American

Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing

The

Fly Fisher

William E. AndersenFoster Bam

Peter BowdenJane Cooke

Deborah Pratt DawsonE. Bruce DiDonato, MD

Ronald GardGeorge R. Gibson III

Gardner Grant Jr.James Heckman, MDArthur Kaemmer, MD

Karen KaplanWoods King III

William P. Leary IIIJames Lepage

Anthony J. MagardinoChristopher P. Mahan

Walter T. MatiaWilliam McMaster, MD

David Nichols

Robert A. Oden Jr.Erik R. OkenAnnie Hollis PerkinsLeigh H. PerkinsFrederick S. PolhemusJohn RedpathRoger RiccardiFranklin D. Schurz Jr.Robert G. ScottNicholas F. SelchWarren SternRonald B. StuckeyTyler S. ThompsonRichard G. TischDavid H. WalshAndrew WardThomas WeberJames C. WoodsNancy W. ZakonMartin Zimmerman

Parker CorbinBailey HallingbyWoods King IV

Alexander Kinsey

John NeukomAlbert NicholsDavid E. Nichols Jr.Ben Pastor

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Yoshi AkiyamaDeputy Director

Sarah FosterDirector of Development

Peter NardiniCommunicationsCoordinator

Samantha PitcherMembership and Events

Coordinator

Shane QuintanaGallery Assistant

Patricia RussellBusiness Manager

Becki TrudellPublic ProgramsCoordinator

Sara WilcoxDirector of VisualCommunication

Lines Cast

Jason M. Scott

W F B receivedour Graceful Rise exhibitionissue in Fall (vol. , no. ),

he wrote to tell me that he’d been work-ing on an article about female Atlanticsalmon record holders. That articlebecame “A List of Large Atlantic SalmonLanded by the Ladies,” the bulk of the Fall journal (vol. , no. ). As Fred wasnot one to use modern technology—computers and whatnot—and as we hadan ocean between us, his good friendDavid Hatwell stepped in as go-betweenso that we could keep in close and quickcontact via e-mail during production. I mailed Fred his copies of the journal,

and soon enough I received an e-mailfrom Dave: “I have just arrived homefrom spending two days with Fred andMargaret,” he wrote. “And guess what . . .the journals arrived yesterday afternoon.As you can see from the photograph, theyare delighted, and so am I. Fred could notput them down all evening and has askedme to pass on his thanks, and he says hewill be contacting you in the normalmanner shortly.”Dave attached the above photo. I

promptly forwarded it to all museumstaff. Moments like this delight us. (And Idid, shortly, hear from Fred “in the nor-mal manner.”)Fred Buller passed away in February.

He was a longtime museum supporterand contributor to this journal, but theremay be readers who are unaware of theextent of his contributions to our sport.David Hatwell has written about Fred’slife and legacy in “Frederick Buller, MBE,–: A History and Some Mem o -ries” (page ). A profile of this man inthese pages is long overdue.

I’m sad to report that the museum hasalso lost our resident Renaissance man,Bill Herrick: artist, writer, angler, trusteeemeritus, friend. Bill’s own dear friend,Trustee Bob Scott, shares a few memorieswith us (inside back cover).Writer/angler Keith Harwood some-

times fishes at Malham Tarn, a glacial lakein the Yorkshire Dales. While visitingMalham Tarn House, he was shown a casedtrout, caught by a man whose name sound-ed familiar: Thomas Brayshaw Jr. Harwooddid some sleuthing and discovered quite abit about both the trout and the man. “ATrout with a Tale: The Cased Trout ofMalham Tarn House” begins on page .We offer up some summer reading in

Notes and Comment with “Epiphany,” apiece by D. W. McGary, in which a troutsnob considers the role of ambience in hisfishing life, the milieu in which his atti-tudes developed, his ultimate realizationregarding the species he has admired allthese years, and, in light of this realiza-tion, what he’s going to do about it.Intrigued? Turn to page .Other treats: Harry Briscoe reviews

Roger Keckeissen’s book, Art Flick: CatskillLegend, on page . Peter Nardini, in BattenKill Beat (page ), profiles Leon Chandlerand his history with the Cortland LineCompany. We welcome seven new muse-um ambassadors (page ), and we reporton the presentation of our HeritageAward to Ted Turner (page ).Summer: it’s a perfect time to visit the

museum and Vermont. Why not come seeus at the Fly-Fishing Festival on August ?We look forward to it.

K AE

David Hatwell

James HardmanDavid B. Ledlie

Leon L. MartuchPaul Schullery

Kathleen AchorEditor

Sara WilcoxDesign & Production

Sarah May ClarksonCopy Editor

Karen KaplanPresident

Andrew WardVice President

James C. WoodsSecretary

George R. Gibson IIITreasurer

the American Museum of Fly FishingJournal of

E. M. BakwinFoster Bam and Sallie Baldwin

Austin and Meg BuckMark Comora

Jane CookeJon and Deborah Pratt Dawson

Gardner Grant Jr.Summerfield Johnston

Karen KaplanPeter Kellogg

Robert KleinschmidtGeorge MatelichRobert McGraw

Bradford and Pamela MillsDavid and Margaret NicholsThe Orvis CompanyLeigh and Anne PerkinsEric and M. C. RobertsRobert and Karen ScottNicholas and Jean SelchRichard G. TischTed TurnerPaul VolckerDavid and Jade WalshAlan and Nancy ZakonLaurie Zimmerman

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Will AndersenWilliam E. Andersen

Bill AyersLouis Bacon

Michael BakwinDick Beattie

Dave Beveridge Peter BowdenTom Davidson

E. Bruce and Denise DiDonatoChris Dorsey

Ezra FieldDavid Ford

George and Beth GibsonTim GrellJim Head

Paul Tudor JonesArthur and Martha Kaemmer

Woods and Wendy King IIIBill and Francesca LearyChristopher MahanWilliam and Lynn McMasterPeter Millet, MDTeresa and Robert Oden Jr.Erik and Jennifer OkenHenry M. Paulson Jr.Stephen and Roberta PeetJohn RedpathFranklin Schurz Jr.Warren SternRonald and Joan StuckeyTyler and Francis ThompsonPaul Van CuraAndrew and Elizabeth WardTom WeberLarry Wright

Josh AlexanderStu Apte

Elizabeth and Gregg BeldockRobert and Debbie Brucker

Sal CampofrancoDayton Carr

Peter and Lillian CorbinAnthony Davino

Charles Patrick Durkin Jr.Tom EvansJon FisherJon Gibson

Alan and Linda GnannAlan Guarino

Philip HansteenJames and Susan Heckman

Harry Hill

Tim HixonCharlie KaplanJoan and Herb KelleherGerold KlauerCarmine LisellaAnne Lovett and Steve WoodsumWalter and Pam MatiaRichard and Lorraine McGinnJoseph R. PerellaJack PittardMatthew and Kerry ScottSouth Holston River LodgeGeorge Van HookCharles WaltonPat WelshKen WilsonJames Wolfensohn

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space for FSC info

A Trout with a Tale:The Cased Trout of Malham Tarn House . . . . . . . . . . . Keith Harwood

Frederick Buller, MBE, –:A History and Some Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Hatwell

Notes and Comment:Epiphany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D. W. McGary

AMFF Announces New Ambassadors . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ted Turner Receives Heritage Award. . . . . . . . . . .

Batten Kill Beat:Leon Chandler: Fly-Fishing Ambassador to the World . . Peter Nardini

Book Review:Roger Keckeissen’s Art Flick, Catskill Legend:A Remembrance of His Life and Times . . . . . . . . . . . . Harry J. Briscoe

Museum News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

:The late Fred Buller salmon fishing on the Lower Redgortonbeat of the River Tay in Scotland. Photo by David Hatwell.

We welcome contributions to the American Fly Fisher. Beforemaking a submission, please review our Contrib utor’sGuidelines on our website (www.amff.com), or write torequest a copy. The museum cannot accept responsibility forstatements and interpretations that are wholly the author’s.

The American Fly Fisher (ISSN -) is published four times a year by the museum at P.O. Box ,Manchester, Vermont . Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership duesinclude the cost of the journal () and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Membership rates arelisted in the back of each issue. All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and materials intended for publi-cation in the journal should be sent to the museum. The museum and journal are not responsible forunsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photographic material, or memorabilia. The museum cannot acceptresponsibility for statements and interpretations that are wholly the author’s. Unsolicited manuscriptscannot be returned unless postage is provided. Contributions to The American Fly Fisher are to be con-sidered gratuitous and the property of the museum unless otherwise requested by the contributor.Copyright © , The American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont . Original materialappearing may not be reprinted without prior permission. Periodical postage paid at Manchester,Vermont ; Manchester, Vermont ; and additional offices (USPS ). The American FlyFisher (ISSN -) : amff@amff.com : www.amff.com

: Send address changes to:The American Fly FisherP.O. Box

Manchester, Vermont

A not regarded aspolitically correct nowadays, thetaxidermist’s art is something for

which I have always had a fondness. Awell-mounted fish or bird is to me athing of beauty. The walls of my studyare adorned with a Windermere pike in abow-fronted glass case and another casecontaining a brace of pheasants: a cockand hen bird. Each case or mount has astory to tell, and it saddens me when I seecases of fish coming up for auction thatwill eventually end up on the wall of acollector or hotel, with no connectionwhatsoever to the original captor. For anangler to go to the trouble (and not in -con siderable expense) of having a fish setup suggests that its capture meant a great

deal to him or her and was almost cer-tainly a personal best at the time. Oncethat fish is sold, the circumstances of itscapture will probably be lost. Fortunately,however, it is sometimes possible torecon struct the story of a cased fish, as thefollowing example proves.Over the course of the last two or three

years, I have fished on a number of occa-sions at Malham Tarn, a glacial lake situat-ed in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. Thelake itself is meters above sea level andis reputed to be the highest lake inEngland. The estate on which the tarn issituated is owned by the National Trust,which leases it to the Field Studies Coun -cil, which offers field courses at MalhamTarn House. The tarn is no longer stockedbut is home to some large wild browntrout and perch. Bank fishing is notallowed, and anglers wishing to fish this

fly-only water must hire and fish from oneof the estate’s four boats. Anglers used tofishing on well-stocked reservoirs find thetarn extremely challenging, and blankdays are not uncommon.On a recent visit to Malham, I was

shown a cased brown trout in the com-mon room (formerly the library) ofMalham Tarn House. The label in thebottom left-hand corner of the casestates that the fish, weighing pounds, ounce, was caught on September by Thomas Brayshaw Jr. The person whoshowed me the trout—which is actuallya painted plaster cast—had no idea whothe captor was, but the name sparked adistant memory in me. After someresearch, I have come to believe that thisfish has a fascinating story to tell.Tommy Brayshaw, the captor of this

fine specimen, was a man of many talents

A Trout with a Tale:The Cased Trout of Malham Tarn House

by Keith Harwood

This article first appeared in slightly differentform in the Winter issue of Waterlog.

Cased trout caught by Brayshaw.

Tommy Brayshaw. From the collection ofthe American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Photos are by author unless otherwise noted.

who is more famed across the Atlanticthan in his native Yorkshire. Brayshaw wasborn in Giggleswick, North Yorkshire, on March . His father, also calledThomas, was a solicitor by professionwith an office in nearby Settle, a gover-nor of the famed Giggleswick School, akeen local historian, and an angler whocontrolled fishing rights on the nearbyRiver Ribble. Like generations of hisfamily before him, the young Tommywas educated at Giggleswick, where hereceived a traditional public school edu-cation. Not surprisingly, because bothhis father and uncle were avid anglers,Brayshaw started fishing at the age ofeight, when he was given his first fly rod.He was only allowed to fly fish, and in hisfirst year as an angler, he failed to catch asingle fish. However, he caught about ahalf dozen fish the next year, which ignit-ed a passion that lasted the rest of his life. At the age of eleven, Brayshaw began

to tie his own flies, and by the time he wasfourteen, he was corresponding withGeorge M. Kelson about the dressing ofsalmon flies. Brayshaw would dress someof Kelson’s creations and send them tohim for criticism. Kelson was a sticklerfor the use of the correct feather, and woebetide Tommy if he used a substitute!

Much to the amusement of his elders,who thought he was wasting his time,the young Brayshaw began fishingMalham Tarn in . On his first visit,he promptly caught a trout of pound, ounces. From then on, he was a con-firmed Malham Tarn fisherman andavailed himself of every opportunity tofish its rich alkaline waters. In a letterwritten to P. F. Holmes, then director ofMalham Tarn Field Centre, in February

, we learn that Brayshaw liked to beon the water by dawn, often leaving hishome in Giggleswick before midnight tomake the arduous journey uphill to thetarn. It appears that he had an arrange-ment with Alfred Ward, the keeper at thetime, to leave the boathouse doorunlocked. On one occasion Ward forgot,and the hapless Tommy had to waderound the front of the boathouse at :.. to gain access to the boat. In theyears up to , over thirteen seasons,Brayshaw killed thirty-five trout andreturned eleven that weighed less than apound. On June , he fished theRibble all day, killing nine trout on a

small Devon minnow. At midnight he setoff for the tarn with his uncle, caught atrout of pound, ounces, before :.., returned home for breakfast at :,then went off to the Ribble again wherehe caught twelve trout, two grayling, andan eel. He was keen in those days! It was on September that

Brayshaw caught the trout now on dis-play in Tarn House. From the aforemen-tioned letter to P. F. Holmes, we learnthat the case had been wrongly labeledand that the trout was actually pounds, ounces, not pounds, ounce, as indi-cated—an easy mistake to make. Thetrout in the case is a painted plaster cast(with a crack in its tail, likely a result ofpoor handling); the actual fish was givento the Hancock Museum in Newcastle,where it was preserved in formalin.

Unfortunately, in spite of extensive in -quiries, I have been unable to ascertainwhether the fish still forms part of themuseum’s collection. Although the -pound, -ounce trout was clearly a per-sonal best for Brayshaw, it failed to matchup to his uncle’s best Malham trout, afine specimen of pounds, ounces,which was also set up in a glass case, thewhereabouts of which is unknown.

In , at age eighteen, Brayshaw begana six-year apprenticeship in draughts -manship with Palmer’s Shipbuilding andIron Company at Jarrow-on-Tyne. Fromthen on, his fishing at Malham Tarn wasrestricted to holidays (he caught his speci-men trout in at age nineteen).Brayshaw soon became a member of theNorthumbrian Anglers’ Federation, andSaturday afternoons saw him on thebanks of the Coquet, famed for its trout

Malham Tarn.

Giggleswick School.

and salmon. In , he contributed anarticle on angling titled “Stray Casts” tothe company’s journal, the PalmerRecord, complete with photographs anda tailpiece drawing of a salmon.

After completing his apprenticeshipin , Brayshaw moved to Vancouver,British Columbia, where he was em -ployed by the Yorkshire Trust. It was inBritish Columbia that he discovered thedelights of fishing for steelhead, and heregularly fished the Capilano, Seymour,and Coquihalla Rivers. He also fished forchinook salmon on the famed CampbellRiver on Vancouver Island. Brayshaw’stime in Canada was cut short by the out-break of World War I. He returned toEngland in and joined the Duke ofWellington’s West Riding Regiment butwas wounded the following year inFrance. His talents, however, were notwasted, and he was put in charge of theTees Garrison revolver school, where hewrote a training manual illustrated withhis own line drawings. But before leavingfor the front in France, Brayshaw met ayoung woman who was serving with theRed Cross in a military hospital inWakefield. Her name was Edith Rebecca“Becky” Sugden. They married on July.

At the beginning of , Brayshawwas discharged from the army, havingattained the rank of captain. The follow-ing year, Tommy and Becky returned toBritish Columbia, where they bought ahouse and small orchard in Vernon, andwhere Brayshaw took a teaching post atthe Vernon Preparatory School.

The years between the two world warsproved a fruitful time for Brayshaw.During the long holidays and on week-ends, he went fishing. One of his favorite

venues was Knouff Lake, famed for itshard-fighting Kamloops trout, where hetook fish up to pounds on floatingsedge imitations. He also fished theAdams and Little Rivers, for which hedeveloped a series of flies, the Little RiverNos. and , and the Bounder (see illus-tration on page ). It was Brayshaw’s cus-tom to carry with him a portable fly-tyingkit, and the Alevin fly was devised in April in imitation of the fry in the AdamsRiver, which were still displaying theiryolk sacs. The throat hackle, originallytied with Indian Crow feather, represent-ed the sac. The fly—originally called theYolk Sac but later changed to the Alevin—proved deadly for the Adams River rain-bow trout.

Brayshaw is perhaps best rememberedfor his hand-carved and painted modelsof fish. Some of his best specimens arehighly sought after by collectors and cancommand thousands of dollars. He firststarted making fish models in , whenthe Reverend Austin C. Mackie (thefounder and headmaster of Vernon Prep -aratory School where Brayshaw taught)brought him an -pound trout fromKnouff Lake and asked him to cut an out-line of it out of plywood. Brayshaw did asinstructed but was unhappy with thecutout’s sharp edges. He rounded theedges, painted the cutout, and presentedit to the reverend on Christmas day. TheReverend Mackie was very pleased withthe model, and Brayshaw was encouragedto continue carving fish.

By the mid-s, Brayshaw’s carvingsof trophy fish had gained internationalrecognition. In June , a small party ofEnglish anglers came out to the Kamloopsarea of British Columbia to fish for rain-bow trout, and they commissioned Bray -

shaw to make carvings of some of the fishthey caught. In , one of these carv-ings, an -pound trout caught by J. H.Muller in Jewell Lake, came up for auctionin London, where it sold for a record priceof $, at Neil Freeman’s AnglingAuctions (see photo above).During his lifetime, Brayshaw carved

around fifty-five fish trophies. He wasmeticulous in his attention to detail,carving out the individual scales of thefish and even grinding up mother-of-pearl to mix with his paint to give thefish an iridescent sheen.

The autumn of proved memo-rable for Brayshaw. While fishing forChinook salmon on the Campbell River,he met another ex-pat, angler and authorRoderick Haig-Brown, who originallyhailed from Lancing in Sussex. The twobecame lifelong friends. Toward the endof World War II (during which Brayshawserved as a training officer with the RockyMountain Rangers and later as a recruit-ing officer, retiring with the rank ofmajor), Haig-Brown asked Brayshaw toillustrate a new edition of his classic work,The Western Angler, which was publishedin . This launched Brayshaw on a newcareer path: that of illustrator and artist. Not only was Brayshaw a talented fish

carver, fly dresser, and illustrator, he alsobuilt his own split-cane rods. He was givenlessons in rod building by LetcherLambuth, the noted Seattle rod maker,following a chance meeting with him inSeptember . The two became firmfriends, and Brayshaw built a number ofcane rods from to feet in length, mostof which were eventually given away to hisfriends, although one is on display at theRoyal BC Museum in Victoria. Brayshawcontinued to make rods until , when

Brayshaw’s carving of J. H. Muller’s Jewell Lake trout, which sold for a record price at auction in .Photo by kind permission of Neil Freeman of Angling Auctions, London.

he was forced through ill health to retireto an apartment in Vancouver. Tommy Brayshaw passed away on

October at age eighty-one. In hiswill, he donated his extensive collectionof angling books, personal letters, andfishing diaries to the University of BritishColumbia. Unfortunately, he did not livelong enough to see two of the fly patternshe created immortalized on stamps issuedby Canada Post. In , Brayshaw’sCoquihalla Orange Fly, which he devisedfor steelhead fishing in the CoquihallaRiver during the s, was chosen asone of six flies in a commemorative fish-ing-flies stamp set. Seven years later, in, another of Brayshaw’s creations,the Alevin Fly, was one of four flies in aset of stamps featuring fishing flies.Tommy Brayshaw clearly came a longway from his early days on Malham Tarn.

His fish models and illustrations can nowbe found in a number of venerable insti-tutions and are an enduring testament tohis creative genius.

�

. Stanley Read, Tommy Brayshaw: TheArdent Angler-Artist (Vancouver: University ofBritish Columbia Press, ), .

. Ibid., .. Ibid., .. Thomas Brayshaw to P. F. Holmes,

February , University of BritishColumbia Library, Vancouver, Rare Booksand Special Collections, Thomas Brayshawfonds –, folder –.

. Ibid.. Ibid.. Ibid.

. Read, Tommy Brayshaw, .. Thomas Brayshaw, “Stray Casts,” The

Palmer Record (December ), –.. Read, Tommy Brayshaw, .. Ibid., –.. Jack W. Berryman, Fly-Fishing Pio -

neers and Legends of the Northwest (Seattle:Northwest Fly Fishing LLC, ), .

. Arthur James Lingren, Fly Patterns ofBritish Columbia (Portland, Ore.: FrankAmato Publications, Inc., ), .

. Ibid., .. Ibid., .. Ronald S. Swanson, Fish Models,

Plaques & Effigies (Far Hills, N.J.: MeadowRun Press, ), .

. Ibid., .. Ibid., .. Berryman, Fly-Fishing Pioneers, . . Read, Tommy Brayshaw, –.. Lingren, Fly Patterns of British Colum -

bia, .

Brayshaw’s Alevin Fly was one of four flies in Canada’s setof stamps featuring fishing flies. From the author’s collection.

Brayshaw’s Coquihalla Orange Fly was chosen as one of sixflies in Canada’s commemorative fishing-flies stamp set.

From the author’s collection.

Left: Tommy Brayshaw fly patterns dressed by the author.

T —shownhere at right, a treasured memory,slightly crumpled and more than

seventy years old—was discovered amongthe thousands of documents and lettersstored in rows of box files standing, sol-dierlike, in Frederick Buller’s study at hishome near Amersham in Bucking ham -shire. A decision by the young Buller allthose years ago not to discard items ofinterest, but to use anything available tostore them until they could find theirrightful place, has proved fortuitous. Acloser inspection of the handwrittennames on these files, and the correspon-dence and copious notes they contain,reveals that Buller played a major role inthe angling world for much of the last sixdecades of the twentieth century andsome fifteen years of the twenty-first. Myjourney into the labyrinth of what hasbecome Buller’s archive gives insight intothe man who was well respected as anauthor of many revered angling titles andone of our most dedicated angling histo-rians, very much liked and admired bythose who crossed his path. I was introduced to Buller in and,

after realizing that we shared the sameobjectives, was soon visiting him regular-ly, assisting with his research into largeAtlantic salmon catches for his new book.At one of our meetings, Buller revealedthat his good friend David Beazley, cur-rent librarian of the Fly fishers’ Club inLondon, had been putting together infor-mation on “Buller’s books.” I replied thatI had also been working on Buller’s bibli-ography. My version was in the form ofan illustrated pull-out pocket-sized book,which when opened stretched from oneend of his study to the other. He wasthrilled with this and immediately sug-gested that we combine our efforts. Thiswe duly did, and the result was published,much to Buller’s delight, as “The Booksof Fred Buller” in Classic Angling maga-zine in May . The pull-out book hasbeen regularly updated with Buller’s newworks as they were published.Buller’s study nestles at one end of the

farmhouse he helped to rebuild manyyears ago. Visitors to his study were putat ease as they were taken through the

immaculate sitting room with its leatherfurniture and darkened timber. A hugebog oak table—especially commissionedby Buller, its timber now hard as iron afterthousands of years submerged in peatbeds—stands majestically in front of thewhiskey decanter set. This whiskey set isthe Lifetime Achievement Award present-ed to Buller by the Country Landowner’sAssociation at the Broad lands Game Fairin . The award was given each year toa person who had advanced the cause ofthe sport of angling in some way.

Buller’s research into Fish and Fisher -men in English Medieval Church WallPaintings was published in book form in (Medlar Press). The sitting roomwalls host many of Buller’s photographicimages from the book, the result of visit-ing some churches with relevant wallpaintings. These images, softly lit, weresome of Buller’s favorite photographs, notonly for their obvious quality, but also asan important record of the original worksthat will, for various reasons, deterioraterapidly if much-needed conservation

Frederick Buller, MBE, –:A History and Some Memories

by David Hatwell

Certificate found in Fred’s study. From the collection ofFrederick and Margaret Buller. Used with permission.

work cannot be completed. The signedcitation Buller received from Bucking hamPalace when he was awarded the MBE(Member of the Most Excellent Order ofthe British Empire) for services to anglingliterature in hangs modestly amongthe paintings and photographs. A largewood-burning stove in a weathered-bricksurround provided the perfect outlet forBuller’s passion for timber gathering, atask he enjoyed until last year. As a regularovernight visitor to the Buller residence, Ialways looked forward to a wonderfulmeal and stimulating conversation withmy generous hosts. Much later in theevening, as we moved nearer to the glow-ing log fire with a glass of something spe-cial, we shared a few stories that, ofcourse, must never, ever, be repeated. A need for more shelf space necessi-

tated the removal of part of the outsidewall of the farmhouse, allowing a glazed

conservatory to be built that doubled thesize of the study. It was here that Bullerwrote many of his books and articles ona stunning oak refectory table surround-ed by treasures from a lifetime in theangling world. Modern technology wasacknowledged only by the presence of adigital phone system with loudspeakerthat “improved things a bit” and a laserprinter that worked overtime producingcopies of his manuscripts and articles.Not for Buller the sound of a keyboardtapping out his latest work—no, the“tubes” [computers] were strictly offlimits in his working environment. Heconceded the need for such advances butchose not to indulge personally. Everyword was handwritten before beingtyped by his secretary, Kay Varney, andpassed to his long-serving editor, MarionPaull. Well into his eighties, Buller couldbe found in his study most weekdays, his

work beginning at : .. and endingjust before : ..Buller had a huge network of fellow

anglers and writers who, since the s,willingly sent newspaper cuttings andvarious data, including photographs,knowing of his quest for information onmammoth pike and, more recently, giantAtlantic salmon.Of the many photographs and certifi-

cates hanging on the study walls is one inparticular that gave him great pleasure. Itis from the American Museum of FlyFishing, whose members presented himwith the Austin Hogan Award. Inthe museum’s journal, the American FlyFisher (Summer , vol. , no. , page), it is reported that the award was pre-sented on May of that year:

The Austin Hogan Award wasawarded to Frederick Buller of Bucking -hamshire, England. The award was es -tab lished in to honor the memoryof Austin Hogan, who founded themuseum’s journal, the American FlyFisher, in . This year, the award hon-ors contributions made by Buller to thejournal since . These include “TheEarliest Illustrations of an Angler”(Summer ), “Origin of the Reel”(Fall ), “The Macedonian Fly” (Fall), and “The Earliest Fishing Reel: ANew Perspective” (Summer ). TheSpring issue featured his mostrecent contribution, “A Fourth-CenturyEuropean Illustration of a SalmonAngler.”Frederick Buller is one of England’s

finest all-round anglers and . . . is hap-piest when fishing for trout and seatrout in the Irish loughs of Mayo andGalway.

Responding to the museum, Buller senthis thanks and stated, “Your letter cameas a very pleasant shock.” It was one ofmy great pleasures to assist Buller in thefall of with his last major article forthe American Fly Fisher. Spanning twen-ty pages, “A List of Large Atlantic SalmonLanded by the Ladies,” with previouslyunpublished photographs, proves thatthere is no question that women havefigured prominently in the catching ofthese huge fish, a fact Buller was pleasedto acknowledge with two of his fishingcompanions, his wife Margaret and Mrs.Florence Miller, both featured in the arti-cle. I was with him when his copies of thejournal arrived. To say he was overjoyedwith the result is an understatement; hespent the rest of the morning readingand rereading the journal.Old maroon Twinlock ledgers, chosen

for their ease of accessing paperwork,line the top shelves. These are the back-bone of the typed manuscripts forBuller’s books, and they contain the

Fred Buller reading a passage from Pike, his definitive study of thespecies, while he chatted with the author on the evening

of November . Note Fred’s famous photo of the -poundDowdeswell pike on the book’s cover and over his shoulder.

David Hatwell

original photographs used by the pub-lishers. Various binders and boxes housethe meticulous research notes for count-less journal and magazine articles pub-lished worldwide. Having been givenunlimited access by Buller to his studyback in , I have, so far, been able toarchive nearly all of his correspondencefrom until , which amounts tomore than five thousand letters. Someimportant letters are missing, mostlyfrom an age before home photocopierswhen Buller would send out originalmaterial that, sadly, was never returned. Iam also building an archive that showsBuller’s photographic skills, learned allthose years ago in the Fleet Air Arm. Inaddition to photos taken by Buller, the

archive includes many hundreds of pho-tographs—themselves now rare images oftimes long gone—taken by others of him. Buller had a very catholic taste in

books and has left a fully cataloguedlibrary consisting of many desirabletitles, others very noticeable by theircreased spines and bits of multicoloredpaper and Post-it notes trapped betweenthe pages. Each one has given years ofservice and been read and reread in alifelong quest for information. Bulleronce told me, “There are certain books, ifyou are seriously interested in your sub-ject, that you must have in your library,but there are many others you keep forpleasure.” Many times I have looked onin horror as Buller removed one of his

own leather-bound books and, searchingdiligently for a vital piece of informa-tion, flattened the pages with the palm ofhis hand, followed by a joyous, “Foundit.” Nothing gave him greater pleasurethan sharing a morsel of his lifetime’swork with a friend. Over the years, many authors have

requested a foreword by Buller, knowingjust how important such an associationcan be. It is no easy task producing newmaterial on a commercial basis, and theirgratitude can be seen writ large on thetitle pages of copies proudly sent, onpublication, to the man who is thoughtby many to be one of the founders ofmodern pike fishing. Buller was alwaysprepared to travel hundreds of miles fora vital piece of information, ensuringthat his work remained as historicallyaccurate as possible when printed. Sooften his research was groundbreaking;he always gave full credit to those whofreely helped along the way. Buller onceconceded, “My experience has taught methat some facts that I have gathered haveproved to be less than accurate; indeed,one expects to hear from readers who areprivy to the real facts. My formative yearsat the Freshwater Biological Associationinstilled in me the need to seek out andfind the truth in all matters, a task thatmay take a lifetime.”

BEGINNINGS

Frederick Henry Ernest Buller wasborn on October in Fulham,London. At the age of three, his parentsmoved to Kingsbury, Middlesex, wherehe was brought up and educated. Fromthe age of five, he remembers catchingsticklebacks, roach, and gudgeon fromthe nearby River Brent. In , agedseven, he created happy memories fish-ing for dace, perch, roach, chub, andtrout from the Stour while staying atBlandford, Dorset, with his Aunt Dolly.In June , as Buller prepared to leave

Kingsbury Grammar School, the head-master from a grammar school inBowness on Windermere, while visiting aKingsbury relative, met the young Bullerand was told of his interests in fish studies.That headmaster, realizing Buller’s poten-tial, contacted Dr. E. B. Worthington, whoran the Freshwater Biological Associationbased at Wray Castle on Windermere,Cumbria. Buller was invited for an inter-view and was accepted. He left home, notyet realizing the impact that his time at theFBA would have on the rest of his life. Infact, his interest in collecting data on bigpike originates from that period.In , Buller’s time in a reserved

occupation was coming to an end, andrather than wait to be called up, he

Blandford, Dorset, August . Fred Buller, aged thirteen, with hismother (left) holding a small pike Fred had just caught, and his Aunt Dolly(right). Fred spent his holidays with his aunty and has written a caption on

the back of the photo in ink: “A Fishing Story.” From the collection ofFrederick and Margaret Buller. Used with permission.

returned home and decided to volunteerfor National Service. His brother-in-lawhad opted for the Fleet Air Arm, whichinfluenced Buller to apply. He was giventwo choices: to either join the meteoro-logical division or train as an aerial pho-tographer and mapmaker. Buller con-tacted the secretary at the FBA, whothought photography would be moreuseful if he resumed employment atWray Castle after his war service. It tran-spired that the Canadian carrier HMCSWarrior needed trained photographers,and Buller joined the ship in , wherehis tour of duty included the WestIndies, Mexico, and the United States. Hehad ample opportunity, in his free time,to fish for the native species. In —atthe age of twenty-one, newly demobi-lized, and having by this time familyresponsibilities—Buller decided to starthis own business. Chubb’s of Edgware,which specialized in shooting, fishing,and photography, soon gained a reputa-tion for service and quality.Although we are most concerned here

with Buller the angler, it is important tonote the work that he put into the shoot-ing side of the business. Looking back, heis full of praise for the way he was helped

by the London Gun Trade Association.In , he became a liveryman of theWorshipful Company of Gunmakers.For years he taught many organizations,including gun clubs and young farmersclubs, how to shoot safely, how to carefor shotguns, and the importance of gunfitting. Buller insisted, “Everyone whoshoots deserves a fitted gun because thatis the only way in which they will realisetheir true potential.” He became a mem-ber of the Gunmakers Association (nowthe Gun Trade Association) and in was elected chair.In , Buller joined Captain Sidney

Norton-Bracey’s team of anglers, whichincluded Leslie Moncrieff, that veritablegiant of a man who would soon team upwith Buller in a business venture. Theteam was traveling to Achill Island offthe west coast of County Mayo in theIrish Republic in the hope of catching arecord porbeagle shark. Two years later,Buller harnessed the skills Moncreiff andanother engineer, Richard Walker, withwhom he formed the Moncrieff RodDevelopment Company. Retained ini-tially by Martin James, they developed arange of beach-casting and shark-fishingrods. The company formed a close bond

with Hardy’s. With Walker’s innovativeapproach, it wasn’t long before newmaterials and products were being testedfor the tackle market.

FISH

Tucked away in the archive we findnotes of Buller’s early fishing catches. In, he caught a -pound pike from theDorset Stour. In , he was awarded theWilkes Cup by the Beehive Angling Societyfor catching the most fish in one season;after winning it four more times, he gaveup match fishing. In , fishing theSuffolk Stour, he caught roach of pounds, ounces and pounds, ounce. On March , while fishing the HampshireAvon in a competition, he landed a recordbag of dace weighing pounds.In , while Buller was fishing near

Balmaha on Loch Lomond and usingsuitably light tackle, he thought he hadhooked the loch’s biggest roach. Itproved to be a powan of ¼ ounces andwas confirmed to be the British rod-caught record. He traveled to Lough Allen in to

make a film for the Irish Tourist Board,Winter Pike Fishing in Ireland. In , I

Fred Buller behind the counter at his business, Chubb’s of Edgware,early s. Two of Fred’s fish are cased behind him. From the

collection of Frederick and Margaret Buller. Used with permission.

Fred Buller’s business, Chubb’s of Edgware, ca.early s. He transferred his business nearer to

home in the mid-s, having purchasedFrederick Beesley Gunmakers, and continuedtheir great reputation by making some of thefinest shotguns and developing a unique rangeof fishing tackle. Frederick Beesley was sold whenBruce, Fred’s son, retired in . From thecollection of Frederick and Margaret Buller.

Used with permission.

tracked down Robert Monks, the film-maker, by then in his eighties, whoremembered Buller and his fishing com-panions and kindly arranged for a copyof the film to be sent to me. Buller and Iwatched the film in his study, and muchto his great delight, he saw himself andhis good friend Colin Dyson catchingdouble-figure pike for the cameras.Buller landed his heaviest fish, a stur-

geon weighing pounds, in onthe Fraser River in British Columbia.

A WRITING LIFE

It was through his friendship withLeslie Moncreiff that Buller was intro-duced to the production staff workingon Creelmagazine. He submitted his firstpiece, “A Theory of Great Pike,” and itwas published in the fourth issue(October ). He continued to writeregularly for the magazine until May, completing some twenty-five arti-cles. At the same time, and while runninga busy fishing tackle and gun shop,Buller was putting the finishing toucheson the manuscript for his first book, FredBuller’s Book of Rigs & Tackles, which waspublished by Paulton House in . Buller had been gathering information

on large pike for many years, with a par-ticular interest in Ireland and Scotland.In November , Fishing magazinepublished Buller’s article linking mon-ster pike to the food chain in Loch

Lomond, a precursor to his well-docu-mented visit to the Loch in , where,due to a poorly tied knot, Buller lost apossible record pike. His greatlyacclaimed work, Pike, was published byMacdonald in and remains thedefinitive study of the species. Buller did not meet Hugh Falkus—

with whom he later coauthored twobooks: Falkus and Buller’s FreshwaterFishing (MacDonald and Jane’s, ),and Dame Juliana: The Angling Treatyseand Its Mysteries (The Flyfisher’s ClassicLibrary, )—until . By the timehe began work on Freshwater Fishing,Buller was no longer content with writ-ing alone, and he showed his artistic skillsby producing more than one hundredhand-drawn illustrations for inclusion inthe book. His collaboration on the pro-ject with Falkus, whose books includedSea Trout Fishing (H. F. & G. WitherbyLtd., ) and Salmon Fishing: APractical Guide (H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd.,), could sometimes be stormy.Falkus, although a very clever man, couldbe difficult to work with, but Bullerremained loyal to his old friend untilFalkus’s death in . It was Falkus who, in , encouraged

Buller to purchase a small fishing cottagein Ballinrobe, County Mayo, in thenorthwest of the Irish Republic. HereBuller and his family and friends foundseclusion and contentment, fishing theloughs and rivers for pike, trout, and sea

trout. The cottage was modified over timeand had an adjoining boathouse. Buller’sdiaries show regular visits, and his friendspresented him with the Cappacurry LogBook to record their catches. Completewith photographs and anecdotes, it is amarvelous record of more than fortyyears of Irish fishing. During his visits toIreland, Buller would take any opportuni-ty to meet up with fishery managers, sci-entists, and fellow anglers to glean infor-mation on the huge pike that had beencaptured over time. He was fishing theRiver Aille in when he hooked andlanded his biggest pike ( pounds).Sadly, the pike was not heavy enough tobe included in what many consider to behis finest work, The Domesday Book ofMammoth Pike (Stanley Paul, ), abook that took the pike fishing world bystorm. An illustrated record of two hun-dred and thirty pike weighing poundsor more, the book has been much copiedbut never equaled.During the s, Buller widened his

net, gathering information on largeEuropean and North American pike. Hebegan a partnership with Dutchman JanEggers, who was able to supply new dataand photographs on a vast scale; thisresulted in Buller affectionately callinghis friend “the pike ferret.” Some of thisnew information appeared in Pike and thePike Angler (Stanley Paul, ), but muchwas saved for More Mammoth Pike(Medlar Press, ). In , Buller fishedin Russia as part of the first foreignangling party to travel there in manyyears, and in he traveled to China,hoping to see some of the earliest knownpaintings depicting Chinese anglers usingrods equipped with reels. He was able tophotograph Chinese anglers using reelsthe design of which had not changed ineight hundred years. These visits werewritten up and published, along withother essays, in Angling: The Solitary Vice(Coch-y-Bonddu Books, ).In October , his second book with

Falkus, Dame Juliana: The Angling Treatyseand Its Mysteries, was published. Almostnothing is known with certainty about ATreatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, pub-lished some five hundred years before, butBuller and Falkus were determined tostudy and analyze it. Buller consideredthis book to be his most important andtook great pride in showing me theresearch material, including the manu-script he and Falkus translated from anobscure fifteenth-century vocabulary.With the help of Jack Heddon, MalcolmGreenhalgh, David Beazley, StephenDownes, and Denys Ovenden, Buller puttogether a volume that celebrates—butdoes not offer any conclusive proof as tothe origins of—what is, according to

An historic photo of Fred and his son Bruce taken on their last day of trading atFrederick Beesley Gunmakers, September . Bruce was retiring; Fred hadretired some years before but helped out covering staff holidays, etc. The authorwas visiting Fred and was invited along to the proceedings. They removedBuller’s cased -pound Irish pike that day, which now hangs in his study.

David Hatwell

many, the most significant book onangling ever published.In February , I offered to compile,

for the first volume of The DomesdayBook of Giant Salmon, a searchable data-base composed of three lists containingall the information that Buller had beencollecting on large Atlantic salmon. List comprised salmon of greater than pounds that had been caught on a fly. List comprised fish between and pounds, the method of capture of whichwas uncertain. List housed the huge fishthat had been caught by any method,many topping the scales at more than pounds. For the first time in his writingcareer, Buller could see these lists updat-ed on a daily basis as new informationarrived. Little did I realize what an amazing

time I would have, working alongsideBuller as he maintained a workload thatwould put some younger writers toshame. We communicated by telephonemany times each day and both enjoyedreceiving the countless letters and pack-ages we regularly exchanged. With myaccess to the Internet, I was able to con-nect with salmon fishers and angling his-torians worldwide. This new and fastapproach to information gathering soongrew on Buller; his publisher, the lateNick Robinson (Constable), confided toBuller that commissioning his salmonbook had given him the most pleasure inhis publishing career. The first volume isa stunning book that, after its launch at

Farlows of Pall Mall in London in ,sold out the first printing of five thou-sand copies in six weeks. A few monthslater, we began work on the second vol-ume, which was published in .Buller had one last project: the mem-

oirs of an angling historian. Compiledover many years from countless book,magazine, and journal articles, it wasBuller’s final offering to his devoted read-ers. He enlisted the help of his friend andpublisher, John Mason of WatermeadowBooks. In December , I received atelephone call from Buller, who was, bythen, in failing health. I left immediately,having arranged to meet him early thenext morning. We discussed manythings, but I had not realized the consid-erable volume of work he had alreadycompleted. In fact, four boxes of manu-script material, associated paperwork,and several folders were neatly arrangedon his desk. He was becoming weary bythis time and, after a short pause, I askedhim if he would like me to assist JohnMason with final proofreading of thebook. He looked at me, smiled, and read-ily agreed. “I won’t let you down, Fred,” Isaid as I left for home. “I know youwon’t, Hatters,” he replied.Domesday and Beyond will be pub-

lished later this year.Buller was a member of the Flyfisher’s

Club in London for forty-one years,being elected to membership in . Hewas a regular contributor to the club’sjournal and became an honorary life

member, participating in events untillast year, when ill health prevented hisattendance.Fred Buller died on February .

He was supported in life and work by hisfirst wife, Pauline, who died in , andthen by his second wife Margaret, whomhe married in November . She sur-vives him, along with three children fromhis first marriage: Bruce, Janis, and Ruth.In every sense of the word, Fred Buller

was a hunter-gatherer. Some sixty-fiveyears ago, when a groundswell of newideas was changing the face of theangling world, Buller not only developednew and innovative products within hisfishing tackle business, but also madepainstaking investigations into angling’spast, which has left us a wealth of knowl-edge in the pages of his many books andjournal articles. Undoubtedly, Buller willbe remembered as one of our greatestangling historians. He was kind and gen-erous, and I will not be alone, I am sure,when I raise my glass to the memory ofthis gentle Englishman.

�

. Frederick Buller, letter to KathleenAchor and the American Museum of FlyFishing, May .

. Frederick Buller, telephone conversa-tion with the author, December .

. “Chubb’s of Edgware,” Shooting(), –.

Fred Buller salmon fishing from a boat on the Lower Redgorton beat of the RiverTay in Scotland on August while fishing with the author. Shortly after acompliment on his technique, Buller hooked and landed a double-figure fish.

David Hatwell

Epiphany: an intuitive grasp of reality through something(as an event) usually simple and striking.

I couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon,right here at home while sitting in a recliner reading thepaper.Until I realized that I’d had an epiphany, I had never given

much thought to what might bring one on. The few instancesthat I’d read about seemed otherworldly, even biblical, not some-thing that might happen to an ordinary person like me in . There’s the story about Saul on the way to Damascus more

than two thousand years ago. I could imagine him walkingalong that dusty road out there in the scorching Middle East,probably not wearing a cap and sunglasses and without anybottled water or sunscreen. No surprise that something hap-pened. Then there’s the questionable falling-apple story aboutIsaac Newton and gravity. And, of course, no one could forgetthe one about the German chemist Kekule von Stradonitz, whodeduced the cyclic structure of the benzene molecule as a resultof a drunken dream involving a snake with its own tail in itsmouth.In my case, the causative epiphanizing factor was a report of

the final standings in a local fishing contest in the Sunday edi-tion of the local paper. (I can’t rule out the possibility that alarge glass of cabernet may have been a contributing factor inwhat happened.)An epiphany, as I see it, is an effect caused by something that

occurs within an existing context and leads to some significantchange in the life of the one epiphanized. Therefore, for some-one to understand another’s epiphany, the someone needs to

know the another’s preexisting state of mind and the factor orfactors that led to the another’s epiphanization. (I will not besurprised to see this paragraph appearing in psychology text-books in the future, or in Wikipedia.)Anyhow, for anyone who wants to understand my epiphany, I

begin with the context in which it occurred and will then go onand on to describe the epiphanizing causative factor and theresulting changes in my lifestyle, along with their potential effectson others. This takes a lot of words, but I have written them veryfast, so it shouldn’t take a lot of your time to read them.Once I had recovered from the initial shock of the epiphany,

I entered into a period of existential retrospective introspec-tion that led me to recognize just what kind of person I hadbeen prior to and at the point of the epiphany and why I wasvulnerable to what caused it. For lack of a better way of puttingit, I’d say I was a trout snob, with tendencies toward highlyromantic idealism (bordering on irrationality) and sensitivityto sensory stimuli, all brought on (unintentionally, it should beunderstood) by my parents. For many years, hunting and fishing—with roots in subsis-

tence living during the Great Depression—had been signifi-cant in my family. By this I mean that there was a lot of hunt-ing and fishing, but with the primary goal to bring back some-thing to eat. Fortunately, we didn’t depend totally on this forsurvival, but no one went fishing or hunting to commune withnature. Then some things changed. By the late s and early s, my parents became freed

from the need to hunt and gather—I was away at college—andthey began to take trips farther than miles from home.Eventually, they ignored any inhibitions they may still have had

Epiphanyby D. W. McGary

The author recreates his moment of epiphany for the camera.

Thelma McGary

and ended up about miles from Wellsboro in Tioga County,Pennsylvania, almost miles from home. Whatever it wasthat they were looking for in life, they found a big part of it inthat area of Pennsylvania and made two or more trips thereevery year. I went with them several times while still in college,and I too became hooked. (Remember, this is a fishing story.)

Ambience: a feeling or mood associated with a particularplace, person, or thing; atmosphere.

On those trips, we stayed at a motel of sorts located alongRoute between Wellsboro and Galeton. There were six smallunits with a restaurant nearby—log construction with lots andlots of knotty pine. The place would have been condemned iftoday’s standards had been applied. It was not a place whereanyone would sit around contemplating the scenery or person-al existence. It was where we spent the nights, ate some meals—quickly—and then went somewhere else during the day.Where we often went during the day was out through the

mountains that stretched in all directions, seemingly withoutend. But where we most often wound up was along a section ofPine Creek that flowed beside Route and then entered thePennsylvania Grand Canyon at Ansonia, about miles fromwhere we stayed. Eventually, the stream entered the Sus -quehanna. It still does.In those days, Pine Creek was highly regarded as a trout

stream and was sometimes featured in outdoor magazines.Besides the fishing itself, part of the allure of the stream was itssemi-remoteness, where it flowed for more than milesthrough the thousand-foot-deep canyon.Through the length of the canyon, the New York Central

Railroad maintained tracks that connected parts of Pennsylvaniawith New York State to the north. There were no public roads inthe canyon, just several private unimproved tracks that gaveaccess to Pine Creek from a local road leading to a few huntingcabins in the valley.It was possible to get into the canyon to fish either at

Ansonia to the north or at Blackwell to the south. An alterna-tive was to hike down from one of two state parks that werelocated across from each other on the canyon rims, but thatmeant then hiking back up over more than a thousand feet ofnot very good trails. Pine Creek was not a wild river like, say,one running through central Alaska. But it was remote enoughto keep a lot of casual fishermen from putting pressure on thefish and other fishermen. A few people, mostly locals, floatedthe stream by canoe, but there was no tourist industry operat-ing float trips. If you got into the canyon to fish, you couldassume few people would be there with you and the trout.On those trips to Pine Creek—and later at home—I visited

tackle shops and listened to anyone who seemed to knowabout trout and how to fly fish for them. I subscribed to fish-ing magazines and spent the equivalent of a semester’s tuitionon classic trout books and all kinds of fly-tying tools and mate-rials. I studied how people fished there in Pine Creek. Myfather and I fished in the stream, too. I may have caught a troutthere one time. Well, maybe.I had probably never been very well wired mentally or emo-

tionally to be a good fisherman. The reason was that I alwaysseemed to get too caught up in the ambience of where I wasfishing. It often got to the point that I didn’t even care if Icaught anything. (A good thing!) It was like I was ambiencing,not fishing. And the ambience tended to stick in my mind longafter I returned home. After a trip to the canyon, I often relived the ambience of

Pine Creek, remembering its long deep pools of cold water, theflash of a trout, a mist in the morning, a hatch in the evening,the canyon walls rising a thousand feet to the rim, and the

sound and sight of the train grinding its way through the val-ley (stream of consciousness? or consciousness of stream?).Eventually, I was so trapped by the need to work and make

money that I could not get back to Pine Creek and the trout.Its ambience, however, remained in my mind like a New Agevortex. And that force from the wild was so strong that even-tually I found fishing around home unsatisfying, though Iactually caught a fish from time to time. What I craved to fishin, and just be in, lay miles away, separated from me by dis-tance and responsibilities. But then, before a crisis stage devel-oped, a solution of sorts emerged.One day, for old time’s sake, I drove up through a valley

north of Harrisburg and visited Clark’s Creek where my father,grandfathers, and I used to fish back in the s. Later, earlyin the s, Pennsylvania officially designated the stream fortrout and stocked it. Of more significance, the stream now hadtwo sections restricted to fly fishing. And even more signifi-cantly, one of the two restricted sections was far up the valleyaway from development in an area dominated by old-growthhemlocks and laurel. Where we used to wade in numbing coldwater, fishing for bass and pickerel before the stream was ded-icated to trout, I could now wade in numbing cold water flyfishing for trout. And it was relatively wild—the area, not thefishing. (Well, there was that one time when I was splashingupstream toward a rise and a deer jumped into the water nextto me.)Clark’s Creek is not a wide stream, and I became adept at

nonchalantly turning over a roll cast all the way across it andoften feet up into a hemlock. The hemlocks and laurel grewright along the banks, creating overhangs and deep shadows,hiding the trout and the rounded slime-covered rocks I toooften forgot were there. It was not an easy stream to fish, butthat did not matter. The Pine Creek ambience deeply embed-ded in my engrams was now being re-created to some extent. Ihad made a complex psychological transfer of Pine Creekambience to Clark’s Creek ambience.This does not mean that I somehow forgot about Pine

Creek, only that I had achieved a workable sublimation of itsambience, a release from its domination. I know this psycho-logical explanation may be difficult to understand and accept,but I checked out its plausibility on several adult behavioralwebsites (one of special help located on a blog in EasternTibet), and I am confident I have it right.Now, in a matter of forty-five minutes, I could be in Clark’s

Creek with all its wildness and trout. That on my many trips

there I caught a total of perhaps a half-dozen trout didn’t mat-ter. I could see the trout there, sparkling and flashing in thesunlight filtered through the trees or moving hardly at all inthe deep shadows. I could make out the tiny insects on the sur-face, above the surface, in the water, on the rocks at the bottom.I didn’t know what they were, but that didn’t matter. The airwas full of the odors of the trees and the dampness of leaf lit-ter and moss. I felt the shocking cold water and heard the gen-tle sounds it made as it swished and sighed between rocks andbrushed overhanging branches. I could understand JohnDenver singing, “You fill up my senses like a night in a forest.”Ah, ambience!As I reminisced on that epiphany Sunday afternoon—and

finished another cabernet—I began to realize that over theyears, the ambience of Pine Creek (and later Clark’s Creek) hadsubtly and inexorably been growing inside me and had proba-bly turned me into something of a pompous snob when itcame to fishing. But I also realized that although, conceptual-ly, “ambience” aptly covered the combination of sensory effectsI was hostage to, there had been more at work. Eventually, Iadded milieu to help more fully characterize my state of mindbefore epiphanization. This may be hard to follow, but I thinkit needs to be explained.

Milieu: The physical or social setting in whichsomething occurs or develops.

As I worked it all out, I concluded that in addition to thesensory factors that were tucked away in my cerebral recessesand which sprang to life when even subtly stimulated, therewas also an accompanying combination of physical and inter-personal factors that further defined my overall infatuation withwhat I earlier referred to as my Pine Creek/Clark’s Creek ambi-ence. In plain terms, there was now a special gestalt-like PineCreek/Clark’s Creek milieu to which the Pine Creek/Clark’sCreek ambience contributed. Clear?Of all the pieces embedded in that special milieu, the two

that were always there, interacting in indefinable ways, were the

trout in the streams and me! Whenever I experienced one of myPine Creek/Clark’s Creek semiconscious out-of-body relapses, Iwas engulfed by all the special sounds, odors, lights—that is, theambience—and I, in person, was there, fully equipped andstalking the chimera in the water with me. What had started outyears ago as just strong memories of special places had coa-lesced into something cosmic and personal, to be understood, ifat all possible, only by someone in Sedona or, possibly, inDenver or California. But I can offer some insight about whatplayed the major part in all of it.

While it was certainly the physical/sensory combinationof Pine Creek and the canyon that had created theoriginal underlying ambience, the totality of the

ambience/milieu had evolved to include the right tackle andeverything to go with it: an Orvis rod, reel, line, tippets, vest,waders, shirt, hat, sunglasses, wading staff, gloves, prescriptioninsect repellant. Ambience/milieu had expanded exponentially.It engulfed all the things I needed to be there fishing. In plainterms, it equaled Pine Creek plus canyon plus railroad plusthousands of dollars in equipment and tackle. My own experi-ences there, all the things I had read, all that I had seen in cata-logs and stores, everything I had heard in the tackle shopsaround Pine Creek, the mystique of the trout, had all morphedinto a single cosmos, and I was in the center of it. And this allbecame the same with Clark’s Creek.The report of the fishing contest I mentioned earlier—very

earlier, in fact—covers twenty-four categories of fish, and thereis a first- and a second-place winner chosen on the basis oflength and weight (for the fish, that is). In addition, the lure orbait used to catch the fish is listed, along with where the fishwas caught. The two winners in each category are rewarded byhaving their names immortalized in -point agate type at thebottom of a page which is percent devoted to a report on areally important outdoor event. On that Sunday, the featurestory was a report, including pictures, on the latest coyote “har-vesting” tournament in which the winning—or, more appro-priately, the losing—coyote weighed in at about pounds.

The original Pine Creek Bridge, River Road, spanning Pine Creek in Lycoming County,was built in . It is shown here in . Photo by Jet Lowe. From the Historic

American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic AmericanLandscapes Survey Collection, Library of Congress, call number HAER PA-- (CT).

The contest report is hierarchical in that the placement ofthe species tends to imply a class structure among them. Trout(brook, brown, rainbow, and golden rainbow) are first. Bass,pickerel, muskies, walleyes, and pan fish are next, followed bybottom feeders, including carp. Last in the contest hierarchy isthe bullhead catfish, one notch lower than the flathead catfish.Fish entered in the contest have to be registered at designatedofficial sites or, providing that there are reliable witnesses to theweight and length measurements, released after being caught.There is a category for carp caught by hook and line, and onefor carp taken by bow and arrow, to which catch and releaseprobably does not apply.It was obvious that trout are considered the top of the line,

the elite, among the species. But the Harrisburg Sunday paperis not alone in consciously or otherwise promoting this classstructure. What species other than trout gets artists to submitentries to an annual fishing license trout stamp contest? Isthere a NASCAR-like Troutmasters tournament on TV? I won’tgo so far as to suggest a conspiracy, but there is something outthere that determines how trout are portrayed in publications,art, and other media. They are shown beautifully patternedwith dots and stripes and strange squiggles in a wide spectrumof vivid or subdued colors, discretely sipping tiny emergers offthe surface, swimming with easy grace in idyllic streams andlakes, or lying in shaded secluded lairs beneath overhangingbranches of laurel or hemlock. Sometimes you can almost seea smug superior trout smirk. Anglers attempting to catch troutare shown stalking upstream toward a rising trout, bent overunder the weight of a lanyard full of tools and, possibly, penta-grams, wearing designer waders, peering through space-agesunglasses, waving a rod of composite material weighing nextto nothing, and deftly flicking a specially created fly the size ofa period at just the right place upstream from the fish. Thewhole picture suggests that only subtle, sublimely coordinatedapplication of modern technology and designer equipmenthas a remote chance of catching a trout. You can almost hearPachelbel in the background.

For me, stepping into a hemlock-shaded pool at dusk wasnot fishing. It was a spiritual quest to come in touch withsomething ethereal that resided there. OK, that may be a littleover the top, but you get the idea. However, that view of fish-ing was actually liberating. If I did not catch anything—almostalways the case—I accepted it humbly and vowed to keep try-ing (although deep inside I knew I was overmatched).

After a few years of toiling and responsibilities (actually, itwas probably close to twenty), I returned to Pine Creekone summer day—not on a fishing trip, just passing

through Tioga County on the way to somewhere else. I havenever gone back since then, especially to fish. The train throughthe canyon is gone, the tracks torn up. Bicyclists and anglers onbikes can ride the length of the gorge, right alongside thestream. Businesses run wagon rides and overnight campingtrips there. When the water is high enough, flotillas of canoesand rafts float down Pine Creek. It isn’t wild; it’s commercial.And then, after a forced hiatus of perhaps ten years in my

trout fishing, I made my last fishing trip to Clark’s. I went tofish the upper fly-fishing section, where the hemlocks and lau-rel are really wild and dark and where the fish are scary andparticular; where my only chance of catching one was by acci-dent; but where the ambience that Pine Creek once had couldstill be relived.I was disillusioned at the parking area. I had to squeeze into a

small space beside an overflowing trash can. I was further disil-lusioned as I walked across the fields to the stream. Three peo-ple were walking toward me from the stream; three were farahead walking toward the water. I engaged in the usual small talkwith the three who were coming from the stream, asking themabout what flies were working, how the water was, what theaction was. No flies were working, they said, the water was fine,there was no action. This didn’t bother me too much because Ididn’t expect to catch anything and I had an abundance ofembedded ambience bulging in the right side of my brain.I made it to the stream, put on a fly I thought might work

(really just a guess), and waded a few feet out from the bank.That was as far as I got.Upstream from me yards or so was one fisherman. About

the same distance up from him was someone else. Then therewere two more abreast another short distance ahead. As far asI could see, people were lined up out to the vanishing point ininfinity. Looking downstream, I saw the same lineup. I left andhave never been back.Memories, especially really good ones, are restless; they just

keep waking up from their special places in your mind.Ambience is the same. An accidental glance at a hemlock tree,and all of a sudden you are back thirty years in Pine Creek orstanding in the shadows on the bank of Clark’s Creek. But thenthe reality sets in that such ambience can’t be restored or evenapproximated anymore. For me, the ambience I rememberedovershadowed everything else about fishing, especially catch-ing fish; the new reality became overwhelmingly negative andprevented me from finding a new source of it anywhere else Ifished. So I pretty much stopped serious fishing. Simply put,the loss of the Pine Creek/Clark’s Creek ambience combina-tion had destroyed my interest in fishing.After retiring, instead of using my leisure time to go fishing,

I spent most of it reading or working outside or buildingthings—this, in spite of living only ten minutes by car from theSusquehanna or Yellow Breeches and twenty minutes fromPinchot Park Lake. Sporadically, I went to one of these placesand gave it a try, but the drive I once had to fish was just notthere anymore. I suppose enthusiasm is subject to aging, but itcan’t be that great a force. I still have all my youthful passionfor scallops and medium-rare prime rib. No, I believe that my

From Genio Scott, Fishing in American Waters,(New York: The American News Company, ), .

irrationally high feelings about Pine Creek and Clark’s Creekmade other experiences less than worth the time and energythey required. I came close to being a nonfisherman—but onewith a whole lot of equipment and tackle.

Now all this deep personal background I have sharedabout my Pine Creek/Clark’s Creek ambience was togive the context for my epiphanizing experience that

Sunday morning when I was casually reading about the fishingcontest results and was traumatized by what was there in frontof me.I had glanced at the overall set of results, then concentrated

on some specifics about sizes and weight and then on what hadbeen used to take the largest, especially the largest in the upperclasses—that is, the trout. And there I saw that a -inch browntrout had been taken on a WHITE MINIATURE MARSH-MALLOW (caps, italics, boldface, and underlining added torepresent loud screaming). Then I saw that a -inch rainbowhad been tricked into taking a SALMON-PEACH–COLOREDPOWER BAIT, and that the winning brook trout fell forCANNED CORN!My immediate thought was that the results had been mixed

up, and what I was looking at for trout really belonged to thebottom-feeder caste and I would see that a carp had been takenon a no. midge or a flathead catfish had been tricked by astonefly nymph. But not so. I fought the reality of what I hadread, but the results were right there in agate type under thecoyote harvest story. And let’s face it, if something gets printedin a Sunday newspaper, it must be true. In a nanosecond, I wasfaced with the reality that the perceptive, dignified, mysticalcreatures I had believed trout to be could be taken in by minia-ture white marshmallows, salmon-peach–colored power bait,or canned corn. I had been epiphanized!Later, during my post-epiphanization self-analysis, I felt the

freedom that is ascribed in the Bible as the outcome of learn-ing the truth. I now saw as misguided all the guilt, frustration,and sense of inadequacy that I had felt when my offerings ofpoorly tied flies, ineptly presented, were ignored by trout. Iwasn’t dealing with sophisticates seated in aquatic upscalerestaurants; I was dealing with lazy laborers waiting in line fora big McMarshmallow or a slider of power bait or a side ofgeneric-brand canned corn (probably yellow). What a waste ofyears, money, and psychological imprisonment. Not only had I

been pursuing trout under the most challenging, sometimesperilous conditions, trying to catch them on something theydidn’t want, but at the same time I had not been pursuing bassand other fish right around home. In those twenty or moreyears of fishing inactivity, I might have caught a dozen, maybemore than a dozen, bass.Well, about midnight, after going back over all of the results

one more time, I accepted reality and planned to move on in life.No longer was I going to be denied the pleasure of fishingbecause of a Pine Creek/Clark’s Creek gestaltic ambience/milieu.I vowed to make the most of what was close to home: theSusquehanna, the Yellow Breeches, Pinchot Park Lake, maybeeven the Highspire reservoir or a section of the Union Canal.But I realized that someone as old as I am can’t be totally

protected from the past, from a chance backward step into youknow what. So I created a motto of sorts to guide me, and Iplan to have it embroidered on my fishing vest, my caps, andthe front of my waders and have it delicately etched into thelenses of my glasses. The motto is simply THWA. In bold cap-ital letters, it reads TO HELL WITH AMBIENCE. But because I have several hundred cubic feet of a basement

room filled with thousands of hooks, boxes full of feathers andfurs, several high-tech vises, miles of specialized threads, and asafe filled with exotic glues, enamels, and resins, I have chosento challenge the fish, especially trout, with artificial versions ofwhat it is they prefer. In fact, I have already tied up some real-ly great-looking patterns of power bait and one of silver queenwhite corn, all in sizes from through . And, although I willuse the fly rods I already have for most species, the flathead cat-fish, which sometimes reaches pounds and feeds on wholesunfish, will require something more. So, I have ordered a -foot Spey rod from Scotland and have enrolled in a Spey-cast-ing course. I admit that I have some concern about using theSpey while in my -foot canoe, and my attempts to tie a full-size sunfish imitation have not been very successful so far. ButI have plenty of time to work things out.I have also set up an ambience hotline to help others who

may already be infected with ambience/milieu disease. Thenumber to call is -THWA.Because some readers may want to know how my new life in

and on the waters works out, I plan to send an update in abouta year. Providing all goes well with the Spey in the canoe.

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From Geo. M. Kelson, The Salmon Fly(London: Wyman & Songs Ltd., ), .

AMFF Announces New Ambassadors

Courtesy of Rebekka Redd

Courtesy of Mike Rice

Courtesy of Rachel Finn

Rebekka Redd is TV host of Canada’s The New Fly Fisher.Her career embraces fly fishing, teaching, photography, theoutdoors, travel, and film. A fly fisher, artist, accomplishedequestrian, conservationist, humanitarian, animal advocate,and author, Rebekka is a competitive martial artist with ablack belt in tae kwon do. She fly fishes as much as possibleand enjoys sharing her passion for the sport.

Mike Rice lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where he issole proprietor of Mud Dog Saltwater Flies. He began tyingcommercially in with the objective to turn out simpleflies that are proven to catch fish, be durable, and be part ofsomeone’s fishing stories. Mike first sold flies to guides, then toa few local shops; eventually he opened an online store(www.muddogflies.com). He teaches fly-tying classes and takesgreat joy in his students catching fish on flies they’ve tiedthemselves. “In fly tying and in my own fishing, it has neverbeen about the number of catches or the size of the fish,” hesays. “It is the stories, the experiences, the places, the people,and the fish themselves that keep me doing this.”

Rachel Finn is a Federation of Fly Fishers certified instruc-tor and a fixture in the Adirondack guide circuit, now as headguide at the Hungry Trout Fly Shop in Wilmington, New York.After ten reputable years, she retired from guiding summertrips in Alaska. Rachel is a Patagonia ambassador and holdspro staff positions for Scott Fly Rods, Airflo, Nautilus, andLund Boats. She has appeared on ESPN’s Great Outdoor Gamesand the Outdoor Life Network’s Fly Fishing Masters. Anaccomplished artist, Rachel’s works have been shown in NewYork City galleries. She currently enjoys the challenge of Speyfishing and “being humiliated by Great Lakes steelhead” andsteelhead from “other destinations yet to come.”

T ’ A P was created in to expand our outreach and augment membershipnationwide by raising awareness of the museum, its mis-

sion, and programs. We profiled our first seven ambassadors inthe Fall (vol. , no. ) and Summer (vol. , no. )issues. We now welcome seven more.

Derek Olthuis was raised in northwestern Montana. At theage of eight, his uncle introduced him to fly fishing on theGallatin River. Derek has since fished around the world, chas-ing anything that swims, but his main loves are trout and char.He is most passionate about teaching the sport to others. As aguide and instructor, he hopes to help each client learn anddevelop skills to better understand trout behavior and tech-niques to catch them. When he’s not guiding, Derek can befound taking pictures or filming for the IF4 Film Festival. He isan ambassador for Loop Tackle, Kast Gear, and Tacky FlyFishing, as well as a field tester for Orvis. If you see him on thewater, don’t hesitate to ask for or give him some fly-fishingadvice. He believes fly fishing is a sport in which there is alwayssomething more to learn.

Peter Kutzer grew up on a small farm in southern Vermontfishing ponds and rivers close to his backyard. In , hebegan work as a fly-fishing instructor and guide for the OrvisCompany’s fly-fishing school in Manchester, Vermont. As anOrvis adventures specialist, Peter creates technique- andspecies-specific fly-fishing schools in places as diverse asVermont, the Florida Keys, the western United States, Canada,and the Caribbean. Techniques include single-handed castingfor trout and bonefish and two-handed casting for salmon andsteelhead. He is well versed in both fresh and salt water with afly rod. When he’s not teaching specialty schools, you can findPeter giving casting tips on Orvis’s online video presentations,“Ask a Fly-Fishing Instructor.”

Courtesy of Derek Olthius

Courtesy of Peter Kutzer

Peter Jaacks was raised casting a fly rod and rowing a raftdown the rivers of the Rocky Mountains. While earning his B.A.from Colorado State University, he broadened his horizons asan outdoorsman, leading trips into the backcountry with theCSU Outdoor Club. It was there that he realized his passion forsharing the wilderness with others. After finishing school, heventured to Alaska and began guiding the state’s remote west-ern rivers with Wild River Guides. He now spends summersguiding in Alaska and as much time as possible in the wilder-ness pursuing salmon and trout on the fly. When not in Alaska,Peter calls Montana home and plies its waters for wild trout.

Jeremy Koreski

After discovering fly fishing in her teens, April Vokey soondedicated her entire life to the pursuit, which eventually cul-minated in her founding Fly Gal Ventures in . She hassince established herself as a respected authority in the sportand has traveled the globe in pursuit of game fish on a fly rod.April’s writings have appeared in numerous industry publica-tions, including Fly Fisherman, Fly Rod & Reel, and FlyFusion magazines. She wrote and hosted Shorelines with AprilVokey on the World Fishing Network, a series that focuses onfly fishing’s rich history and its people. Feeling limited by air-time, she branched out with her podcast, Anchored with AprilVokey, an uncensored series dedicated to archiving the storiesand personalities from some of the sport’s most influentialpeople. April is a Federation of Fly Fishers certified castinginstructor, a fly-tying instructor, and an active conservationist.

As the program grows, we hope to establish ambassadors across the country tobetter connect with fly-fishing communities nationwide. Our goal is to establisheight districts across the United States and assign at least one ambassador to eachto more efficiently optimize membership development and growth.We seek ambassador candidates who embody our mission, reflect our initia-

tives, and inspire the sport of fly fishing. If you or someone you know would makea strong ambassador candidate based on knowledge, experience, expertise, andindustry alliances, please contact us at -- or pnardini@amff.com.

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Courtesy of Peter Jaacks

T A M of Fly Fishing honored TedTurner with the museum’s Heritage Award at theRacquet and Tennis Club in New York City on May .

The award honors and celebrates individuals and organiza-tions whose commitment to the museum, the sport of fly fish-ing, and the conservation of our natural resources set stan-dards to which we all should aspire. Ted Turner is an American media mogul who began his

career in with Turner Advertising Company. Subsequently,he launched TBS and the superstation concept, and purchasedthe Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks. He started CNN in and continued the next two decades with unrivaled televisionand entertainment brands (TNT, Cartoon Network, TimeWarner Cable, and more). Aside from being an entrepreneurial mastermind, Turner is

an extremely influential philanthropist who supports cleanenergy, improvement of water and air quality, wildlife habitatprotection, and the safeguard of environmental health. Overthe past several decades, he has established multiple founda-tions in support of these efforts, including Captain PlanetFoundation, Turner Endangered Species Fund, Nuclear ThreatInstitute, and the United Nations Foundation (founded withhis billion-dollar gift). His efforts have been recognizedthrough many industry awards and civic honors, includingmultiple lifetime achievement awards, and he has been recog-nized as Angler of the Year by Fly Rod & Reelmagazine and Manof the Year by Timemagazine. Turner is both a true ambassadorfor the sport of fly fishing and a steward of natural resources,and AMFF is pleased to honor him for his commitment.This successful Heritage Award celebration would not have

been possible without Honorary Chairs Leigh and AnniePerkins and Event Committee members Dave Beveridge, PeterBowden, Dayton Carr, Tom Davidson, Karen Kaplan, ErikOken, Fred Polhemus, Robert Scott, and Warren Stern.Additionally, many thanks to guest auctioneer Nick Dawes;master of ceremonies Karen Kaplan; Beau Turner, Ted’s son,who narrated the tribute video; and Gary Jobson, who was aninsightful and entertaining guest speaker. We would also like to thank the Leadership Circle, including

Mike Bakwin, Foster Bam and Sallie Baldwin, David J.Beveridge, Peter Bowden and Jefferies LLC., Dayton Carr, Markand Arlene Comora, Charles Patrick Durkin Jr., David B. Ford,George and Beth Gibson, Alan and Linda Gnann, Tim Hixon,Summerfield Johnston, Art Kaemmer, Karen Kaplan, RobinMcGraw and the Black Rock Foundation, the Moore CharitableFoundation, Erik and Jennifer Oken, Leigh and Annie Perkins,Eric Roberts, Robert and Karen Scott, Nick Selch, Hewitt B.Shaw, Warren and Susan Stern, Ted Turner Enterprises/TurnerFoundation, Richard and Marye Tisch, Andrew Ward, JamesWolfensohn, and Nancy and Alan Zakon.Our gratitude is extended to Fred Polhemus for the dona-

tion of his new book, Arthur Shilstone: A Lifetime of Drawingand Painting, and Scientific Anglers for their fly line, eachreceived by all the attendees.We would also like to acknowledge master fly tier Roger

Plourde for his beautiful and original salmon fly, Sir Ted, fea-tured in the framed award given to the honoree.Finally, we greatly appreciate the individuals and businesses

who supported and donated items for the live and silent auc-tions: -Tand Reels, Above All Vermont, E. M. Bakwin, Peter

Basta, Jim Becker, Berkshire Rivers, Bighorn Angler Fly Shop andLodge, Steve and Sandra Bogdan, Cape Neddick Country Club,the Clark, Collectors Covey, Mark Comora, Cortland LineCompany, Costa Del Mar, Tom Davidson, Bert Darrow, RachelFinn, Adam Franceschini, E. and J. Gallo Winery, George Gibson,Gringo Jack’s, Eleanore Hayes, Healing Waters Lodge, Hunting &Fishing Collectibles Magazine, Jim Heckman, the HollenbeckClub, the Hungry Trout, the Image Loft, the Inn at Ocean Reef,Killington Resort, Krag Silversmith, Pirate Lanford, Walter Matia,Meadowmere Resort, Mike Monier, John Mundt, Joe Mustari,North Platte Lodge, Northshire Bookstore, Ogunquit Museum ofAmerican Art, Orvis, Jack Pittard, El Pescador, Fred Polhemus,REC Components, Rio Products, Ryegrass Ranch OwnersAssociation, Taf Schaefer, Simms, Arthur Shilstone, the Taconic,Richard Tisch, Jacques and Hasty Torres, Three Forks Ranch, TedTurner, Ted Turner Expeditions, Thomas & Thomas, UrbanAngler, George Van Hook, and Paul Volcker. The evening began with a cocktail reception and silent auc-

tion. Guests then moved into dinner, where they were wel-comed by AMFF President Karen Kaplan. The museumdebuted a video documenting Ted Turner’s love of fly fishingand his deep commitment to his family, philanthropy, and thenatural world. The live auction followed with Nick Dawes. Hischarm and expertise, combined with the generosity of theattendees, raised more than $, from the items donated,including two lunches with former Secretary of State PaulVolcker. An additional $, was added to the live auctiontotal with the paddle raise to support the AMFF digital initia-tive. We hope to start in early with a dedicated staff mem-ber scanning photographs and historical documents from ourcollection to be made available online. Gary Jobson then spokeand paid tribute to his friend and fellow sailor, Ted Turner. Atthe end of the evening, Karen Kaplan presented Turner with theHeritage Award. He received a standing ovation. AMFF wouldlike to thank everyone for making the evening such a success.More than $, was raised for museum programs.

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Ted Turner Receives Heritage Award

AMFF Board President Karen Kaplan presentingthe Heritage Award to Ted Turner.

Photos by Jack McCoy except where noted

Ted Turner and Sally Ranney being greetedby Gary Jobson, Karen Kaplan, and Leigh Perkins.

Paul Volcker chats with Leigh and Annie Perkins before dinner.

Ted Turner accepting the Heritage Award.

Lorraine McGinn, Joan Wulff, and Carol Swiftdemonstrate their casting form.

SaraWilcox

The Sir Ted, created and tied by master flytier Roger Plourde in honor of Ted Turner.

L C born on a farm in Missouri in and arrived in Cortland, New York, on a Greyhound busthe summer of , with all of his worldly possessions in

a cardboard suitcase. He came to visit the family of a cousinand never left. He worked in the furniture department atMontgomery Ward until he answered a newspaper ad andjoined the Cortland Line Company on December —five daysafter Pearl Harbor. After serving in the Signal Corps in the Philippines and New

Guinea during World War II, Chandler returned to CortlandLine Company and worked his way up to the sales department.He soon became a fixture at the trade shows that were gainingpopularity in the sporting goods industry after the war. As hisprofile as a presenter and teacher grew, the U.S. Department ofCommerce approached Chandler to teach fishing (not just onthe fly—there’s one story of his using a bait-casting rod to snapcigarettes out of people’s mouths) to residents of foreign coun-tries in hopes of raising awareness of American angling prod-ucts and promoting the American model of fisheries manage-ment. He traveled all around the world, from Poland to Chile,bringing the fishing experience to remote places.

Chandler’s travels earned him the moniker of fly-fishingambassador to the world, but he made key contributions athome as well. He became vice president of the Cortland LineCompany, ushering in some of the most important and lastinginnovations of the twentieth century. In , Cortland intro-duced the series of fly line (billed as “the unsinkable line”),which was the first to use polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a thincoating over braided nylon—a major improvement over oil-based lines. The coming decades brought even more innovation to fly

lines, and Chandler kept Cortland at the forefront of the for-ever-changing technological landscape of core materials,weights, and temperature ratings. His business acumen andmarketing expertise led to his involvement with the AmericanFishing Tackle Manufacturers Association (AFTMA), and heserved as its president for two years. He was also active in theconservation community, serving as president of TroutUnlimited for two years and on its board of directors foranother twenty-two. In , Chandler was elected to theFreshwater Hall of Fame and received its Dolphin Award, oneof the highest honors in sport fishing.

Leon Chandler:Fly-Fishing Ambassador to the World

Leon Chandler and his wife, Margaret, with the Japanese sculptor Shin Hongo,who took one of Chandler’s fly-fishing clinics. Photo courtesy of Kim Chandler.

In , after more than fifty years, Chandler retired fromCortland Line Company. Not one to sit around, he bought amotor home and fished his way across the country. Betweentrips and popping in at Cortland from time to time, the homeon wheels always seemed to return to a familiar locale on theMissouri River, one of his favorite fishing spots, which he oftenfloated with sons Kim and Jeff and his grandsons. Chandlerpassed away in at the age of eighty-one. Leon Chandler could cast a fly just as gracefully and far as

other legends of the sport and could have promoted his per-sonal brand as did others in the industry, but he was truly in itfor the experience. He appreciated the great opportunities thathis fly-fishing life afforded him, the places that it took him, andthe company it kept. Being able to cast in the backdrop of NewYork City lights, behind the Iron Curtain, and in Japan wasenough for Chandler. He was a phenomenal teacher, to the pointthat Field & Stream magazine called him fly fishing’s JohnnyAppleseed on account of the diverse group of people he reachedduring his travels around the globe. Showing up at a demon-stration in a foreign land, he took the look of amazement onpeople’s faces who had never seen a fly rod, much less witnessedits grace, and turned it into a look of joy when they got to expe-rience and learn it for themselves. Chandler was an even bigger celebrity in Japan than he was in

the States, and his image and lessons continue to be used to influ-ence the fishing culture there. In the early s, fly fishers inJapan were few. As a direct result of Chandler’s clinics and cast-ing demonstrations, fly fishing in Japan is now commonplace.

At home in the United States, Chandler was called upon foradvice from such notables as Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, JimmyCarter, Merlin Olsen, Ben Johnson, Bobby Bare, and Ernest Gallo. Leon’s son, Kim Chandler, tells a story of how he, his father,

and his brother Jeff walked into a fly shop in Craig, Montana,and noticed two Japanese men getting outfitted with gear. Oncethe two men took notice of Chandler, they rushed over andwere so excited it was as if they had met the president of theUnited States. They insisted on having their picture taken withhim. Kim also told a story of how, when Leon was traveling outof his motor home and fishing on the Missouri River, he acci-dentally snagged an entire length of line with a fish still attachedto it. What’s more, he recognized it as Cortland . After set-ting the fish free, he went to a local fly shop and told them toask around to see if someone was missing their fly line, leavinghis contact information. Sure enough, Chandler received a calla couple of months later from a gentleman in New York towhom the line belonged. Chandler met up with him and gavehim a tour of the Cortland factory. This story epitomizes Leon Chandler. Yes, he enjoyed and

deeply appreciated his travels abroad, but he could also makean adventure out of something as ordinary as snagging some-one’s fly line. Most anglers would have left the line, taken it forthemselves, or dumped it in the trash, but Chandler searchedfor its owner, thereby sharing his own experience and makinga complete stranger’s day.

P NC C

A letter of appreciation to Leon Chandler from PresidentJimmy Carter. Photo courtesy of Kim Chandler.

Chandler spent time on the bank carefully watching for a risingfish before starting the stalk. He adopted the quote from baseballgreat Yogi Berra: “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Photo courtesy of Kim Chandler.

T on this fine new book features a photo-graph of a kindly looking older gentleman smiling aslight, but satisfied, smile. The image embossed in gold

on the book cover itself is that of a mayfly, probably a RedQuill or a Hendrickson. The two images personify the storywithin, which recounts the life of the man and confirms hissignificant contributions to the pastime of fly fishing. As it istold, Art Flick was pleasant and likable, with a comfortable,engaging, and friendly personality that drew others to his com-pany. He was an astute observer of nature and wildlife, in par-ticular that living beneath the surface of trout streams. Hemerged those traits to create a remarkable and productive life. The new book is a biography, written as though told by a

close friend or family member, easy to read and digest, andenjoyable throughout. Although the author, Roger Keckeissen,grew up spending some time as a youth in the Catskills, hespent the majority of his life in Idaho and Montana. He knewFlick primarily through an awareness of his work and reputa-tion. He wrote the book after failing in his last attempt to con-vince Flick to write it himself. With no prior experience as anauthor, Keckeissen did a fine job. No doubt his presentation ofthe subject is a more honest and generous appraisal of Flick’sinfluence on fly fishing than modesty would have allowed hadit been done as an autobiography. Art Flick did not considerhimself to be particularly special or unique. In his preface, the author notes that he wanted to portray

the Catskills and the “palpable sense of history and traditionhere so sadly lacking on my adopted rivers in the West” (page). The story of Art Flick’s life (–) provides the readerwith a delicious smorgasbord of fly fishing’s foundations inAmerica. Reading this book may well provoke a curiosity toexplore the charm of the Catskills and to understand andembrace more completely the significant fly-fishing history ofthe area. Art Flick’s father, a Belgian immigrant, owned the Westkill

Tavern in West Kill, New York. Young Art grew up hunting andfishing and guiding clients of the inn. He became an excellentfisherman. Married in his early twenties, he took a city job—

first in Syracuse and then Buffalo—for ten years but returned tothe woods of West Kill in to help manage and eventuallytake over the family business. Fishing almost daily, he beganobserving the entomology of his home water, Schoharie Creek,for which he gained notoriety. He also began his early and effec-tive advocacy for protection and preservation of the streams ofthe region. Word of his work, on both fronts, began to circulatequickly through the fishing and hunting communities.

Roger Keckeissen’s Art Flick,Catskill Legend: A Remembrance

of His Life and Timesby Harry J. Briscoe

Sara Wilcox

In , Flick was invited to make a presentation of hisstream research to the prestigious Anglers’ Club of New York.To his surprise, the presentation led to a call for the work to bepublished. World War II intervened, but the voices remained,and eventually the humble and reluctant author relented.Published in , Art Flick’s Streamside Guide to Naturals andTheir Imitations led anglers of the day to rethink the way theytied and used their flies. As a result, the Westkill Tavern becameone of several famous gathering places for serious fly fishers. Art Flick’s life spanned the golden age of fly fishing in

America, and he crossed paths with many famous names. As hewas developing his own thoughts about fly designs and mate-rials, Rube Cross, the Dettes, and the Darbees were doing thesame, on rivers just a valley or two away. Flick was the prima-ry bug collector for Preston Jennings’s A Book of Trout Flies.Ray Camp, editor of the widely read New York Times outdoorcolumn, and Ray Bergman, fishing editor at Outdoor Life, weremajor Flick friends and supporters. During the glory years of–, George La Branche, Dana Lamb, and Sparse GreyHackle were all visitors to the Westkill Tavern, as were ArnoldGingrich, John Voelker, and Ernie Schwiebert. In later years,Joe Brooks, Lefty Kreh, Charlie Waterman, Dave Whitlock,Nick Lyons, and the team of Swisher and Richards all sharedthoughts and stream banks with Flick. Throughout, Art Flickconsidered himself only a fly tier, a guide, and a friend. Although best known for his highly acclaimed Streamside

Guide and later Art Flick’s Master Fly-Tying Guide, Flick’s con-tributions to conservation and the preservation of the outdoorexperience reach well beyond the trout stream. His personali-ty, demeanor, and passion were complementary traits thatmade him a persuasive and effective agent for change. His cru-sades against bureaucracy and ineffective or misguided poli-cies were well known. Flick was a proponent of efforts to pro-vide public water and limited bag limits (catch-and-releasefishing) many years before those concepts became widelyaccepted. His advocacy for anglers and the resources they enjoy

helped establish organizations such as Trout Unlimited and theFederation of Fly Fishers.The production of this biography itself deserves comment.

The author, Keckeissen, finished the manuscript in .Noted artist and author Russell Chatham discovered the storyin through Flick’s son, William. Chatham enlisted thesupport of two other fly-fishing legends, Catskill expert andFlick friend Ernie Schwiebert and the noted publisher NickLyons. Unfortunately, Schwiebert died in late andKeckeissen in . The project lay dormant until , whenChatham published the book through his own company.Chatham and Lyons each have thoughtful pieces in the intro-duction. The book is richly produced and is a fitting tribute toa fly-fishing legend who deserves the attention. Art Flick did not live quite long enough to learn that he

would be one of the first two inductees into the Catskill FlyFishing Museum’s Hall of Fame. The other was TheodoreGordon—pretty stout company indeed. Following his death,the Catskill Mountains chapter of Trout Unlimited installed abronze plaque on a prominent boulder overlooking one ofFlick’s favorite holes on the Schoharie. An excerpt from thatmemorial reads, “Here we honor a great but humble man whowas a source of goodwill and inspiration to us all.” Enough said.

�

Roger KeckeissenArt Flick, Catskill Legend: A Remembrance of His Life and Times Clark City Press,

$. (hardcover)Copies are available through the museum at www.amff.com. For the collector,limited slip-cased leather editions including a genuine hand-tied Art Flick flyfrom the – era are also available; contact William Flick at hunhaven@wispwest.net for more information.

A copy of Art Flick’s New Streamside Guide to Naturals and TheirImitations, an update published in , and a selection of flies tied byFlick. From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Haslinger Breviary Viewing at the Anglers’Club Both AMFF supporters and bibliophiles new to the museum

gathered at the Anglers’ Club of New York on April to viewthe Haslinger Breviary: a medieval liturgical book containing,on pages originally left blank, the earliest recorded collectionof fly-tying patterns known to exist. Jonathan Reilly, of theantiquarian booksellers Maggs Bros. Ltd. (London), discussedthe book’s history and how it came into their possession, andthere was some lively discussion about fly fishing in the fif-teenth century. At the end of the evening, attendees weredelighted to hear that the breviary had just been sold to YaleUniversity’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library andwill reside in their collection for further study. Medieval scholar Richard Hoffmann’s full text and transla-

tion of the Haslinger Breviary Fishing Tract appears in theSpring issue (vol. , no. ) of this journal.AMFF would like to thank trustees Bill Leary, Nick Selch,

Ron Stuckey, and Richard Tisch for sponsoring the event andtrustee Roger Riccardi of E. & J. Gallo Winery for donating thewine and spirits. Our gratitude also extends to Jonathan Reillyof Maggs for taking time to share this fascinating piece of fly-fishing history with us, and to the Anglers’ Club of New Yorkfor their wonderful hospitality.

Mari Lyons (–)Artist Mari Lyons, who was featured in the museum’s exhib-

it A Graceful Rise: Women in Fly Fishing Yesterday, Today, andTomorrow, died April . Lyons, who worked primarily in oil,studied with the expressionist Max Beckmann at Mills College,the printmaker Stanley William Hayter at Atelier , and theabstract landscape artist Fred Mitchell at the CranbrookAcademy of Art. Her work can be found in the permanent col-lections of the Museum of the City of New York and RiderUniversity, and in more than a hundred private and corporatecollections. She exhibited regularly with First Street Gallery inNew York City.Always ready for an opportunity to sketch, years ago Lyons

accompanied her writer-publisher husband, Nick Lyons, andhis friend, Herb Wellington, when they went fly fishing inMontana. The landscape, the movements, and the anglersinspired Lyons to create a series of watercolors and drawings tocapture the outings. These works were not intended to be illus-trations but were eventually featured in some well-lovedangling books written by her husband, including Spring Creek,A Fly Fisher’s World, Full Creel: A Nick Lyons Reader, and MySecret Fishing Life. Through Lyons’s eye, the grace and beautyof fly fishing were immortalized.Mari Lyons lived in New York City and Woodstock, New

York. We will miss her. Mari Lyons. Photograph courtesy of the Lyons family.

Director of Development Sarah Foster takes a closer lookat the Haslinger Breviary, which was on display at theAnglers’ Club of New York courtesy of Maggs Bros. and

the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Yoshi A

kiyama

Museum News

Paula Morgan (–)Paula Morgan, better known to her friends and colleagues

as “Stick,” died May . A forty-year resident of southwestVermont, Stick served two stints on the AMFF staff. From to , she was executive assistant to Director John Merwin.In , she returned as a part-time administrative assistant,but quickly became the events coordinator and membershipdirector, a role she served until . Before her museumwork, Stick was on the staff of Fly Fisherman magazine. Overthe years, she owned several small businesses. Longtime muse-um members will no doubt remember Paula Morgan’s sharpwit and cheerfulness, and share in our feelings of loss.

Recent Donations to the CollectionTed Sypher of Chenango Forks, New York, donated a set of

his Kelsey brook trout flies in generational patterns: Original,Improved, and Trolling. Chico Fernandez of Miami, Florida, sent us three books he

authored: The FisHair Saltwater Tying Guide (FisHair Incor -porated, ), Fly-Fishing for Bonefish (Stackpole Books,), and Fly-Fishing for Redfish (Stackpole Books, ).Fred Polhemus of Shelburne, Vermont, gave us copies of hisbook, Arthur Shilstone: A Lifetime of Drawing & Painting (Tide-mark Press, Ltd., ), both a library edition and a limited edi-tion (no. of ).Jim Heckman of Manchester, Vermont, donated collections

of Field & Stream and Antique Anglermagazines. For a detailedlisting, contact the museum.

Sara W

ilcox

Much like baseball players, fly fishers need a little tune-upbefore the new season starts! At the museum’s Spring

Training program on April , children were introduced tofly tying by creating decorative clown flies and crafted theirown practice rods to take home. Expert tiers Paul Sinicki,Kelly Bedford, and Henry Hall were on hand to demonstratehow to tie like the pros, and there was a table filled with gearto buy in anticipation of the new fishing season! AMFFwishes to extend heartfelt thanks to all who volunteered

and attended to make this event such a success.

Paula Morgan in a staff photograph.

Kathleen Achor

Upcoming Events

Events take place on the museum grounds inManchester, Vermont, unless otherwise noted.

July Celebrate National Ice Cream Day! Fly-fishing activities and free ice cream: p.m.–: p.m.

August th Annual Fly-Fishing Festival: A Taste of the Great Outdoors: a.m.–: p.m.

September Members-Only EventRare Read Rendezvous: p.m.–: p.m.

September SmithsonianMagazine Museum Day Live!Free admission with a Museum Day Live! ticket

October Fall Foliage Fiesta: a.m.–: p.m.Complimentary cider, donuts, and member gift

October Annual Membership MeetingTaconic HotelManchester, Vermont: a.m.

October Izaak Walton Award Event honoring James ProsekNew York City

December Gallery ProgramHooked on the Holidays: p.m.–: p.m.

Always check our website (www.amff.com) for additions, updates,and more information or contact () - orevents@amff.com. “Casting About,” the museum’s e-mail newslet-ter, offers up-to-date news and event information. To subscribe,look for the link on our website or contact the museum.

Keith Harwood retired from full-time teaching in the summer of . He thentaught Latin and Greek part time for a few months at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuitfoundation where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was apupil and the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was a teacher. Harwood now spends histime writing, fishing, fly dressing, and helping to look after his three grandchildren.His most recent books are Fish and Fishers of the Lake District (Medlar Press, ),The Angler in Scotland (Medlar Press, ), and Angling Books: A Collector’s Guide(Coch-y-Bonddu Books, ). He is currently working on a history of trout fish-ing in Shetland. Harwood’s most recent contribution to this journal was “JohnBuchan: Angler and Governor-General of Canada,” which appeared in Winter ;Medlar Press will publish his book about Buchan and angling this year.

David Hatwell began training as a design draughtsman in London in andlater studied graphic design as a mature student at Plymouth College of Art, inDevon. In he formed a small interior design company, with seven staff, in thehistoric market town of Tavistock situated on the western edge of Dartmoor. Davidlives with his wife, a retired community nurse, in the idyllic setting of the TamarValley, where they raised their three children. He enjoys fishing for sea trout andAtlantic salmon in the spate waters of the nearby Tamar and Tavy rivers. He is pas-sionately interested in book design and illustration and is currently studying craftbookbinding at the Dartington Bindery.

Tommy Hatwell

Jon Ward-Allen

D. W. McGary spent more than forty-three years in public education inLancaster, Pennsylvania, teaching chemistry and later serving as the district’s K–coordinator of science. After retiring in , Dan and his wife Thelma moved toNew Cumberland, Pennsylvania, where they live miles from the SusquehannaRiver and miles from the nearest stretch of the Yellow Breeches Creek. The com-bination of leisure time and close proximity to varied waters allows him to pursuenot only fish but his fishing heritage in the area where he grew up during the GreatDepression and the years of World War II. McGary’s previous article for this jour-nal, “Challenges and Delights: Fishing the Susquehanna at Steelton in ,”appeared in the Summer issue.

Thelma McGary

T , we lost Bill Herrick, one of the culture car-riers for the American Museum of Fly Fishing. Bill wastruly a Renaissance man; he was a sculptor, an artist, a

poet, and a world-class fisherman. He cared deeply about themuseum and worked quietly in the background for decades toassure its success and stability. My earliest memory of Bill is really of Bill and his wife,

Phyllis, the gregarious entertaining proprietors of Pierre’s GateGallery in Manchester, Vermont. We became friends in ,and the gallery was always on our itinerary, even if we wereonly in town for a day or two. We would talk about town pol-itics, current affairs, and, of course, art.Our friendship took on a new dimension in the summer of

when Bill invited us to join him and Phyllis at the twenty-fifth-anniversary dinner for AMFF at Hildene. It was a won-derful evening of camaraderie and tall tales, but because it wasoutside on the veranda, it got a bit cool for August. By night’sclose, we were huddled under the tablecloths, which Billthought was great fun, like Cub Scouts camping out in thebackyard. When Karen and I got married in , Bill and Phyllis gave

us two flowering crabapple trees and had them planted outsideour bedroom window. Bill wrote a poem about watching thetrees grow and flower just as our marriage would becomemore beautiful with each passing year. That poem, handwrit-ten by Bill, still hangs over our bed. Of course Bill loved to fly fish, and he loved to share his

experience and skill with his fishing buddies. I remember fish-ing well after dark one summer evening on the Batten Kill.While I struggled, Bill stood silently, mid-river, casting quicklyto the sound of brown trout rising in the blackness; he caughtfish after fish. Bill loved good food and good wine. We used to alternate

hosting dinners between our house and Bill and Phyllis’s, justthe four of us. Bill and I would usually prepare the entrée inour respective homes, and we always shared a great bottle ofwine. But the most entertaining part of those evenings was theconversation. Bill would tell stories of his youth, his World WarII service, or his career and adventures on Madison Avenue. Inturn, he and Phyllis would ask countless questions about myexperience on Wall Street. He was genuinely interested in hisfriends and their lives. While it could have been all about Bill(he was that interesting), it never was. And finally, it is important to realize that as much as Bill loved

fishing, the love of his life was Phyllis. Bill was an accomplished

artist, and he produced countless sketches of women’s faces,many of which bore a striking resemblance to her. Like manyartists, Bill had his lifelong muse and model, and it was Phyllis. Bill is gone now, and we have an aching in our hearts. But

he was with us for a long time, and he touched our lives inways that we will remember forever. When I step into a streamin the future, I will look quickly upstream, just hoping that Billhas waded in above me.

R G. ST

Bill Herrick(–)

Bill Herrick, photographed in Vermont in .© Denver Bryan .

Main Street • PO Box Manchester,Vermont

Tel: () - • Fax: () --: amff@amff.com: www.amff.com

M T isthe steward of the history, traditions, andpractices of the sport of fly fishing and pro-motes the conservation of its waters. Themuseum collects, preserves, exhibits, studies,and interprets the artifacts, art, and literatureof the sport and, through a variety of out-reach platforms, uses these resources toengage, educate, and benefit all.

The museum provides public programs tofulfill its educational mission, including exhi-bitions, publications, gallery programs, andspecial events. Research services are availablefor members, visiting scholars, students, edu-cational organizations, and writers. ContactYoshi Akiyama at yakiyama@amff.com toschedule a visit.

VThroughout the year, the museum needs volun-teers to help with programs, special projects,events, and administrative tasks. You do nothave to be an angler to enjoy working with us!Contact Becki Trudell at btrudell@amff.com totell us how we would benefit from your skillsand talents.

SThe American Museum of Fly Fishing relies onthe generosity of public-spirited individuals forsubstantial support. If you wish to contributefunding to a specific program, donate an itemfor fund-raising purposes, or place an advertise-ment in this journal, contact Sarah Foster atsfoster@amff.com. We encourage you to give themuseum con sideration when planning for gifts,be quests, and memorials.

JMembership Dues (per annum)

Patron ,Sustainer Business Benefactor Associate

The museum is an active, member-orientednonprofit institution. Membership duesinclude four issues of the American Fly Fisher;unlimited visits for your entire family tomuseum exhibitions, gallery programs, andspecial events; access to our ,-volumeangling reference library; and a discount onall items sold by the museum on its websiteand inside the museum store, the BrooksideAngler. To join, please contact SamanthaPitcher at spitcher@amff.com.

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