Well--Looks Like I'm On Twitter Now.

Tell all your friends and family, alert the local constabulary, shout it from the rooftops: WE ARE ON TWITTER.

Oh well, I have succumbed. You can now follow all of our ramblings here at Fishing for History courtesy of our brand new Twitter feed (see very large black box to the right). On the twitter feed we'll post links when new content goes up on the blog, as well as link some other posts we like from other blogs and forums, breaking news, fun stuff, etc. So join us in the 20th century.

A quick note. You don't need to register for Twitter to follow us -- just click on the "whitefishpress" name to the right and it will take you to the page with all the postings. Of course, we'd love it if you'd follow us on twitter too...

And if you've got a link you want me to post on Twitter just drop me an email.

Just another way to get the message out!

-- Dr. Todd

2010 Catskill Fly Fishing Museum Auction (May 29, 2010)

2010 Catskill Fly Fishing Museum Auction (May 29, 2010)

Just a quick reminder that a fundraiser for the non-profit Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum will be held on 29 May 2010. It contains some really, really cool auction items including a half day fishing at the Pootatuck Club in Connecticut with Keith Fulsher, a day fishing with Donald Trump Jr., a half day fishing with famed economist Paul Volcker, a Bob Taylor bamboo fly rod, and many other items.

For a complete list of items and information on how to place an absentee bid, CLICK HERE.

It's a great museum and well worth your support!

-- Dr. Todd

The River Expert Reel by Jesper Fohrmann

Today we have an awesome treat thanks to Jesper Fohrmann. You may recall Jesper for his great piece on dry flies on the tube we ran a few months back. Today, Jesper gives us the details on the River Expert reel from Sweden.

The River Expert Reel

by Jesper Fohrmann

In the late 1940s Mr. Malte Pontus Blohm of Gothenborg in Sweden started the production of some of the nicest and most innovative multipliers ever made. These reels were the River Expert that featured a free spool system developed by Mr. Donald Anderson. The spool of the reel was freely turning on the axel of the reel when casting – once the angler started winding in… the spool would become engaged by the gear. Ball bearings embedded on each side of the spool would assure a smooth drive. Mr Donald Anderson also had a very elegant casting brake designed for the River Expert reel consisting of a oil-filled chamber where a pair of curved wires rotating inside the oil chamber would function as a anti backlash brake when the spool was rotating at high speed. Later this advanced braking system was replaced with a more traditional centrifugal system and on later models the free-spool system also was altered to a more conventional system with a manual release-button. Through time the River Expert reels went through numerous changes and it seems like the engineers never really wanted to finish improving on these beautiful reels.


Malthe Blohm produced many other reels than the River Expert – But these reels with their futuristic look and wonderful technique are favourites of many collectors.


Through time the River Expert reels went through numerous changes and it seems like engineers never really wanted to finish building on these beautiful reels. Here the right side plates of 3 River Expert, each with tiny variations.


The reel came with a very light aluminium spool – but one could upgrade this to an even lighter magnesium spool.


Picture of River Expert box.

-- Jesper Fohrmann April 2010

Jesper Fohrmann is an author, guide and fishing historian. He runs the Fish Mad Man web site which you can access by clicking here.

ADDENDUM: Jesper sent in the patent information for the River Expert reel: British patent 683,520 filed September 1951, published November, 1952.

Voices from the Past: Ned Buntline (1880)

One of the great early outdoor writers was the mercurial E.Z.C. Judson, better known by his nom de plume of Ned Buntline. He wrote often (and lovingly) of his Adirondack fishing camp known as the "Eagle's Nest," including in this nifty (and often reproduced) poem:

"THE EAGLE'S NEST"

by Ned Buntline

Where the silvery gleam of the rushing stream

Is so brightly seen o'er the rocks dark green,

Where the white pink grows by the wild red rose

And the blue bird sings till the welkin rings.

Where the red deer leaps and the panther creeps, 

And the eagles scream over cliff and stream, 

Where the lillies bow their heads of snow,

And the hemlocks tall throw a shade o'er all.

Where the rolling surf laves the emerald turf, 

Where the trout leans high at the hovering fly,

Where the sportive fawn crops the soft green lawn,

And the crows' shrill cry bodes a tempest nigh --

There is my home -- my wildwood home.

Where no steps intrude in the dense dark wood,
Where no song is heard but the breeze and bird;
Where the world's foul scum can never come;
Where friends are so few that all are true
There is my home -— my wildwood home.

-- Dr. Todd

News of the Week: 19 April 2010

The future of fishing rods is triangular...noodling in Oklahoma...bass pro gets caught cheating...Tru Turn hooks....rock snot...lure choices that outgrow the tackle box...Pure Fishing partners with Boy Scouts of America...scientists and government at odds over the Snake River salmon...high water is heaven down under..fly angling made easy...hooking first timers...your only as safe as your anchor...122-pound cobia may be record...snagging paddlefish on Lake of the Ozarks...legend of monster cats...Tenkara: spread the word...Mariki Izumi, fishing show host...a new snap...Minnesota Muskie expo...new all tackle burbot record...it must be THE NEWS OF THE WEEK!

The Big Lead: Could the future of fishing rods be triangular?


An Okie Noodling Contest.

A bass pro gets caught cheating.

The Scotsman declares anglers are suckers for new gadgets.

Tru-Turn is an angling standard.


How do you stop rock snot? Spread the word.


Some lure choices have outgrown the tackle box.

Good News: Pure Fishing teams up with the Boy Scouts of America.

Scientists and the government at odds over salmon and the Snake River.

Down Under, they are in heaven in high water.


Britain's great Daily Telegraph declares fly angling easy.


How a first-timer can get hooked for life.

Why the perfect lure doesn't have to be pricey.

Why you are only as safe as your anchor is strong.

A huge 122-pound Cobia may be a line class record .

Snagging giant paddlefish is a rite of spring on Lake of the Ozarks.

The legend of monster cats...


Spreading the word on Tenkara.

Meet Mariko Izumi, Canadian tv fishing show host and "sexiest angler."

This high school coach has gone fishing.

Florida wins the college national championship for fishing.

Which makes Duke upset and vow to win it next year.

Does this snap mean fishing evolution?


A Minnesota Muskie expo is always going to be a hit.


Finishing with a Flourish: A new all-tackle world record burbot caught in Canada.



-- Dr. Todd

1000 Words

1000 Words

This is a pretty classic style long-distance portrait of a fly angler in action, ca. 1915. Another indelible image...



-- Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads with Bill Sonnett

Splashing Around with Al Foss and My Barber
 

Sometimes ads strike you as funny, quirky or ironic. This one from the June 1934 edition of National Sportsman has all those bases covered. If we think back to the first Heddon catalog in 1902 they made a big deal out of the fact that their bait splashed water into the air and then went on to criticize underwater baits that relied on spinners. Here thirty two years later Al Foss is talking down lures that splash on the surface and saying that, "Fish appreciate a square deal and a sportsmanlike fisherman" ---- that is one that uses Al's baits with the single hook and spinner and that travel underwater.

After reviewing the Al Foss line of baits, it is apparent that Al was not a surface fisherman at heart. This is probably why when trying out old baits, I have not spent much time using Al Foss lures. Though not a purist, I get far more enjoyment catching bass on the surface than underwater. Here I am reminded of my old barber who began cutting my hair when I was 6 and was still cutting my hair when he passed away over 50 years later. He loved to hunt and fish and would often say that when it came to bass fishing, if he couldn't catch them on top, he just wasn't going to catch them at all.

-- Bill Sonnett

The Friday Funhouse

Video of the Week
Ah, the Duluth of my youth...nothing like the Minnow Swallowing Contest from a West Duluth bar.



Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them

This Goldfish CCBC Wagtail is a true beauty.


This Payne 206 is a classy wand.


A Fin-Nor 9/0 will run like a Swiss Watch.


Anyone for some Nep-Tuna cradles?


Turner Baits are difficult to find, especially in boxes.


This is one strange threadline spinning reel.


Fred Malleson reels are super, super hard to find.


A Heddon Magnum Torpedo in Golden Black Musky? Wow.



This Zaragossa is the definition of a classic bait.


This is one sweet W.J. Cummins 1895 catalog.


A Heddon Heritage with all the fixings is a nice find.


The high forehead on this Heddon 100 in Aluminum makes this a very, very rare bait.


A Turtle brand creel is a classic.


You don't see Pflueger O'Boys get this much interest very often...


This is a very, very wicked looking gaff!


A Four Brothers Neverfail in the box will make any Pflueger collector's day.



A McHarg diamond spinner is a perfect piece of "fancy metal."



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

-- Dr. Todd

An Author I'd Walk the Flats For

An Author I'd Walk the Flats For

Discovering a great new author is a thing sublime; I distinctly recall being introduced to Patrick O'Brian--of the Aubrey and Maturin Napoleonic war novels--almost twenty years ago in a piece in The New York Times Book Review entitled "An Author I'd Walk the Plank For." I'd grown up on C.S. Forrester and Alexander Kent, so I thought to myself that even if it is a pale shade of a 19th century sea epic, it might still be worth reading. I was, of course, blown away by Master and Commander, and then discovered with great joy he had written a number of sequels to this crackling yarn. O'Brian was on the very cusp of true international fame at the time, which would lead him to write 21 books in the series until his untimely passing in 2000.

As a neophyte publisher I see a lot of manuscripts of varying degrees of literary quality. A year ago, however, I was introduced to a gentleman named Bill Lambot, who queried me about whether I would be interested in reading a submission. As I always do if a proposal fits the parameters of The Whitefish Press, I was happy to read the manuscript. I had only known Bill by name as he is a collector and historian of bamboo fly rods and posts occasionally on the Classic Fly Rod Forum. There was little to prepare me for what I read.

Because in the series of essays Bill submitted on a range of fly fishing topics, I knew from the beginning this was not an ordinary manuscript and Lambot was not an ordinary writer. I immediately googled the name to see what other books he had written, and came back blank. A phone call later I discovered that he had never published anything before, despite having written for decades.

I'm not sure I can express to you how genuinely rare this is in the publishing world. An experienced, mature writer who has never been in print? Of course, in our little world of fishing we always have the legendary story of Norman Maclean, author of the beloved A River Runs Through It, a first book which was published in 1976 when he was 74 years of age. But Dr. Maclean was no stranger in the literary world, having been a literature professor (with an endowed chair) at the University of Chicago until his retirement in 1973 and the author of some seminal academic papers.

As I sat and reread Bill's submissions--rough as they may have been in spots, befitting an author who had written voluminously without editorial feedback--I was more and more convinced this had the makings of something special. We tendered a contract, Lambot accepted, and we set about producing a book.

Where do you start when you have an author with a seemingly bottomless drawer of fly angling writings? This caused no small amount of debate, but we settled on collecting a series of essays on a subject matter that is both underappreciated and romantic in theme: saltwater fly fishing. We culled the list of stories from about 20 to an even dozen, and began the editing process.

What we arrived it is The Last Fifty Feet: Essays on Saltwater Fly Fishing, a book which just arrived from the bindery a couple of days ago and which, I think, will be a welcome addition to fly angling literature on the subject and inaugurate a long career for a very, very talented writer.


It's one thing to think to myself, "this is something special and unique," and it's another for others to think the same thing. Thus it was with some trepidation that advanced copies of the book were sent out to some truly luminary literary figures in the fly angling world. What if they didn't like the book? What if my instincts (and literary tastes) were badly off? What if I was wrong?

These are the things that plague my nights with any book. I would not publish a book that I don't believe in, but I had never published a book like this before and did not know what to expect. I still don't. However, I was more than gratified that people with opinions that are far more respected than my own had similarly great things to say about Bill Lambot.

For example, Nick Lyons, probably as legendary a fly angler as there is and no stranger to the publishing game, wrote of The Last Fifty Feet that it "is a perfectly delightful account, in clear, vivid prose...Amusing, unusual, and genuinely exciting...This is a genial memoir any fly fisher will enjoy." Fly rod legend Hoagy B. Carmichael wrote "One can feel the heat, smell the salt and join in the excitement of the take as Lambot's love of the chase washes over almost every page. A 'two fish' effort." But leave it to legendary saltwater angler and author Dick Brown to sum up the book better than I ever possibly could:

"For years I've read, and reread, the delicious angling stories of John Cole, Jeffrey Cardenas, Nick Lyons, and Bill Tapply, writers who not only spin terrific yarns but tell them with the authority and technical accuracy that resonates with even veteran fishermen. Authors of this stature accomplish in angling tales what Tom Clancy achieves in spy novels, they not only create intensity and get your heart thumping like a jackhammer, they make it so real you believe it's happening to you. After reading Bill Lambot's The Last Fifty Feet, it seems we have a new entry in this elite group of angling storytellers. Lambot is smitten by all my favorite fishes and especially my most favorite of all, the silver torpedo we call the bonefish."

Similar accounts came in from other luminary figures, but I think you get the point...

Holy. Cow. It is one thing to love a book and wonder if others see in it what you do, it is an entirely different thing for others to discover in it the same things you have. Especially when those eyes are far more experienced, and knowledgeable, than your own.

If an author is the parent of a book, then as a publisher I suppose that makes me a grandfather. I guess that's the point of this little epistle. Like a proud grandfather, I wanted to announce that there is a new writer in the angling world, and his name is Bill Lambot. And mark my words. Twenty years from now people will be writing about Lambot as one of the distinct fly angling voices of this generation, and I can say I was there at the beginning.

Now you can be, too.

-- Dr. Todd

Brad Bradford: Sila-Flex Rod Tester

Brad Bradford: Sila-Flex Rod Tester

One of the great joys of doing this blog is the many great people I am able to connect with, some of whom have legendary affiliations to the angling world. The following photo was sent to me out of the blue a few weeks ago by Mike and Joanne Bradford. It's a fabulous picture of a rod demonstration at a tackle show:


Here is part of the email the Bradfords sent me:
 
My Dad [Brad Bradford] was a demonstrator for the Sila-flex rod company. He recently passed away. I have a picture of him making a trick cast during one of the shows. I also located one of 2 rods that were given to him by Sila-flex (this was before Browning bought them out). This rod is inscribed and signed by the owner of Sila-flex. I know that this rod is over 55 years old. Dad had me casting in these shows when I was 3 years old, and he had the rod then. I know that the rod is not worth much to anyone else, but I would like to be able to have a history of the Sila-flex company just to put with this rod.
 
My Dad was Woodrow W. "Brad" Bradford.  The rod is inscribed:

 "To "Tops" in Sila-flex Field Testers

"Brad" Bradford

from

Lee Harter and Sila-flex
 
This rod is one of the early spinning rods from Sila-flex.  I know that Dad also had a 3 piece Sila-flex that was made for him by the company.  This was a custom rod made from 3 pieces of 3 different Sila-flex fly rods.

Well, that is a pretty awesome rod and a phenomenal picture.

Sila-Flex had a great history and made some classic glass rods. I bet this picture dates from the early 1950s. I pointed Mike in the direction of The Fiberglass Fly Rod board, as they have put up a series of Wikis describing the history of the glass fly rod. Their great history of Sila-Flex (which was bought out by Browning, who continued to use the name for many years) can be found by Clicking Here.

I love this kind of tackle history as it so rarely gets recorded. Fortunately, thanks to Mike and Joanne, we have a record of Brad Bradford and his connection to Sila-Flex.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: Hugh T. Sheringham (1909)

I found this epistle in the pages of The British Sea Angler's Society magazine (March, 1909). It is from a paper read by the great Hugh Tempest Sheringham to this society on 20 January 1909. Sheringham was a great writer in his own right who penned some wonderful books on angling, including editing the great The Book of the Fly Rod, a book he was working on when he passed away. Derrydale came out with a wonderful paperback edition of this about 15 years ago. It is this kind of writing that is sorely lacking in today's sporting magazines.

We know, too, that Walton had a high ideal of the angler, and the same thing may be said of others of the early writers. But now-a-days, the instructors, our friend John Bickerdyke, Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell, and the rest, do not worry themselves about our mental and moral fitness for the high art of angling. They say: "Go and get a rod: we do the rest." No doubt they are wise and right, yet I cannot help having regrets....

Yet, even if we are a thought less particular to-day, we are not bad fellows taken in the lump. There are cantankerous ones here and there, but on the whole the gospel of brotherly love preached so persuasively by Walton is a live and vigorous thing still. In one of the most charming of his essays, that which begins the volume Near and Far, Red Spinner describes how in the small hours of a spring morning, while waiting tackle in hand for his train, he discovered somebody else's fishing basket amongst some luggage, and how the two anglers found themselves afterwards in the same carriage. "Somehow," he goes on to say, "these fishing baskets by a silent and unassisted process do often gravitate towards each other in this friendly manner." We must all recognise the profound truth of this remark. Two Englishmen, strangers to one another, are by nature perhaps of all men the least likely to fraternise, but give each a fishing rod and they are strangers no longer. They know instinctively a great deal each about each, even to the wonderful stories each is burning to tell. Long may it be so, and if I read the spirit of modern fishing books aright, long will it be so.

-- Dr. Todd

News of the Week: 12 April 2010

Karl White removes his collection from the Oklahoma Aquarium in search of larger quarters...rafters vs. anglers...the no-tackle nightmare...rods are not an impulse buy...wounded warriors invited to fish...trout angling with minnows...chasing giant paddlefish...Outdoor Life's ultimate tackle box...butterfly jigs rule...largest match fishing prize in history...muskies!...South Carolina brook trout record...an interview with Manibu Kurita...it must be THE NEWS OF THE WEEK!

The Big Lead: Karl White removes his collection from the Oklahoma Aquarium.


Rafters vs. Fishermen are battling along the rivers of Colorado.


The New England Outdoor Writers Association has its annual meet.

Wounded Warriors get an invitation to fish.

What is your worst no-tackle nightmare?

In Britain, illegal river anglers flee patrols.

While elsewhere, police reel in rod thieves.

The Yenke Peddler finds an old fishing rod.


Why fishing rods are not an impulse buy.

One angler hunts for nightcrawlers .

The Loramie bait business has a new owner.

Is there more to bait angling for trout than waiting for a bite?


Chasing giant paddlefish is a rite of spring in Lake of the Ozarks.


The New York Post reports on an act of cod...

Outdoor Life gives us the ultimate tackle box. Funny, my ultimate tackle box has a lot more Chippewas in it...


The joy of butterfly jigs.


Texas has a big lunker hunt on.


The Cumbria is being plagued by the onset of invasive species.


The biggest prize in U.K. match fishing history is being offered by Maver.

Muskies, muskies, muskies ...

South Carolina brook trout record has fallen.


Finishing With a Flourish: A down-to-earth bassman interviews the down-to-earth Manibu Kurita, world record bass holder.



-- Dr. Todd