and rod building teacher Ardell R. Barry has passed away.



Do anglers need to share the burden?


Chapman's Angling in Britain is one of the nation's largest retailers.

Rod holder wins prize in invention contest.



Remembering the Shakespeare Reel, "built like a fine watch."



Golfer Andy Bean is your celebrity angler of the week.

Finishing with a Flourish: South African convicted of killing great white shark, first in 22 years to be found guilty.



-- Dr. Todd

February 2013 Fishing for History Magazine IS NOW AVAILABLE!

In the February 2013 issue, we are "loaded for bear" as they say. Bill Sonnett gives us the details on the Northwestern School of Taxidermy, John Etchieson outlines the history of Ashaway Line & Twine's Swastika brand line spools, Robert Ellis gives us the history of the Bronson Reel-o-Mine, Harold Dickert looks at wooden rules from small (and large) tackle shops, Dick Braun outlines the history of the first production Zebco, Big Nemo gives us the first of a series on display tips, the fish hooks section from the 1888 Simmons Hardware catalog gets the annotated treatment from Dr. Todd Larson, Finn Featherfurd details the history of the American Angler magazine (all four of them), Ben Wright's spinning reel report for January 2013, Dean Smith gives us Tackle Smalls, Dr. Tim O'Brien outlines the history of fishing for tuna, Gary Miller remembers a bizarre ice fishing experience involving a lynx, Buck Juhasz gives us Buck's Shots on fly fishing, a Jeanette Hawley minnow comes to market, the Collection of the Month featuring the Demon Lure Co. Sail Fins of Randy McCurdy, and in our feature article, Peter Lellos gives a detailed history of the McCormic/Shakespeare McCormic lure. The Photo Essay this month is, fittingly, the Fishing Valentine.

Other features include Voices from the Past (William Henderson, Dixie Carroll, Bilkin's Electric Frog, and the Case of the Killer Fly Rod); Lost Patents featuring the Everlasting Creel from 1937; the Miami Metropolitan Tournament; Hollywood Goes Fishing; the UNID Files; 1000 Words; and the News of the Month.

Download the February Issue for free by CLICKING HERE!

--Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads with Bill Sonnett: Railroads and Fishing

I recently read a story published in 1906 by some fellows from the nearby town of Napoleon, Michigan where I used to live. They traveled in the winter of 1905 to the central part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (approximately 450 miles) to hunt deer. In 1905 that was an area that would be described today as “road-less wilderness”. They were able to travel the entire way by train and brought back quite a few deer in the baggage car. Today there are no longer train tracks that pass through Napoleon and as near as I can determine, no passenger service that would allow one to make that same trip by rail from anywhere in southern Michigan.

The lack of decent roads and reliable automobiles in those days meant that the train was the quickest and cheapest way to get to a sportsman's destination. Passenger service was viewed by the railroads as an important source of income and much advertising in “Outdoor” magazines stressed the quality of their service as well as the quality of the hunting and fishing available on their routes.

When it come to advertising and collecting old fishing related items, one area that seems to have been neglected is the advertising brochures given away by railroads early in the last century. They were meant to encourage folks to get aboard the train and and head for some good fishing. I have picked up several of these interesting booklets over the years at antique tackle shows. The asking prices for such advertising pieces were so low that only "lack of interest" could explain them. In addition to great pictures and historical information, almost all of them contain fold-out maps of the railroad's route and suggested fishing destinations. I thought it would be interesting to show a few here.



When I first saw this 1903, 88 page booklet, I thought it was about fishing in Lake Erie. Wrong! The Erie Railroad passed through some great country and this book is loaded with detailed information and high quality photographs. A couple are shown below.



Chautauqua Lake is well known to tackle collectors today as an early Musky fishing destination. It is also famous as the birthplace of the “Chautauqua Movement” which was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a matter of fact my Great Grandparents met there in the 1880's.



It is not often one sees a really nice string of Delaware River Smallmouth caught in 1899.



An 1893 Hunting and Fishing brochure given compliments of the Passenger Department of the Missouri Pacific Railway.



This very high quality brochure was put out by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul Railway. It features many high quality pictures and descriptions. The one clue to dating the brochure is the following picture. It shows the only automobile seen in any of these handouts. That auto didn't look like much of a threat to the Railroads. Upon retiring as the long-time (1934-1959) fishing editor of Outdoor Life magazine Ray Bergman was asked what was the biggest change in fishing he had seen during his lifetime. His reply was, "the automobile".





The Canadian railroads were not to be left out. The Canadian National Railway advertised heavily in “Outdoor” magazines and as shown here, also gave away brochures promoting camping, hunting and fishing along their routes. The smaller 1927 brochure is a reprint and the larger 1948 booklet is 112 pages long and covers all Canadian Provinces and the Yukon Territory.
 
By the way, those fellows who traveled all that way in 1905 to hunt deer would be surprised today to find that their home township of Napoleon and surrounding Jackson County now has one of the densest populations of deer in the the State of Michigan! The future has always proved hard to predict and no one could have foreseen that in 1905.
   
Tight Lines,

Wild Bill Sonnett

The Friday Funhouse

The Video of the Week

If you've got a half hour, this documentary on commercial swordfishermen is really interesting.



12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them

This DAM Quick #25 fly reel is striking.



An amazing Sports Afield magazine from 1915 is a great find.



This is a pretty cool Game Guide salmon plug.



This is a rare 1925 Heddon envelope.



Any Chapman is a good Chapman.



A 7 1/2 Thomas Special is a great fly rod.



This Heddon Hi-Tail Display in original shipping container is superb.



Instant Collection Alert: Monarch Automatic Spring Hooks.



When's the last time you've seen a Great Lakes Imperial 85 in the box?



Can't beat this Zebco First Model black spinner head.



This Heddon #109 is not in the greatest shape but it looks great in that wood box.



Chippewas are the best.


As always, have a good weekend, and be nice to each other, and yourself. -- Dr. Todd

REMINDER: Harold Dickert's Joe's Old Lures Photo Contest

A Happy Resolution

Some of you may recall that a little over a week ago, I discovered a web site (a Google blog at that!) had been stealing ALL of the content from this blog and cut-and-paste reposting it on their blog, which had a ridiculously similar name. My outrage was palpable. According to various metrics, Fishing for History is one of the Top 10 - 20 fishing blogs in the world for traffic (Alexis has us at #6) but that's beside the point. There's a reason I don't take advertising on this blog -- I find it annoying. I work hard, as do our many writers, to create original, interesting, and informative content. That someone else had apparently been pocketing a good bit of Google ad sense money based on stealing our content infuriates me. It was so bad that a Google search for one of our posts would bring up their illegal site just below ours.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that after filing a complaint with Google they took down the entire site. There was one funny point; they asked in a follow-up to my original request send the URL for any infringing content. Since they had stolen over 2000 posts, I replied back that it would take a day to do so, and that every single word on their blog was stolen! They were very cool, and acted quickly (considering all of the requests they get for copyright violation), so my many thanks to the Google team for taking this serious and acting quickly.

The point being, if you ever see your on-line content being co-opted (the problem IS HUGE), don't sit back and take it. Be proactive.

-- Dr. Todd

Sneak Peak: February 2013 Fishing for History Magazine

Here's a sneak peak at the February 2013 Fishing for History Magazine! It comes out on Sunday -- make sure you download the January issue before it goes away by CLICKING HERE!



-- Dr. Todd

An Angling Miscellany with Gary L. Miller

A 60 lb. Fish Story
Out of Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1933 comes this whopper of a tale.  It seems that self professed law abiding citizen, Ferdo Lehnigk, was found to have over 60 lbs. of  Sturgeon in his possession which at that time in Wisconsin was illegal.  When questioned by Conservation officers Ferdo related that the “fish leaped out of the water and fell onto the ice and broke it’s neck.”  He also added that as it is contrary to Wisconsin law to throw dead fish into the water, he was obligated to keep the Sturgeon.

The record is silent on the outcome of his case but we suspect that the judge would have been impressed with Ferdo’s alibi.



-- Gary Miller

Voices from the Past: Charles Kewell (1906)

The following note was sent to the editor of the Sporting Goods Dealer and published in June 1906, and illustrates the fact that the sheer number of named fly patterns a century ago had already reached into the thousands. Note that Charles Kewell, a reputable sporting goods dealer and inventor of a casting spoon that bore his name, went so far as to state that they alone carried 600 different patterns of California flies! As most of these flies would have been made in at least 10 sizes, that's 6000 separate flies the company manufactured just for fishing West Coast waters. Amazing.

ARTIFICIAL FLY PATTERNS

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24.

EDITOR THE SPORTING GOODS DEALER.

Replying to your correspondent, "S.G.D.," who wrote in the May issue regarding the too numerous patterns of flies, we will agree with him-there are far too many trout flies on the market. This is directly due to competition, for each maker wishes to get a distinct pattern of certain flies. Your correspondent's estimate that there are at least 2,000 patterns on the market is a very conservative one. Our own firm make and carry in stock--or did previous to the recent fire--more than 600 patterns and we, of course, only make California patterns. Regarding the imitation of the natural insect by fly-tiers, this is entirely unnecessary, in our opinion. The chief object of the artificial fly is to attract and then to catch the fish. This we find can, in some cases, best be done with flies that in no way imitate nature. Neither do we think that ·a fish always goes after the bait because impelled by hunger. Sometimes it is because he is excited or aggravated by the appearance of the bright object. Speaking from personal experience in Humboldt County, this state, we have never noticed many flies or bugs on the water, certainly not in great numbers. And the artificial flies we have found most successful are those apparently farthest removed from the natural insect. The Scotch makes of trout flies are, perhaps, the best imitations of the natural insect, but these are by no means the best artificial bait for waters in this country. We have discussed this matter a great deal among the leading anglers here and it has often been remarked how little our most successful flies resemble the living insect.

-- CHARLES H. KEWELL COMPANY.

News of the Week: Feb. 03. 2012

Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!

THE MONDAY 10: The Ten Fishing Stories of the Week You Need to Know The Big Lead: Éamon de Buitléar, Irish conservationist, tv host, and angler, has passed away.


John Merwin argues that old tackle is as good as new stuff.



How April Volkey became a star in the fly fishing world.



Appraiser Dr. Lori has a fondness for fishing tackle.



92 year old Mel Dickie still teaches rod making.



NHL star Owen Nolan launches new fishing show.


Tim Damon, formerly of Damon Rods, is now making custom drums.

Exhibit of tied flies in Juneau, Alaska.



Photographer casts light on master fly tier's art.



Finishing with a Flourish: Lew's resurgence is a great story.



-- Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads with Bill Sonnett: The Dardevle--Pork Rind Without The Grease

I had occasion last week to attend the “Ultimate Fishing Show” near Detroit Michigan. While wandering among the many booths I came across the Eppinger display which was somewhat larger than most of the exhibitors. I was astounded at the number of color combinations and styles that the Eppinger Dardevle name now appears on. The gentleman manning the booth was past middle age and stated that he had been with Eppinger for many years. I asked him if he knew the origin of the famous white stripe that appears on the back of the majority of Dardevle spoons. He stated that he did not and had never run into anyone who indicated that they knew how the color pattern came about. He was so fascinated when I told him what the stripe was suppose to represent, I thought it would be fun to let my readers know the story.

Great ads don't always come from magazines and in fact this one comes from the box papers of the oldest boxed Dardevle that I have seen. As near as I can date the papers they are from 1920 or 1921. I had always heard that some church groups had objected to seeing the word “Devil” use in advertising and this accounted for the Eppinger spelling “Devle”. The advertising slogan in the papers seen here is “Cast Out The Devle and Catch More Fish”. This play on words may have had something to do with the objections raised by these groups. What I found most interesting is Eppinger's explanation of the two color patterns offered. The ubiquitous and often imitated “stripe” was meant to imitate a pork rind strip and the white wedge at the bottom of many early Dardevle spoons was suppose to represent a pork chunk, both were popular bass baits of the day. The slogan attached to these two ideas was stated as “The Pork Rind Without the Greece”. Apparently the proof reader did not notice that what should have been spelled “Grease” was spelled “Greece”.




 
Below, I have blown up an interesting portion of the above text which explains not only the purpose of the two paint pattens common on early Dardevles, but also explains that the bait's hooks are at the rear, which gives the fish the chance to “raise the Devle without pain to himself and to the delight of the sportsman.”



Shown below is an early hand-painted Osprey Dardevle with its box. The name “Osprey Dardevle” is stamped on the back of the spoon. In reading the complete and somewhat lengthy box papers, it is surprising to find that the two color patterns (stripe & chunk) are highly recommended in black & white combinations. There is little or no mention of what was to become the color combination most associate today with the Dardevle ---- red & white.
 




Tight Lines,

Wild Bill Sonnett