Fly Fisher - American Museum Of Fly Fishing

The
American
Fly Fisher
Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing
SUMMER
2000
VOLUME
26
NUMBER
3
Summer Time
Sketch bv Charles DeFeo. From the collcct~onof Pamela Bates Rlchards
I
COULD HEAR COMMON YELLOWTHROATS,
but I never got a
look at one. The spotted sandpipers were back, and the orioles were still making nest additions. The cedar waxwings
were actively feeding on the hatch, abruptly turning and hovering. A red-winged blackbird, no doubt defending its nest,
was becoming as fierce as two of the fiercer animals, all but
attacking me. My husband had just caught the biggest rainbow
trout either of us had personally seen come out of this river,
but that was the only fish action of the night. (What action it
was though . . .)
It was the end of May and only my second time out.
How could that be? (Actually, I know the answer to that.)
Last summer, John Mundt dropped by to pitch his idea for an
article about summers in Belgrade, Maine, back in the days
when the upper class would come to sporting destinations and
stay for the entire season. We talked about articles like this
being a form of time voyeurism. Many of us have indeed
become time voyeurs.
And now that article is ready for publication. "Gilded
Summers in Belgrade, Maine" gives us a history of the place and
shares some vacation ephemera-postcards, brochures-of the
time. So pull up your Adirondack chair and open to page 2.
We are thrilled to be offering fishing stories far from the
Northeast as well. "Angling in the Pecos River Headwaters: The
Development of Fly Fishing in Northern New Mexico" pre-
sents a history of fly fishing in that area of the country.
Merideth A. Hmura and G. William Fowler then elaborate to
tell the more specific story of Mountain View Ranch (the oldest and largest of the ranches of the area) and the cast of characters associated with it, focusing primarily on the early 1900s.
The photos are from the collection of Matie Viles: more than
2,006 photographs that Hmura is scanning, sorting, and
archiving. This article begins on page 12.
I was recently viewing a film performance of Othello, when
something Iago said made me think of fly fishing. How this
could happen to me will be made clear when you read Gordon
M. Wickstrom's "The Tups Indispensable: Dubbing Dilemma"
on page 18.
Our Festival Weekend has come and gone. It is always an
exciting time for us here at the Museum. Staff gets to meet
trustees (and welcome author John Mundt to the board). I get
to meet writers and experts I've only spoken with on the
phone. I get to cast one of Fred Kretchman's bamboo fly rods
and dream of the day I have one of my own-which should be
next season. Despite a camera glitch, we do have a few photos
from the event, beginning on page 20.
May you be able to give time more than a passing glance this
summer.
Preserving the Heritage
of Fly Fishing
T R U S T E E S
E. M. Bakwin John Mundt
Michael Bakwin Wayne Nordberg
Foster Bam Michael B. Osborne
Paul Bofinger Leigh H. Perkins
Donn Byrne Sr. M a n K. Poole
James H. Carey Robert D. Priest
Roy D. Chapin Jr. John Rano
Peter Corbin
Roger Riccardi
Pamela B. Richards
Thomas N. Davidson
William J. Dreyer Ernest Schwiebert
Charles Ferree Robert G. Scott
Duncan Grant James A. Spendiff
Gardner L. Grant
John Swan
Arthur Kaemmer Richard G. Tisch
Woods King 111 David H. Walsh
Walter T. Matia
Richard J. Warren
James C. Woods
E M E R I T I
G. Dick Finlay David B. Ledlie
W. Michael Fitzgerald Leon L. Martuch
Keith C. Russell
William Herrick
Robert N. Johnson Paul Schullery
Stephen Sloan
T R U S T E E S
O F F IC E R S
President Robert G. Scott
Vice Presidents
Pamela B. Richards
James A. Spendiff
David H. Walsh
Treasurer James H. Carey
Secretary
James C. Woods
STAFF
Executive Director
Events t5 Membership
Art Director
Special Projects
Admin./Advertising
Gary Tanner
Paula M. Welch
John Price
Sara Wilcox
Toney Pozek
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
Editor
Design Q Production
Copy Editor
F~TY
Fisher
Journal of dthe American Museum of Fly Fishing
SUMMER 2000
VOLUME
Gilded Summers in Belgrade, Maine
John Mundt
26
NUMBER
3
.............2
Angling in the Pecos River Headwaters: The Development
of Fly Fishing in Northern New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . 12
Merideth A. Hmura and G. William Fowler
Notes & Comments: The Tups Indispensable:
A Dubbing Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Gordon M, Wickstrom
Festival Weekend 2000
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Museum News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contributors
22
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
oN
T H E c O V E R: This man is just south of Mountain View Ranch (see
'Xngling in the Pecos River Headwaters," page 12). Ponds such as this one
were dug and stocked for the fishing pleasure of the ranch guests.
Photograph from the Matie Viles collection.
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Kathleen Achor
John Price
Sarah May Clarkson
S U M M E R 2000
1
Gilded Summers in Belgrade, Maine
by John Mundt
The Belgrade Hotel from an early postcard.
I
T H I S E R A of cellular phones,
e-mail, voice mail, and personal digital assistants, many of today's sportsmen visiting Maine's Belgrade Lakes
region find themselves spending long
weekends-instead of vacations-at a
place where the whine of a screaming jet
ski frequently muffles the song of a
melodious loon. But the scene at the
beginning of the twentieth century was
markedly different.
Fortunate anglers of a hundred years
ago would often spend the entire summer at one of Belgrade, Maine's lakeside
resorts. From as far away as California,
s~ortsmenand their families would
arrive by rail, stage, and Stanley Steamer
to enjoy the clean air and trophy fishing
that made Maine famous as a sporting
destination.
Sadly, those days of Belgrade are gone
forever, but a glimpse of those glorious
summer moments is available to us
through the photographs, writings, and
ephemera that have survived. Although
dwarfed by the historical records of the
fabled Rangeley, Sebago, and Moosehead
regions, the Belgrades have a rich and
colorful sporting history that is certainly
worth exploring. It was these very Maine
N
2
T H E AMERICAN FLY F I S H E R
waters that inspired Ernest Thompson
to write O n Golden Pond while residing
at his cottage on the banks of Great
Pond, the largest of the seven Belgrade
Lakes.
According to a 1917 Maine Central
Railroad tourist pamphlet about the
region:
This was the hunting and trading country
of the Indians of the Kennebec, and there
may be seen up and down the valley
numerous round stone hearths where
these Indians had their council fires.
The Pilgrim Fathers carried on an
extensive trade with these Indians. History
records that they were in debt to the
London adventures to the extent of 1,800
pounds, and that under the leadership of
Governor Bradford, Myles Standish, John
Alden, and William Brewster this debt was
paid off through the success of their fur
trade with these Indians of the Kennebec.'
The area's land titles originated under
charter grants from the British monarchy, and in 1753, a group of Boston businessmen incorporated as "The Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase from the
late Colony of New Plymouth." The first
settlers began arriving in 1774, and by
1790 the population had grown to 159.
The town was incorporated as the town
of Belgrade from Washington Plantation
of Lincoln County, Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, 3 February 1796, and the
name is credited to John V. Davis, who
had traveled through eastern Europe as a
young man.
For early fishing references, we are
fortunate that a local angler, known only
by the initials J.R.P., from Augusta saw fit
to send a letter to the American Turf
Register and Sporting Magazine, dated 20
April 1831, in which he describes the
tackle and methods used to fish the
area.2 He writes in part:
Trout fishing has already commenced in
this part of the country: in fact, I consider
April (taking into view that the trout are
far better than those taken in the autumn)
as the better season for this sport. It has
been asserted, by some writers, that this
fish, after leaving their spawn, in the
autumn, pass the winter in deep waters,
grow sick, lean, and oftentimes lousy. It is
true they pass the winter months in the
deepest holes; but it is in those places that
they receive that peculiar appearance and
flavor which delights the eye and gratifies
the palate of the gourmand. Everyone who
is acquainted with the peculiar habits of
the trout knows that they are in season
during the months of spring and summer,
and that as the season advances they lose
many of their good qualities. During the
months of autumn, when they may be
taken in great numbers, they are hardly
worth the trouble. For the benefit of the
angler who may visit this part of the country, on a fishing excursion, I will merely
suggest, that, from the middle of May to
the latter part of June he will find good
sport. He should be well prepared with
strong tackle (our trout here are not small
ones) and a supply of flies, spare hooks
and lines. These latter cannot be procured
here. The minnow and river smelts are the
best bait during the earlier part of the season-grasshoppers in June and August,
and brandlings, or almost any type of
worm or fly, are as sure bait for autumn
fishing. The oak-worm in April, and the
bob-worm, or red-head, in May and June,
are, I think, preferable baits.
Accompanied by a brother angler, I left
here on the 8th instant, for Belgrade
bridge, about ten miles distant. We were
prepared with every thing requisite for
killing trout. The roads being very bad,
owing to recent violent storms, we were
unable to arrive in season to fish. We
found the stream much higher than usual,
and much discolored from the rains and
breaking up of ice in the pond. My companion predicted but poor sport. At day
light, next morning, we commenced fishing, with, I must confess, but small
appearance of success. The atmosphere
was thick and hazy, with every indication
of rain. The ill omens were, however, soon
dispelled by my companion's landing a
fine trout. I immediately opened the fish,
and found a number of smelts, which we
used as bait, and found them preferable to
oak-worm, with which we had commenced fishing. I would here recommend
to those who wish good sport, to follow
this example, and use the same, or nearly
similar bait as that which is found in the
fish. After spending the day very pleasantly, we returned to Augusta with twentythree fine trout, weighing from 2): to 4 lbs.
each, and of an admirable quality.
I left Augusta yesterday, at 1 P.M. in company with a gentleman who has, indeed,
no pretensions to a knowledge of the
"noble art." We arrived at Belgrade at half
past z P.M. My companion preferred fishing for perch. There were four or five trout
fishers at the bridge at the time of my
arrival. To show the fickleness in the taste
or appetite of the trout, I will merely say
that I caught five trout, which were all that
the company caught, which was owing to
my using oak-worm for bait. The others
used minnows, worms &c. My companion
caught fifty-eight perch, large and small.
The trout weighed, on an average, 2%
pounds. We left Belgrade (after a fine supper at the tavern), at 7 P.M. for Augusta.
I shall continue to visit the trout
streams, which abound in this state, from
time to time, and will communicate to you
the result of my excursions and the condition of the spotted finny tribe.
The seven Belgrade Lakes-Long,
Great, Messalonskee, North, East,
McGraw, and Ellis-lay south of the
Moosehead group a n d offered early
anglers great sport for bass, trout, and
salmon. This bountiful fishery would
eventually spur the growth of several
great lakeside resorts that provided
"every natural advantage to give the
truest zest to svort and to arouse in the
fisherman the $ever of fascination."3
Messalonskee Beach Camps are credited with being the first tourist camps
built to attract summer visitors to the
area near the turn of the century. The
original camp was a single cabin constructed by Cornelius Kelliher under the
name Winona Beach Camp. It was this
camp that brought visitors by trolley
SUMMER
2000
2
The brochure offered the reassurance
that "the Belgrade is a place where the
sportsman can share his outing with his
family and not sacrifice a single fishing
tradition"7
In addition to the Belgrade, visitors
could stay at the other major hotels: the
Red Oaks Lodge on Great Lake, Salmon
Lake House on Salmon Lake, and the
Central House, with its recreation annex
known as Liars Paradise. There were also
several smaller inns and camps scattered
throughout the area.
From the 1908 Belgrade hotel brochure: "Trout caught in the Great Lake, May 1903.
Weight of two largest: 8.2 and 7.12 02."
from nearby Waterville to board the
Mary Pickford for a short trip up the lake
to a picnic area on the beach. Mr.
Kelliher later sold the camp to Albert
Clifford, who changed the name to
Messalonskee Beach Camps.
Former Belgrade town historian Carol
Nye was quoted in a 4 September 1995
Morning Sentinel article about the resort
era.
It was just about 1900 that many of the
hotels were being built. People came for
the fishing and would stay for three
months in the summer. The Belgrade
Hotel ran their own stage to meet the
trains and pick up the people with their
suitcases and trunks. At the time, the West
Road was the main road to Belgrade
Lakes, and it was all sand.
They would bring their families and
stay at the hotels. The people who came
and stayed at the hotels were well-to-do.
Guests at the Belgrade Hotel were so interested in the stock market that they
brought down a telegraph operator from
Farmington, so they could keep track of
the stocks. That's the kind of people they
were. They stayed right there at the hotel;
they didn't travel like they do today.4
These three features make a combination that cannot be found elsewhere.5
Other "Special Features" included:
Splendid golf links.
First-class orchestra.
' Fine
and pool
Veranda 350 feet long, affording
panoramic view of lake and mountain
scenerv.
Celebrated Beaver Spring water used
exclusively for drinking Purposes.
' Tennis, boating, bathing, dancing, driving, etc.3 etc.
' Dainty lunches furnished by the management for fishing and picnic parties
without extra charge."
The waters of the Belgrade Lakes are
known for their clarity and rocky bottoms that provided ideal habitat for bass.
The genus Micropterus was first introduced to Maine waters in 1869 and has
thrived ever since.8 The 1917 Maine
Central Railroad pamphlet describes the
waters as follows.
A few islands are scattered here and there,
and there are many beautiful coves and
bays, some of which are in themselves
good-sized ponds-and very attractive.
The shores are mostly wooded to the
water's edge, and an occasional farm clearing-cabin, cottage, or little summer
colony-gives a delightful touch of civilization to the scene.9
To ensure that there would be a sufficient quantity of fish to inhabit such
favorable conditions, the state of Maine
The Belgrade Hotel was built in 1899
by Charles A. Hill on the banks of Long
Lake (now known as Long Pond). A 1908
Belgrade Hotel promotional brochure
listed the following "Special Features"
available for prospective sportsmen and
their guests:
Best black bass fishing in the world.
Best trout fishing to be had in Maine.
Thoroughly modern hotel with all its
conveniences. Cuisine unexcelled.
'2Mid-Day Lunch" as depicted in the 1908 Uelgrude hotel brochure.
4
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
able to convey eager sports by doubleended boat out onto the large, open
bodies of water. In 1930, there were seventy-four guides working the area.l3
Included in this group was former
Dodge City Marshall Ed Austin, who
had a reputation for being one of the
tougher lawmen to hail from that slightly more volatile region of the country.
John McGaffy was credited with running the first gasoline boat on Great
Pond, while a man named Linnie
Morrill, for some forgotten reason, had
his leg shot off on Great Pond's Hoyt
Island.l4
Another guide, Captain Bert Curtis,
would take parties out to a secluded
island in Great Pond on his steamboat,
Belgrade. Once the island was reached,
Captain Curtis would pull curtains
around his boat to allow the women to
change into their swimming attire while
he disembarked to serve his signature
fish chowder by use of a revolving table.
Dana S. Lamb mentions these experiences in his 1963 book, O n Trout Streams
and Salmon Rivers.
First thing I guess was 1906; as a little boy,
I went out in Davie's motor boat with
Father and Henry bass fishing. There was
a trout-which was out of season-was
caught, liberated, caught again in the net
as it floated past and kept, and the kick in
the shins I got from Henry when, after
Davie had told the warden how we'd
caught and released the trout, I shrilly
piped up, "and then we caught him
again." There was fish chowder at noon,
on an island, which was good except for
the accidental bone, and there was a nip
and tuck battle between me and the threepound bass which was later displayed on
the desk of the Hotel Belgrade surrounded by watercress and labeled "Caught by
Dana Lamb, age six."l5
A 1917 brochure cover photo for the Belgrade Lakes region from
the Passenger Traffic Department of the Maine Central Railroad.
acted commendably in their early conservation efforts. In 1895, legislation was
enacted that prohibited fishing in all of
the tributary streams that led into the
Belgrade Lakes. This action, along with
the construction of a state hatchery that
produced one million trout and salmon
annually, ensured a thriving lake fishery.
A screen was also placed between Long
and Great Lakes to prevent salmon from
making their way to the Kennebec River.
These activities helped explain why the
waters of Long and Great Lakes yielded
more fish in 1907 than the three previous seasons combined. The Belgrade
Hotel brochure boldly predicted that
the 1908 season "promises to excel, as it
did last season, that of any other Maine
lakes."l'J The hotel also claimed that:
To the fisherman seeking the greatest
reward for his patience and skill, the
waters of Long and Great Lakes will reveal
the most fascinating fishing possibilities
of all Maine waters, and will enable him
to gratify his fondest ambitions of big
bass, lots of bass, and gamey bass-the
black fellows here are past masters in the
art of strategy."
The Red Oaks Lodge opened in 1910 and
advertised that "other game fish
abound, but clearly it is to catch the
wary and gamey black bass that most
fishermen are enticed hither."12
A veritable army of guides was avail-
Mechele Cooper interviewed former
guide David Webster in 1995 and published his reminiscences in the Morning
Sentinel newspaper.
I remember when there was at least fifty
of them (guides), but they tell me it was
more like a hundred. When I was a kid
they usually got seven dollars a day. They
would come to the hotel after the guests
had their breakfast, around nine or ten in
the morning and take them out.16
David's father, Harold, was born in 1895
and guided the Belgrade Lakes area during the prime years of the resort era.
David Webster eventually followed in
his father's footsteps and had the opportunity to meet several interesting people
during his time on the water.
A party with three or four guides would
sit and talk or play cards while the meal
S U M M E R 2000
5
was being prepared. There was this
colonel who afterward sat in the boat with
his head down. His wife asked did he lose
much and he said, "Yea,I lost fifteen." I
thought he meant fifteen dollars but
found out later it was fifteen hundred??
At the start of his guiding career,
Webster was given parties made up
entirely of women while the men would
go out with the more experienced
I remember one time I was guiding and I
had this woman, she was a heiress of
Smirnoff vodka, and she had her niece
with her. I smoked cigars at the time and
she told me that the cigar smelled nice. I
thanked her and asked her if she'd like
one, but she said no, she could~l'thave any
up here. She f i n e said just give me a drag
off yours, but I said, "No, it's all wet." She
finally took a new cigar, propped her heels
up on the side of the boat and had a grand
old time. I later asked her niece if she really did smoke cigars back home and she
said she did.
The season used to be, back when the
fishingwas good, from ice out through the
end of September. The double-ended
boats they used were generallytwenty-two
feet long with an inboard engine. Those
boats were pretty much contained here
because they were so heavy and cumbersome.
thetrailers and eq&pment
we have now they usually moved them
across the pond once in the summer from
Long Pond to Great Pond, depending on
where the fishing was good,18
Another person who left us with commentary about the scene at that time was
Alta Poland, who was the Western Union
6
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
telegraph operator at the Belgrade Hotel
from 1910 to 1914. She was quoted as saying that "fishermen returned everyday
with three- to six-pound s b u n and
trout. The fish were placed on large platters surro,unded by ferns."lg There was
no local account found to describe the
preferred methods of sewing the catch
of the day at that time.
The Belgrade as pictured in
Bnnett Miklmd's
Dictionary of Trout Patterns.
House. It is situated on the stream connecting Great Pond to Long Pond and
These idyllic days were suddenly enjoys a widespread reputation for servdarkened after the stock market crash of ing the best roast duckling the area has
1929. Former Belgrade town historian to offer.
Carol Nye remarked that after the
depression "tourists went more into
building their own camps and didn't
The only early pattern uncovered thus
come to the hotels and stay by the
month anymore.*20 David Webster far with the dame "Belgrade* w& found
attempted to revive his guiding career in the Dietimay of Tratrr Patterns, writwhen he returned from military siervice ten by Bennett Millard in 1950. In it there
in 1946, but found the work to be too is a traditional wet-fly pattern simply
tided "Belgrade." The pattern is as folsporadic for earning a steady living.
The final bell of the age was rung low.21
when the Belgrade Hotel was consumed
Body: Y e h
by a raging fire on the evening of 3
Ribbing None
October 1955. The hotel had been closed
Tag: Her1 and gold
for the season, and there was a team of
Tajl: Scarlet and white
painting cantractors on site performing
Hackle: Claret palmer
renovation work. It is believed that
Wing Red and white with jungle cock
spontaneous combustion occurred in a
dirty rag pile, and in less than an hour,
The color plate of the Belgrade Fly
this historic building became a blazing
inferno. Only a few tables were rescued b w n above was found in Dr. George
Parker Holden's Streamcraft:An Angling
before the flames took over.
One of the lone reminders of those Mfunuzl(ig3z edition). It was taken from
glorious years is the Village Inn, which a W. M. Mills & Son tackle supply catawas knoyn at the time as the L ~ u s t log with the description, "Extra Quality
Area map fiom a 1906 brochure for the North Pond Camps,
situated on one of the Belgrade Lakes.
stone's throw from my home.22
Maine Trout or Bass Flies." This example
was tied on an O'Shaughnessy no. 2
hook.
As for the origin of this type of fly, we
One solid contribution that definitely can be relatively certain that it originatemanated from the Belgrade Lakes ed and evolved from the minds of two
region was the tandem fly. Gene men: Dr. 7. Herbert Sanborn and Emile
Letourneau of Waterville, Maine, was a Letourneau (brother of Gene Letoursyndicated outdoor columnist for neau), both of Watervue, Maine. Dr.
Gannet newspapers who wrote a column Sanborn was searching for a fly that
called "Sportsmen Say" for more than would eliminate short strikes during
fifty years (see sidebar, page lo). In 1949, trolling. He believed that two hooks
Mr. Letourneau also published an would be better than one and devised a
extremely informative booklet titled tying method in which he took two
Secrets of Streamer Fly Fishing, which long-shank no. 8 hooks, filed the eye off
paid particular attention to trolling with of one, and lashed the shanks together
tandem streamer flies. Sadly, this booklet with tinsel. This original pattern consistis often overlooked in the historical ed of white bucktail, light green feathers
record because it only had a small, tied flat on top, over which black feathregional print run.
ers were placed in traditional streamer
The Belgrade's Messalonskee Lake is fashion. When wet, the fly was intended
recorded as the birthplace of tandem fly to resemble a smelt.
fishing. Letourneau writes:
This pattern, when first trolled in
Messalonskee
Lake behind an outboard
When I finally attained maturity I found
that Dad's stories about Messalonskee motor, helped land a 4%-pound brook
Lake trout were true indeed. For during trout. The following day Dr. Sanborn
the first Spring that I forsook bait for hooked and landed a 9-pound, 3-ounce
streamer flies I hooked and landed eleven landlocked salmon, and thus the fly
beauties, nine of them over five pounds. would be forever known as the NineThere had been no material change in Three. The original Nine-Three streamMessalonskee Lake down through the er was unusual in that it used two hooks
years. In fact, the fishing for trout, espein a fashion similar to a double salmon
cially, had grown poorer each season.
No other factor sold me so thoroughly hook, but it also had a revolutionary
on tandem streamer fly trolling than the wing configuration that differed from
experiences on this lake, which was but a traditional streamers. The lower wing of
The Nine-Three as seen on the cover
of Secrets of Streamer Fly Fishing
by Gene L. Letourneau.
light green hackles was tied flat on top of
the hook shank. Then above that there
were black hackles tied in upright traditional streamer fashion.
Joseph D. Bates, in Streamers and
Bucktails, refers to the Nine-Three as a
streamer "that stood the test of timel'23
Bates quotes Dr. Sanborn as saying:
I designed the Nine-Three to imitate a
smelt as it looks in the water, with dark
back, lighter below, and with silver belly
and jungle cock eyes. The fly looks rough,
but when wet it forms together evenly. The
green feathers are tied on flat instead of
edgewise, which gives the fly a motion in
the water that the others don't have. I have
told many commercial tyers about this but
SUMMER 2000
A period postcard captioned: "Long Lake from Elizahetl~Arden Home-Belgrade
nobody will tie it this way because it looks
rough. We believe it the best fly year-round
for trout, togue, salmon, perch, and bass.
I have also caught Atlantic salmon on k 2 4
The pattern description recorded by
Bates is as follows.
Head: Black
Body: Medium flat silver tinsel
Wing: A small bunch of white bucktail
extending beyond the bend of the hook
(or hooks, if in tandem), over which are
three medium green saddle hackles tied
on flat, over which are two natural black
hackles tied on upright. All hackles and
the bucktail are of the same length.
Cheeks: Jungle cock
This fly was certainly effective, but it
failed to alleviate the frustrations associated with short strikes, which Gene
Letourneau estimated to occur four out
of five times. This desire to eliminate
short strikes led to the tandem style that
is so popular today. Letourneau wrote:
The trouble lay in the fact that the bucktail
and feathers extended beyond the barbs of
the fly. It was my brother Emile who conceived the tandem, subsequently identi-
8
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
Lakes, Mai~ze."
fied in other sections of the country as the
"booby trap" fly.
By using two short shank hooks, tied
together with gut or wire, preferably gut,
the entire fly could be dressed on the front
hook with feathers extending no farther
than the barb of the tandem hook. It did
not entirely eliminate short strikes, but it
reduced the percentage by 80.~5
too varied an item for singling out a
specific type.
Gene Letourneau's tying instructions
called for hooks in sizes 4, 6, or 8, with
the chosen pair of hooks being connected in line with suitable strength wire or
gut.
Before the thread is coiled, the gut should
be notched slightly so that the thread will
When Graydon R. Hilyard was conhold firmly. After the hooks are tied, the
ducting exhaustive research for his
dressing, bucktail, and feathers are applied
recently released book, Carrie Stevens:
to the lead hook. Additional dressing can
be, and frequently is, applied to the rear
Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and
hook.
Salmon Flies, he uncovered a wealth of
The basic rule for the successful tanstreamer fly information that was not
dem streamer is to have all the dressing
directly related to his admirable work
tied so that it will ride evenly in the water,
~
about the renowned Rangeley t ~ e r . ~ without
revolving, even at fast trolling
Through his efforts, we have a statement
speeds.28
from Gene Letourneau that "Dr. J.
Herbert Sanborn had the idea that two
hooks were better than one. Within days,
Emile came to my house with the first
tandem fly which he called Sportsmen
Sa~."~7
- , The Letourneau brothers were so
convinced of the tandem's effectiveness
that thev even attemuted to secure a
patent on the design. They were subsequently turned down by the U.S. Patent
Office on grounds that fishing flies were
When it came to fishing with a tandem fly, Gene Letourneau recommended a double-tapered HDH line, which is a
6-weight by today's standards, at a
length of go feet with loo feet of silk
backing. The fly would be connected to a
leader of fine braided wire with a small
clasp. He stressed in no uncertain terms
that "under no circumstances should
you use or attach a swivel, or any other
From a period postcard: a record salmon caught at
Belgrade Lake in May 1913, weight 14Zpounds.
Had he been holding the rod he invariably would have automatically hauled
back, either tearing out the hook from the
fish or breaking the line or rod or both.30
device to the line1'29
His trolling method followed simple
but calculated logic. A boat would be set
up with three trolling lines. Two rods
would be set in rod holders hanging over
both sides of the boat with 50-foot lines,
while the third line went straight off the
back at a length of 30 feet. The strategy
anticipated that the propeller wash
would draw attention to the center fly,
and if for some reason that fly was
refused, the fish, by turning away to the
left or right, would have an opportunity
to strike one of the outer flies as they
passed by on the longer lines.
To hook a fish, Letourneau adds that:
Letourneau was often asked what was
the best time to troll with streamers and
he modestly responded "to that I must
admit defeatl'3l He did go on to state
that his most productive hours in the
early spring were from 1i:oo A.M. to i:30
P.M.He also believed that bright-colored
flies (red, white, yellow, and orange
shades) were better in cold water than in
warm.
There is a final reflective summary
toward the end of his booklet.
In trolling streamer flies I have yet to see
one angler with a better percentage than
the rod holder. As the fish strikes the fly,
the rod tip bends backward, then recoils
quickly as the boat moves on. This action
is mechanical but perfectly timed. Nine
out of ten fish will be hooked solidly by
the tension of the reel. If the wallop is
extra heavy, the reel will pay out the necessary amount of line.
Following the strike, the angler can
remove the rod from the holder and he's
on his own from then on, always with a
securely hooked fish.
During the past twenty years I can look
back to record catches made in many
waters with streamer flies. I have seen landlocked salmon up to 12 pounds, brook trout
up to 8, many bass over 5, and t o p e up to
15 pounds caught on these lures.
I personally have taken more large fish
with streamers than with other types of
bait or lures. And that in the face of a
shorter period of fishing with streamers
than with other tackle, and during a span
when fishermen increased and fish decreased.
In preparing this effort, I asked ten of
the oldest streamer fly fishermen in Maine
for a list of their favorite flies. From the
different patterns, and those I selected, I
found that the following had the most
votes: Nine-Three, Gray Ghost, Liggett
Special, Green King, Mickey Finn, Black
Ghost, Sportsmen Say, Charlie McCarthy,
Lady Ghost, and Queen Bee.
There are hundreds of other patterns
which are as effective but these cover most
of the color combinations. Each should
have its place in the trolling streamer fly
fisherman's fly book.32
Of these aforementioned "favorite
flies," fifty percent-the Nine-Three
(Sanborn), Queen Bee (Sanborn),
Charlie McCarthy (E. Letourneau),
Sportsmen Say (E. Letourneau), and
Liggett Special (E. Letourneau)-hailed
from the Belgrade Lakes region.
To conclude, it is clear that the
Belgrade Lakes made worthwhile contributions to America's angling heritage.
The natural beauty of the area and traditions that were developed on the shores
of these waters attract visitors to this
day.
-
SUMMER 2000
9
Gene Letourneau: The Dean of Maine Outdoor Writers
Eugene L. Letourneau was an accomplished angler and
journalist whose encylopedic knowledge of streamers and
how to fish them proved to be a major resource for later writers on the subject. He was born on 12 September 1907 into a
life that led to countless hours afield and a following of sporting faithful who eagerly thumbed through their morning
newspapers to read his "Sportsmen Say" column for a span
that exceeded fifty years. His dual passion for the outdoors
and writing provided him with a livelihood and contentment
that carried him into his nineties.
Letourneau's father introduced him to the Maine outdoors
as a child, and when reflecting on some of his fondest memories later in life, he recalled how one day, as a five-year-old,his
sister rowed him around Salmon Lake in the Belgrade chain so
he could catch humpback perch. In a special eighty-fifth
birthday tribute section contained in the Central Maine
Newspapers of 12 September 1992, Letourneau reminisced
about several other memorable events in his sporting life:
Beth Gagnon
Netting three brook trout, all weighing 7X pounds, for companions at Messalonskee Lake in the 1967 fishing season.
Watching Ray Camp, outdoor editor of the New York Times,
win a two-hour-plus battle with a 550-pound bluefin tuna on a 38pound test line off the Maine Coast.
offered me a proposition I could not turn down. It called for writRaising, hooking, and releasing loo grayling while f l ~ - ~ a s t i natg
ing five columns weekly for his papers, Monday through Friday,
Otter Stream near Dawson, Yukon Territory, with Joe Brooks.
[and offered an] unlimited expense account and a choice of bases
watching him raise salmon in a period of slow fishing at
~
~ ~~k~ and~ playing one
~ of at least
~
pounds
h
which~ he
~in Portland,
d Augusta, and Waterville. I chose the latter, where I was
born and raised and given an outdoors foundation by my father,
released with a flip of the wrist.33
who was an avid sports fisherman and wildlife enthusiast3
Streamer flies were originated and developed. The second most
popular pattern was tied by a good friend and companion, Dr.
AS testimony to Mr. Gannet's respect for Letourneau as a
Herbert Sanborn, a native of Vinalhaven. His Nine-Three contin- newspaperman,
daughter
said,
ago the
ues as runner-up to the Gray Ghost.34
Before becoming a reporter, Letourneau served a stint as a
professional drummer in Art Landry's Victor Recording
Orchestra and performed live throughout the New York metropolitan area. In the fall of 1929, he was on break outside a
New Jersey club when the sound of a baying beagle drew his
thoughts back to his hometown of Waterville, Maine. The
next morning he boarded a northbound bus and shortly
thereafter landed a job as a regional correspondent for the
Portland Press Herald.
His territory covered the vast area between Augusta, Maine,
and Quebec. In his first week, he was sent to cover a murder
in nearby Oakland, and later provided a sheriff with the clue
that helped track down a strangler who had used a
three-strand rope (Letourneau knew that this was not as common as one of two or four strands). When he had spare time,
he wrote a hunting and fishing column for his hometown
paper, the Morning Sentinel.
In 1945, Guy P. Gannet, owner of the Gannet Newspapers of
Maine, asked Letourneau to begin writing his outdoor column for all of the Gannet papers. That same year, Letourneau
won the Associated Press national news photo prize for his
coverage of a train wreck.
In Letourneau's words:
-Sportsmen
the column responsible for my longevity of service, is nearly as old as the years I have been a Gannet employee.
Written more as a hobby at first, it became a permanently assigned
task shortly after World War 11.
Guy P. Gannet, the head and publisher of these newspapers,
10
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
one person my father reflected upon often was Gene
Letourneau. He said on more than one occasion 'I wanted
Gene to run my newspapers.' Gene declined because he was
dedicated to becoming a great outdoor writer."36
The column quickly grew in popularity and took on a life
of its own. Letourneau had an established network of administrators, wardens, trappers, and guides who made up what he
referred to as "my backwoods eyes and ears."37
By his eighty-fifth birthday, Letourneau had written 17,773
columns and received more than 65,000 letters. One of his
more famous angling correspondents was Joseph D. Bates Jr.,
who wrote to Letourneau requesting information about local
fly patterns and trolling speeds. In a letter dated 3 November
1949, Letourneau responded by recommending that "keeping
them on top and traveling right along will produce the best
results. The general rule is to travel faster as the water warms
up."38
In addition to "Sportsmen Say,"Letourneau wrote a column
for Down East magazine called "Outdoor Maine" for nearly a
quarter century. A number of his most memorable stories
were later published in a 1975 book, aptly titled Sportsmen Say.
Two years later, he received outdoorsman of the year honors
from the New England Outdoor Writers Association.
His daughter, Julie Letourneau DuPont, sent me a letter
explaining that her father wrote seven days a week until about
'995, when he pared his
twice a week.
1997, he was down to once a week. After leading an epic outdoor life, Letourneau passed away on a summer Sunday, 5 July
1998, at age ninety.
-
"On the Great Meadows Stream," as depicted in a 1906 brochure for
the North Pond Camps, situated on one of the Belgrade Lakes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank the following individuals who made their private collections available for research and
reproduction purposes: Julie Letourneau
Dupont of Waterville, Maine; David Foley
of West Hartford, Connecticut; Graydon
R. Hilyard of Askland, Massachusetts;
and Sandra Leibfried of Point Pleasant,
New Jersey. Without their assistance, this
article would not have been possible.
ENDNOTES
1. The Belgrade Lakes and Maine's Pastoral
Fields, 1917. Brochure issued by Passenger Traffic
Department, Maine Central Railroad, Portland,
Maine.
2. Letter excerpted from The American Turf
Register and Sporting Magazine, dated zo April 1831,
reprinted in The American Fly Fisher, vol. 12, no. 1
(Winter 1985), p. 3.
3. The Belgrade, The Belgrade Hotel, Belgrade
Lakes, Maine; 1908 promotional brochure.
4. Mechele Cooper, "Town Was Mecca for the
Rich During Turn-of-the-Century Heyday,"
Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), 4 September
1995, p- 16.
5. The Belgrade.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. David B. Ledlie, "The Black Bass in Maine."
The American Fly Fisher, vol. 9, no. 3 (Summer
1984, P. 7.
9. Belgrade Lakes and Maine's Pastoral Fields.
lo. The Belgrade.
11. Ibid.
Robert A. Guptil, Carol F. Nye, H. Pauline
Plourde, eds., Past and Present: Pictures and People
of Belgrade, Maine, 1774-1976 (Belgrade, Maine:
Heritage Committee of Belgrade Bicentennial
Observance, 1976), p. 49.
13. Ibid., p. 38.
14. Ibid.
15. Dana S. Lamb, O n Trout Streams and
Salmon Rivers (Far Hills, N. J.: Meadow Run Press,
1996 edition), p. 32.
16. Mechele Cooper, "Anglers Thronged the
Lakes," Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), 4
September 1995, p. 16.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 16. The word pond was eventually
substituted for the word lake when referring to
individual bodies of water in the Belgrade chain.
19. Past and Present, p. 53.
20. "Town Was Mecca," p. 16.
21. Bennett Millard, Dictionary of Trout
Patterns (Deposit, N.Y.: 1950), p. 8.
22. Gene Letourneau, Secrets of Streamer Fly
Fishing for All the Angling Family (Waterville,
Maine: Letourneau-Nichols, 1949), p. 1.
23. Joseph D. Bates Jr., Streamers and Bucktails:
The Big Fish Flies (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1979)>P. 74.
12.
24. Bates, Streamers and Bucktails, p. 347.
25. Letourneau, Secrets of Streamer Fly Fishing,
p. 4.
26. Graydon R. Hilyard and Leslie K. Hilyard,
Carrie Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout
and Salmon Flies (Mechanicsburg, Penn.:
Stackpole Books, 2000).
27. Undated letter from Julie Letourneau
DuPont to Robert Hilyard, personal correspondence.
28. Letourneau, Secrets of Streamer Fly Fishing,
P. 5 .
29. Ibid., p. 8.
30. Ibid., p. 11.
31. Ibid., p. 16.
32. Ibid., p. 17.
33. Gene Letourneau,"Gene Takes Glance Back
at His Favorite Moments," Central Maine
Newspapers (Waterville, Maine), 12 September
1992, P. 7.
34. Terri H. Sanborn, "Gene Letourneau:
Outdoors Writer Turns 85 and rust Keeps Going
and Going . . .," Central Maine Newspapers
(Waterville, Maine), 12 September 1992, p. 6.
35. Ibid., p. 6.
36. Ibid., p. 2.
37. Michael T. Kinnicut, "Opening Day with
Gene Letourneau," Down East (April 19831, p. 24.
38. Letter from Gene Letourneau to Joseph D.
Bates Jr., 3 November 1949.
S U M M E R 2000
11
Angling in the Pecos River Headwaters:
The Development of Fly Fishing in
Northern New Mexico
by Merideth A. Hmura and G. William Fowler
George "Skipper" Vilesflyfishing in the
Pecos River near Cowles, New Mexico. The
beaver cowboy hat, point up, was his signature.
T
HE DEVELOPMENT of fly fishing in
the Pecos wilderness area of
northern New Mexico is representative of the history of angling in the
western United States. The Pecos River
headwaters were fished for centuries by
Native American Indians.' With the
advent of European exploration in 1540
and subsequent colonization, the first
Anglos had the opportunity to fish the
area. Additional fishermen appeared in
the 1800s because of American military
expansion and colonists settling in the
west. When the Santa Fe Railroad was
completed in the 1880s, Easterners came
to experience the mountain lifestyle of
12
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
the dude ranch. They brought with them
the fly-fishing heritage of Europe that
was evolving in America.
The Pecos River begins in the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains of northern New
Mexico in the Pecos wilderness. It is a
high-gradient river with several snowfed
streams and creeks. Tributaries in the
high country include Panchuela Creek,
Jack's Creek, Winsor Creek, and the
Mora River. As it flows south out of the
high mountains, it passes through deep,
narrow box canyons, open meadows
covered in wildflowers, and down the
only waterfall on the river. Magnificent
views of mountain peaks can be seen
from everv turn in the river. It travels
almost fiftLen miles through the wilderness before it is first touched bv civilization: a forest road to ~ a c k sCreek
Campground. The Santa Fe Trail passes
just to the east of the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains. The mountains were
thought to be impassable-therefore, the
Santa Fe Trail went around them. More
than 175 years later, there are still no
roads across the high country, and the
Photographs from the Mattie Viles collection
Pecos Indian Pueblo, about 1915.
Fishing at the base of
Pecos Falls, about 1920.
mountain summits are preserved as they
were. When the Pecos River leaves the
wilderness near Cowles, New Mexico,
there are cabins and campgrounds along
its banks. Once the river passes the Pecos
National Historic Park, home of the
Pecos Pueblo ruins, it continues for
another 750 miles before it reaches the
Rio Grande River in Texas.
The Pecos River valley was inhabited
for hundreds of years by Native
Americans, but it wasn't until the Civil War brought American settlers into
anthropological timeframe of the Rio the wilds of the southwest. In 1880, the
Grande classic period (1325-1600) that Santa Fe Railroad crossed New Mexico,
large populations began living in pueb- further opening the state for settlement.
los. Primarily farmers and hunters, the Early visitors to the Sangre de Cristo
pueblo inhabitants apparently left no Mountains were prospectors hoping to
physical evidence of fishing a~tivities.~find gold, silver, and copper. The high,
European contact was made in 1540 by dry mountain climate was also believed
Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de to be beneficial for those who had tuberCoronado. Pedro de Castaneda, traveling culosis. By 1890, there were tent cities
with Coronado, reported "there were erected for "lungers" who wanted to
very good trout in the upper Pecos."3 improve their health. Many of these peoThe Rio Grande cutthroat (Oncor- ple regained their health and stayed to
hynchus clarki virginalis) is native to the make the mountains their home.
Pecos River.4 With the conquest of Homestead acts opened vast areas of
Mexico, the king of Spain granted large New Mexico to people willing to pioneer
tracts of land to Spaniards who traveled remote lands. Homes were built and
to this new world. The Spanish began to improvements made on 160-acre tracts,
populate the lands, choosing sites for and Anglo families began to populate
their communities near the rivers. While the upper Pecos valley.
Among the early settlers in the upper
the United States Constitution was being
drafted in 1776 in Philadelphia, a Pecos were the families of Henry M.
Franciscan monk was making a detailed Winsor and Charles A. Viles. Joined by
report to the Spanish government on the marriage, these families lived in the
spiritual and economic status of New upper Pecos for more than fifty years.
Mexico missions. Fray Francisco Domin- Winsor had nine children, five of whom
quez reported on the Pecos River: "Along lived near the small community of
the small plain between the Sierra and Cowles. He worked for the Sante Fe
the Pueblo a very good river of good Railroad as it headed west from Kansas
water and many delicious trout runs to New Mexico. Winsor and two of his
sons. Martin and Isaac. were earlv
from North to South."5
During this time, the southwest was prospectors and homesteaders. His
under Spanish rule. In 1848, with the daughter Carrie married Viles, who setTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico tled at Cowles because he had tuberculoceded New Mexico to the United States. ~ i s . ~
Military forts, wagon trains, and the
Cowles is located on the Pecos River
S U M M E R 2000
13
Main Lodge at Mountain View Ranch, about 1925.
indoor plumbing, and telephones were
slow to arrive in the high New Mexico
mountains. Kerosene l a m ~ s .woodburning stoves, and outhouses were
accepted as a part of dude ranch life.
Skipper Viles sold Mountain View
Ranch in 1945, and it was purchased in
1976 by the National Forest Service. It is
the policy of the agency to return land
to its original status. In this case, all of
the ranch buildings were torn down,
and the site is now an open meadow.
New building sites along the river's
edge are not permitted, and camping is
limited to specified areas.
The meals at Mountain View Ranch
were provided from local gardens and
game harvested nearby through hunting and fishing. Dandelion leaves made
excellent salads, fish caught during the
A
An unknown Mountain View
Ranch guest and his dog.
about twenty miles north of the town of
Pecos. Cowles had one general store and
post office; no main street, governing
body, or hospital; but there were three
resorts: Mountain View Ranch, Los
Pinos Guest Ranch, and the Winsor
Cabins. In the early 19oos, each catered
to wealthy eastern guests who came to
hunt and fish. Long before air conditioning, city residents fled the heat of
summer for mountain lodges. One contribution the west has made to America's
fly-fishing heritage is the dude ranch. It
Gas the Lwboy"version of the eastern
fishing camp.
14
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
Largest and oldest of the ranches in
the Upper Pecos was Mountain View
Ranch. Charles A. Viles filed a homestead application in 1887 for 160 acres at
the junction of the Pecos River and
Winsor Creek. He built the main house
out of local pine logs, and it had a large
stone fireplace. Viles had left his wife and
children in Kansas while he built their
home. He traveled back to Kansas to
move his family to New Mexico, but did
not return to Cowles until 1895, so he did
not fulfill the homestead requirements.
Unfortunately, Viles died of tuberculosis
in 1896.
Charles A. Viles's brother-in-law,
Henry D. Winsor, took over the homestead and began a boardinghouse that
he called Winsor Ranch. In 1915, the
president of the Rock Island Railroad,
Henry U. Mudge, bought the boardinghouse. It was renamed Mountain View
Ranch. Mudge hired Viles's son, George
"Skipper" Viles, to manage the ranch
and to guide guests-called dudes-on
hunting and fishing trips.
In 1930, Skipper Viles purchased
Mountain View Ranch from the Mudge
family. Through the years, as the ranch
became more popular, new cabins were
built, and the main lodge was remodeled. The road up the canyon from the
town of Pecos was almost nonexistent
until the Works Progress Administration improved it in 1934. Cars traveled the ritted dirt path-at their own
risk. Modern inventions like electricity,
.
Skipper Viles displaying a string of
trout caught in 1915.
Skipper Viles fishing from
his horse in the Pecos River.
Being a colorful character
was part of his job as the
proprietor of the dude
ranch. He did have certain
obligations to his guests and
a reputation to uphold!
day was pan fried, and dessert might
have been wild berries in season. If the
fish weren't biting, there were steaks
from cattle or wild game. On Sunday,
Skipper's wife, Matie, fried ranch-raised
chicken. Staples such as flour, sugar,
and lard were brought in by buckboard
from town. Occasionally a peddler and
his donkeys would pass through piled
high
" with boxes of fruits and vegetables, pots and pans, and other household goods.
~ h dudes
g
who came to Mountain
View Ranch for the summer loved to
spend part of their vacation camping
under the open skies. Horseback and
fishing trips lasting from several days to
several weeks were a popular activity.
The territorial game warden in 1910 was
Thomas P. Gable. He said:
V
There is something awry in the construction of a man to whom there does not
sometimes come a longing for the camp
fire by the rippling brook, within the
shaded wood, with a frying pan over the
glowing coals, from which steals out of the
soft summer air, that alluring odor of
specWed trout, fresh from the stream,
growing both crisp and tender as they
sputter in the bacon grease until they
reach just the perfect turn.7
Little documentation has come to
light about early fly fishing in the Pecos
wilderness. After 1900, fishing stories
began to circulate. One of the better fly
fishermen of the Pecos Valley was
Skipper Viles. Apart from his other
interests, Skipper was an avid fly fisherman in his early days, and his exploits
were well known by his guests and
A picnic lunch oftrout in the 1930s.
An unknown Mountain View Ranch
guest displays his trophy trout.
friends. In fact, part of the romance and
mystique of staying at Mountain View
Ranch was the opportunity to interact
with him in this role. Raised in the
mountains surrounding Mountain View
Ranch, Skipper Viles was very familiar
with each stream and lake in the area.
His expertise is illustrated in the following story told by Milton C. Nahm.
One day I had been sitting on the porch of
Skipper Viles's ranch at Cowles. Viles was
the owner of a magic wand which stood at
my side, a Hardy Special (fishing rod),
length nine and a half feet and weight
about five and three-quarter ounces.
Viles's ranch was at the top of the road up
the Pecos Canyon and provided plain cabins and fine country-style food to guests
such as those coming in off the river. But
these guests gave every evidence of frustration. All had had a long and weary day
Whether fishing in a stream or a lake, the popular sport
offyfishing lives on in New Mexico.
of fruitless fishing. Viles listened to their
complaints without saying a word. He
picked up the rod which at the end of the
oiled silk line had a six-foot leader and
tied to that a No. 8 Royal Coachman fly.
He walked seventy feet from the porch to
a ledge overlooking a deep pond. It had
been fished all day by every stray searcher
for trout. The children at the lodge had
paddled in it. The saddle horses and cows
had gone to drink in it. Viles leaned over
the ledge, made one cast, and landed a
fourteen-inch trout.
I remarked that evening to Viles that
fishing in the Pecos was good if you know
how to do it. Viles denied this. In the old
days, he said, there was real fishing but it
was all gone now, what with the Texans
and Oklahomans so crowded on the
stream that they caught each other's ears
on the backcast. Course, he made his living out of them, but he'd rather have the
old days back, even if he had to make a
dollar the hard way. He minded the day
when he and a fellow by the name of
Llewellyn had supplied Elk's parties in
Vegas with barrels of trout. The pair used,
in fact, to stage trout races-see how many
each would catch in half an hour or within a quarter of mile of stream, which,
either way, meant a lot of scrambling
around. Llewellyn always won, Viles said.
"Fewest I ever caught:' said Viles, "was 110
but Llewellyn caught 126 that day. No fishing like that now. Too many Texans and
Oklahomans." I suggested that with a couple of fishermen like Viles and Llewellyn
there was no need to blame it on the outlanders. Viles denied this.8
Skipper Viles kept a personal diary for
16
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY FISHER
almost forty years.9 In addition to relevant information about his ranching
operations, the weather, and wildlife
sightings, he reported some of the trout
fishing activities of the region.
July 6,1913: Went to Mora Creek with
Ranger Tom Stewart.l0 T. S. and I caught
150 trout.
June 7, 1914: Went fishing with Tom
Stewart on Mora. No good.-14 between
ing in a small lake named for Ranger
John W. Johnson-Johnson Lake-Mr.
Walter reported, "We fished with wooly
worms for less than an hour and the
count showed we had taken seventy-one
fish averaging over eight and a half inches long."ll This, in a lake that wasn't discovered until 1,
~.+4 and
% was stocked once
with 5,000 fingerlingsby Ranger Johnson.
US.
August 9, 1915: Went to Mora with
Terrell and Levin. Got loo trout.
June 14,1917: Went to Spirit Lake with
Glazer. Caught 7 rainbow trout with
naked hooks.
July 15, 1918: Caught gj/,pound below
house in p.m. Light shower.
June 18,1923: Trout rising to fly good.
October 1,1926: Tony got lo trout with
coach before noon.
May 15, 1944: 7X pound trout taken at
hatchery.
Skipper Viles was a man of very few
words, as reflected in his diary entries.
The descriptions in his diary will not
compare with those of the many eloquent fly-fishing writers or even Nahm's
recollection of an afternoon spent with
him. How can the story of catching a gXpound trout on 15 July 1918 be left to a
mere description of size and location?
Conservationist H. D. Walter was with
a group of men surveying the upper
Pecos watershed about 1945. While fish-
As more people began to populate the
remote mountain valley, gaming laws
and wildlife management became necessary. Copies of game laws were distributed in English and Spanish. The Forest
Service had been active, with rangers stationed at Panchuela Ranger Station by
1903. In igio, Warden Gable recommended making a detailed study of
game and fish conditions and setting
aside a game reserve in the Pecos forest.
Before New Mexico statehood, the territorial governor appointed game wardens
to enforce game and fish regulations
from 1897 until 1912. These wardens were
similar to sheriffs, but enforcement was
not a top priority. New Mexico's
Department of Game and Fish was created in 1912.
By the turn of the century, travel writers had extolled the virtues of the Pecos
wilderness, and fishermen were coming
in increasing numbers.12 This pressure
Fly fishing was, and still is, a popular pastime on the many rivers, streams, and lakes of the upper Pecos. There are
many deep pools where the fisherman can cast his line and reel i n a native trout.
almost devleted the native fish v oI~ u l a tion in the river. Stocking became an
accevted vractice to satisfv the demand.
~ish'forsiocking were shibped by rail to
Rowe, a town about thirty miles from
Cowles. The fish fry were then transvorted to the streams and lakes on
horseback in clean milk cans or barrels.
Rangers
and ranchers alike volunteered
c.
to plant fish in local streams and lakes.
Forest Ranger Johnson reported packing
50,000 fry per trip into the wilderness in
1922.~3The New Mexico Game Protective Association helped distribute 1.1
million fish in the state at a cost of $80 in
1918.~4In 1922, the first state fish hatchery at Lisboa Springs was built between
the town of Pecos and Cowles. The
hatchery was initially funded with
$30,000 from a state gasoline tax. The
first year it planted two million fish
eggs.l5 Volunteers could not keep up
with the increased number of anglers
who continued to deplete the fish population in the rivers and lakes in the upper
Pecos.
By today's catch-and-release standards, early twentieth-century fishing
exploits might seem abusive. Keep in
mind, however, that at the time, fish
caught in mountain streams and lakes
was a primary food source for residents
of the area and tourists alike. For many
mountain residents, fishing during specified seasons was a hardship because
they depended on daily catches for their
meal.
I
Trout fishing in the upper Pecos is still
a popular pastime. The anglers of today
can enjoy the area knowing that the
upper Pecos has a long proud history
with colorful characters such as Skipper
Viles. A long hike to a remote lake or a
small cold stream in the wilderness,
though, can bring back memories of
fishing in days gone by. The days of
catching large numbers of fish may be
over, but the pristine beauty of the Pecos
River remains. One can still sit on the
river's edge and envision Skipper Viles
and his friends casting their lines into a
deep pool and pulling out that elusive 9pounder!
a
ENDNOTES
1. Pecos is possibly a Towa Indian word, predating the Spanish word pecos that means "place
where there is water."
2. "No fish bones came to light here or elsewhere at Pecos, although tront were abundant in
the nearby river and as far as 1 know there is no
taboo against eating fish at any Pueblo." From
Alford Vincent Kidder, Pecos, New Mexico:
Archaeological Notes, vol. 5 (Andover, Mass.:
Phillips Academy, 1958), p. 123. The Native
American's contribution to our American fishing
heritage is more important than physical archeological remains. Their attitudes toward fish as prey
and the environment have contributed greatly to
our present activities. See Mark Browning,
"Upstream: The American Fork:' in Haunted by
-
Waters: Fly Fishing in North American Literature
(Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1998), pp.
41-57.
3. The narrative of the expedition of Coronado
is found in Pedro de Castaneda, Spanish Explorers
in the Southern United States, 1526-1543 (F, W.
Hodge, ed., New York: 1907). Erhard Rostland
reports Castaneda's statement is presumably "the
earliest reference to western trout by a European."
From Erhard Rostland, Freshwater Fish and Fishing
in Native North America (Berkeley: University of
California Press, i952), p. 357.
4. James E. Sublette, Michael D. Hatch, and
Mary Sublette, The Fishes of New Mexico
(Albuquerque, N . Mex.: University of New Mexico
Press, 1990).
5. Francesco Antanaso Dominquez, The
Missions of New Mexico, 1776, translated and annotated by Eleanor B. Adams and Fray Angeleco
Chavez (Albuquerque, N. Mex.: University of New
Mexico Press, 1952),p. 213.
6. Merideth A. Hmura, Mountain View Ranch:
1915-1945 (Loclzport, 111.: Leaning Pine Publishing
Co., 19961, p. 5.
7. Jeff Pederson, A Look at 75 Years of Game &
Fish History (Santa Fe, N. Mex.: New Mexico
Department of Game and Fish, 1987), p. 25.
8. Milton C. Nahm, Las Vegas and Uncle ]oe:
The New Mexico I Remember (Norman, Okla.:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1964),pp. 273-74.
9. George A. "Skipper" Viles, personal diaries,
1912-1950, in the possession of Merideth A.
Hmura.
lo. Tom Stewart was the forest supervisor and
an avid and excellent fly fisherman. From Elliott S.
Barker, Eighty Years with Rod and Rifle (Santa Fe,
N. Mex.: Sunstone Press, 1976).
11. John W. Johnson, Reminiscences of a Forest
Ranger: 1914-1944 (Dayton, Ohio: Brown & Kroger
Publishing, 1976),p. 122.
12. John Carnifex, "Fishing Along the Pecos,"
New Mexico Outing Magazine, July 1891, reprinted
in Fishing North America 187661910, compiled by
Frank Oppel, Castle Publishing, 1986.
13. Iohn W. Johnson, personal diaries,
1914-1943, in possession of Merideth A. Hmura.
14. Pederson, A Look at 75 Years, p. 26.
15. Ibid.
S U M M E R 2000
17
N O T E S
&
C O M M E N T
The Tups Indispensable: A Dubbing Dilemma
by Gordon M. Wickstrom
Cook Neilson
The Tups Indispensable, dry and nymph, a creature of the great
G. E. M. Skues. The Tups is one of the earliest and most interesting
of nymphs and is highly effective yet today. Tied by the author.
S
O M E W H E R Eat, this moment,
some nameless but responsible fly
tyer of good conscience is fretting
over the near impossibility of finding
exactly the correct dubbing for the thorax of a Tups Indispensable dry fly or
nymph.
In the face of its compelling lore,
many of us fret over it.
In that fount of all knowledge in
English, the Oxford English Dictionary,
we learn that tup is cant for a ram or
male sheep, and that the verb to tup
denotes his dastardly act of covering
(compelling) a gentle and innocent ewe.
In the drama, in Shakespeare's
Othello, the villain Iago seeks to poison
Othello's mind against his beautiful and
innocent wife Desdemona by telling him
that Cassio is "tupping your bright ewe."
In fly tying, Tups denotes a delicate
blend, an illusive shade of dubbing based
on a peculiar tint of urine-stained wool
from around the genitals of an old ram.
Few fly tyers, if any, have seen the real
tups wool. Resorting to frustrating
guesswork, tyers have for a century
sought to mix a dubbing that will satisfy
for a Tups Indispensable fly, dry or
nymph. Texts tell us to blend claret (or
pink) and yellow wool or fur to simulate
the desired shade.l Some stipulate cream
for yellow. All agree that it must be a delicate, subtle tint. But there is no visual
standard by which to judge our blends.
The Tups dressing is not widely available
in shops. And if it were, what tyer would
dare to claim authority? Who is there to
boast of having approached an old ram
18
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
close enough for examination, let alone
to invite him to give up a sample?
Of course. if we could find such a
weathered old beast, and they are few, we
could wait around for him simply to die
or go to mutton, and then, in the spirit
of the infamous Iago, snatch at his privates. But that surely speaks of a meanness of spirit and imagination. So, we go
on guessing, hunting materials, clipping,
mixing, blending, and stirring about in
order "correctly" to tie this lovely and
useful dry fly or nymph.
There lies here on my desk a small
packet of dyed "tups" wool from the
redoubtable John Veniard's of London,
dated 1965. It is pinker than some would
think correct, but then who are we to
argue with John Veniard? He speaks with
an authority as close to the great tradition and to the pasture as we shall get.
G. E. M. Skues. England's heroic father
of the nymph, was ;he first to use the
Tups in 1900, and with stunning
success-himself "dubbing" it "Indispensable." He kept the complex formula
of the dub a secret for several years
before revealing it as too important to
deny to other anglers.2
The Tups Nymph was also a major
player in James E. Leisenring's fly book.
He tells us how to tie it in his great The
Art of Tying the Wet Fly (1941). We know
that Leisenring enjoyed an extensive and
important correspondence with Skues,
that they exchanged flies across the
Atlantic,' and each much admired the
other. We may fairly suspect that Big Jim
got his enthusiasm for the Tups from
.
Skues and then made it his own basic
American nymph.
The body of the fly appears in texts
with optional proportions. More common to the dry fly, we see a tag of primrose yellow floss and a body of tups dubbing. The nymph, however, ought to be
tied with a yellow floss abdomen and a
pronounced bump of a thorax of tups
dubbing just behind the hackle. We are
told that the fly, both dry and nymph,
may be tied with either a pale honey dun
or equally pale blue dun hackle. Hackle
for the nymph must be soft, quite short,
and sparse. The dry is, of course, wingless.
Leisenring calls for two of the tiniest
dun hackle points for tails on the
nymph. They ought to extend beyond
the bend of the hook by no more than an
eighth of an inch on a size 14 dressing.
Tails for the dry are the more conventional bunched matching hackle barbules. Yellow tying silk is preferred. And,
of course, the correct dubbing.
ENDNOTES
The best source of the finest lamb's wool,
1.
from which the lanolin has been removed and so is
ready to be dyed any color, is the special bat of it
used by ballet dancers who place it between their
toes to lessen the terrible pain of dancing. A good
dancelperformance supply shop will provide it.
z. The Skues formula: Wool "from the indispensable part of a tup," the fine pinkish fur from
the poll of a hare's ear, cream-colored seal, the
lemon-yellow combings from a spaniel, and a bit
of red mohair or seal.
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I
(Left to right) Trustee Leigh Perkins, Laine and Yoshi Akiyama, and Romi Perkins
at the Manchester dinner/auction,which was the climax of the Festival Weekend.
Rodbuilder Fred Kretchnza
rod during I1
Photos by John Price
Leslie Hilyard [left) and Graydon Hilyard signed copies of their book,
Carrie Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies.
Leslie demonstrated the tying of the Stevens patterns as well.
Festival Weekend 2000
T
he Museum's annual Festival Weekend was held May 19
and 20, beginning with a welcoming cocktail reception
at the Museum. The galleries featured fresh exhibits,
including displays about Joe Brooks and Maxine Atherton, as
well as a vitrine full of recently discovered antique Irish and
Scottish flies from as early as the late 1700s.
Saturday featured demonstrations by bamboo rodbuilder
Fred Kretchman (who spent a month last summer performing
his craft at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.);
20
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
classic angling bookseller Ken Andersen; fly tyers Mike Walsh,
Peter Burton, and Bob Warren; and bronze sculptor Mark
Miramontes. Under the tent in front of the Museum, the boat
builders from "these are not canoes"Adirondack Guide Boat of
Charlotte, Vermont, displayed their classic crafts.
Authors Graydon and Leslie Hilyard were available in the
Museum gift shop to sign their book about Maine's fly-tying
phenomenon, Carrie Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout
and Salmon Flies. Leslie also set up his fly-tying vise to fashion
describes the action of a fine cane
demonstration.
Michael Osborne, Allan Poole, and David Walsh placing bids during the silent auction.
"These are not canoes" read the sign posted a t the entrance
to the tent housing the fine boats built by Adirondack Guide Boat.
copies of Stevens's streamer patterns for visitors.
That evening, the Museum held its annual dinner and
sporting auction in the Garden Lounge at the Equinox Hotel.
Cocktail hour featured a silent auction and raffle, with the
grand raffle prize of five rods from Orvis, Sage, Hexagraph,
and Thomas & Thomas rodmakers.
During dessert, Executive Director Gary Tanner announced
the Museum's annual awards (see related story in Museum
News, page 24.) The 1999 Joe A. Pisarro Volunteer of the Year
Award went to Jim Brown, Buzz Eichel, and Bob O'Shaugh-
nessy, and the 1999 Austin Hogan Award went to Pamela Bates
Richards.
Veteran sporting auctioneer Lyman Foss then auctioned off
the live auction items-from a day trip mushroom hunting
with Orvis's Jim Lepage to a trip down the Amazon fishing for
peacock bass on a loo-foot yacht owned by the secretary of
state of Brazil.
After these presentations and the live auction-with
Museum staff members John Price and Toney Pozek serving
as the evening's "Vanna Whitesn-raffle prizes were given
SUMMER 2000
21
Sculptor Mark hliraurzotztes at work.
Mike Walsh demonstrates the art offly tying.
more Festival Weekend 2000
away, with the clear winner being member Steve Millard of
Peterborough, New Hampshire, who had to make several
trips to his hotel room to stash his raffle winnings!
Thanks to the hard work of the entire Museum staff and
the generous time and effort of the weekend exhibitors and
craftsmen, the weekend was a huge success. Special thanks
also to dinner co-chairs Jim Lepage and Tom Rosenbauer, volunteers Peter Castagnetti and Bob Warren, and the following
22
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
auction donors: Rick Eck of Orvis-endorsed River Essentials;
artists George Van Hook, Peter Corbin, Brett James Smith,
Chet Reneson, and Luther K. Hall; Trustee Allan Poole; Russ
Johnson of Wet-A-Line Tours; Orvis-endorsed Captain Tony
Biski; local guide Tom Goodman; the Orvis Company; and
the King & Bartlett Fish & Game Club of Eustis, Maine.
The staff and trustees hope to see all of our regional members and guests at Festival Weekend 2001. Be there!
-
Visit your nearestT&T retailer or write for a copy of our full-color catalogue
Thomas and Thomas PO Box 32 Turners Falls. MA 0 1376 (4 13) 863-9727
www.thomasandthomas.com
SUMMER 2000
23
lohn Price
Executive Director Gary Tanner presents the Volunteer of tlze Year
Award to Jim Brown, one of three recipients ofthis annual award.
Awards Presented
The 1999 Austin Hogan Award was
announced during the Manchester dinnerlauction on May 20. This year's honoree was Pamela Bates Richards of
Newburyport, Massachusetts, who was
unable to accept the award in person.
The award was established in 1985 to
honor the memory of Austin Hogan,
who founded the Museum's journal, The
American Fly Fisher, in 1974. It is given to
the person who makes the most significant original contribution to the journal
that year.
Richards, who is a Museum trustee
and the daughter of the late Joseph D.
Bates Jr., received the award for "Joseph
D. Bates Jr.: Collection of a Lifetime,"
which appeared in the Spring 1999 issue.
The article featured, in part, the collection of classic Atlantic salmon fly patterns that is now part of the Museum's
permanent collection.
The 1999 Joe A. Pisarro Volunteer of
the Year Award was presented to three
volunteers who were instrumental in
helping to launch the Museum's traveling exhibit, "Anglers All: Humanity in
Midstream." Jim Brown, author of the
recently rereleased A Treasury of Reels,
identified which reels should be part of
the exhibit. Charles "Buzz" Eichel loaned
the Museum space to stage the design of
the exhibit. Bob O'Shaughnessy photographed the exhibit for future promotional materials. Both Brown and Eichel
were on hand at the dinnerlauction and
honored in person. These three men
played a real part in bringing to fruition
one of the Museum's greatest accomplishments to date.
Heritage Award
Nathaniel Pryor Reed, former assistant secretary of the interior, was the
Museum's 2000 Heritage Award honoree. Established in 1997, the Heritage
Award is presented to an individual
whose "commitment to the Museum,
the sport of fly fishing, and natural
resources conservation sets standards to
which we all should aspire." Prior recipients include Leigh H. Perkins Sr.,
Gardner L. Grant, and Bud Lilly.
Reed, a lifelong Florida resident, has
served that state in official capacities
such as chairman of the Department of
Air and Water Pollution Control. He
helped to form the Department of
Environmental Protection in that state
and has worked for thirty years to solve
continuing problems of Everglades
National Park.
"If any of us enjoy a good day of fishing in the Florida Keys, we might well
say a quiet thank you to Nat Reed," said
previous award recipient Gardner L.
Grant, who presented the award.
Reed was appointed assistant secreatry of the Department of the Interior
for fish, wildlife, and parks in 1971.
During his tenure, he and Yellowstone
Park Superintendent Jack Anderson
converted Yellowstone Park fisheries to
catch-and-release only, which prompted
the widespread adoption of this principle on many of the nation's waters.
Reed's board resume includes organizations such as the Nature Conservancy,
the National Audubon Society, 1,000
Friends of Florida, the National Geographic Society, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Trout Unlimited, the
Federation of Fly Fishers, and the
Atlantic Salmon Federation.
This year's annual award dinner was
held April 26 at the Sky Club atop the
MetLife Building in New York City.
Filled to capacity with family, friends,
and associates to honor Reed, the Sky
Club proved to be a stunning venue. Our
thanks to Manager Frank O'Reilly for
orchestrating an enchanting evening for
all. Everything was simply impeccable.
After cocktails and hors d'oeuvres,
guests were treated to a sumptuous dinner of smoked trout, tornedos of beef
with bearnaise sauce, topped off by torte
framboise for dessert. Table centerpieces
featured magnums of select Napa Valley
wines that had been etched with the
Museum logo and a leaping trout, and
guests were invited to bid on them as
part of the evening's deluxe silent auction.
The Heritage Award was presented to
Reed after dinner. Reed then proceeded
to enthrall the guests with a delightful
anthology of his personal "fish stories,"
which was met by a standing ovation.
After the speeches, Museum Director
Gary Tanner auctioned off a handful of
select items, including a limited-edition
bamboo rod handcrafted and engraved
by master rodmaker J. C. Wagner of
Ohio; original art from Peter Corbin,
Thomas Aquinas Daly, Henry McDaniel.
and John Swan; a fabulous trip to members Earl and Margit Worsham's six-bed-
The
American Museum
of Fly Fishing
Box 42, Manchester,Vermont 05254
Tel: 802-362-3300. Fax: 802-362-3308
EMAIL:[email protected]
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JOIN!
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INDIVIDUAL
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GROUP
AMFF Trustee President Robert Scott (left) and Trustee Gardner Grant
(right) present the 2000 Heritage Award to Nathaniel Reed (center).
room "cottage" on 3,300 acres in the
Smoky Mountains of Tennessee; and an
exotic trip to Boca Paila, Mexico, offered
by Trustee Mike Fitzgerald at Fish &
Game Frontiers in Pennsylvania. The
guests were delighted with the evening
and at departure were presented with a
travel bag with the Museum logo as a
thank-you gift.
Our special thanks to dinner co-chairs
Leigh H. Perkins Sr. and Janet Mavec,
and to committee members E. M.
Bakwin, Michael Bakwin, James Carey,
Tristram Colket Jr., Joseph Cullman 111,
Arthur Kaemmer, W. Thorpe McKenzie,
Ned and Linda Morgens, Dona1 and
Katie O'Brien, Samuel P. Reed, Peter
Solomon, and David and Jade Walsh.
Additional thanks to Trustee Roger
Riccardi for providing the magnum centerpieces. Thanks also to Chas Miller
and the staff at Forward & Miller for
their assistance in coordinating this
event.
Cleveland DinnerIAuction
"Cleveland rocks!" With Woods King
111 again serving as dinner chairman, the
Museum hosted its annual Cleveland
dinner and sporting auction at the
Country Club in Pepper Pike on April 13.
As always, Woods commandeered a full
house with the continuing support of
area businesses-Buckley, King & Bluso;
Baker & Hostetler, LLP; Grant
Thornton; and Deacon Chryslerl
Plymouth-who each fill a table every
year. Special thanks to Jim Lesinski,
James S. Reid Jr., Hewitt and Paula Shaw,
and Dick and Ann Whitney, who served
as sponsors for this event. Further
thanks to Bill Biggar who hosted the
Museum at the Country Club.
There was very active participation in
both the silent auction and the raffle.
The venue and fare were once again first
class, and we would like to thank staff
members Julie and Roe for their contributions to the evening's success.
Club
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Trade
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Membership dues include four issues of
The American Fly Fisher. Please send your
payment to the Membership Director
and include your mailing address. The
Museum is a member of the American
Association of Museums, the American
Association of State and Local History, the
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Alliance, and the International Association
of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame. We
are a nationally accredited, nonprofit, educational institution chartered under the
laws of the state of Vermont.
SUPPORT!
As an independent, nonprofit institution,
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relies on the generosity of public-spirited
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Available at $4 per copy:
Volume 6, Numbers 1, 2,3,4
Volume 7, Number 3
Volume 8, Number 3
Volume 9, Numbers 1, 2,3
Volume lo, Number 2
Volume 11, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4
Volume 13, Number 3
Volume 15, Number 2
Volume 16, Numbers 1, 2,3
Volume 17, Numbers 1, 2,3
Volume 18, Numbers 1, 2, 4
Volume 19, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4
Volume 20, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4
Volume 21, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4
Volume 22, Numbers 1,2,3,4
Volume 23, Numbers 1, 2,3, 4
Volume 24, Numbers 1,2,4
Volume 25, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4
Volume 26, Number 1,2
SUMMER 2000
25
C O N T R I B U T O R S
G. William Fowler is married and has five children. He has
been practicing law for twenty-eight years in Texas, primarily
serving natural gas, energy, and transportation companies. He
is a member of Trout Unlimited and the Mesilla Valley Fly
Fishers of New Mexico. Fowler is a lifelong fisherman and
became interested with the history of fishing after reading
Paul Schullery's American Fly Fishing: A History. He is a graduate of the University of Texas of El Paso and St. Mary's
University School of Law. Fowler is also the author of "Early
American Fishing: Mimbres Classic Period, 1050-1200 A.D.,"
which appeared in the Summer 1999 issue.
Merideth A. Hmura was born in New Mexico and lived in
Albuqerque for many years. She graduated from the
College of Artesia in New Mexico and now lives in Illinois
with her husband David. Hmura wrote Mountain View
Ranch: 1915-1945, a biography of George and Matie Viles,
owners of a dude ranch in northern New Mexico. She has
found that the unwritten history of the area is worth preserving and continues to research the upper Pecos area,
including the early homesteaders of the Cowles area. She is
also gathering more information about the ranch.
Marilyn Dalla Valle
"Gilded Summers in Belgrade, Maine" is JohnMundt's third
contribution to The American Fly Fisher. "Silk Fly Line
Manufacturing: A Brief History" appeared in the Fall 1991
issue, and the Summer 1996 issue featured "The Historic
Penobscot: America's Atlantic Salmon Fishing Legacy," for
which he received the Museum's Austin M. Hogan Award.
John currently serves on the Museum's board of trustees
and has been an active member of the Hartford dinnerlauction committee since 1991. He enjoys studying the history of
fly fishing and is a member of the library committee of the
Anglers' Club of New York. John is a partner with Sterling
Elevator Consultants, LLC and resides in Simsbury,
Connecticut, with his wife Joyce and toddler son Jack. They
are expecting the birth of their second child this September.
Gordon M. Wickstrom is professor of drama emeritus and
was longtime chair of that department at Franklin and
Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is now
retired to his native Boulder, Colorado, where he fishes,
writes, edits, politics on behalf of trout and their waters,
produces a theater group, and generally enjoys his old
hometown. His last contribution to the journal was "Vince
Marinaro: On Point of Balance," which appeared in the
Spring 2000 issue.
26
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S U M M E R 2000
Anything Out There?
Marcot Pdae
D
uring the early morning hours that Paul
Schullery and I sat glassing tens of thousands
of acres of Yellowstone's wildness, SUV load
after SUV load of probably well-meaning tourists
shouted to us from their vehicles, "Anything out
there?" Those of you who know either or both of us
can probably imagine the response we formulated
to that question as we contemplated the glories of
mountains and meadows, rivers and streams, and
between sightings of bears, bison, elk, antelope, coyotes, foxes, eagles, ducks, geese, cranes, songbirds,
and, well, you get the idea. "Anything out there?"
indeed.
Fishing the Firehole (in some surprising solitude!) later that day, I realized the similarity
between the morning's vignette and the American
28
S U M M E R 2000
Museum of Fly Fishing. That is, no matter how
much I might wish it were otherwise, the concept of
a museum dedicated to celebrating the history of fly
fishing eludes the vast majority of people-just like
Yellowstone's magic fell on apparently blind (or at
best, lazy) eyes earlier that day.
So what do we do-mutter "Oh well, we're just a
little niche" and hope that a dedicated few who
found "the way" all by themselves will carry on as
"keepers" of fly fishing's treasures and legends? I
don't think so.
The reason I was in Montana was to participate in
the opening ceremonies for our "Anglers All" exhibition at the Museum of the Rockies. That evening I
was thrilled to see hundreds of people-perhaps as
many as one-quarter of our total annual visitation
in Vermont-delight in the exhibition.
Wandering through the crowd of fishers and
nonfishers, adults and children, the excitement and
interest in fly-fishing history we created was clearly
evident. Just like Yellowstone's interpreters work to
bring nature alive for visitors who don't know coyotes from wolves or ducks from geese, we are bringing all that has been fly fishing alive for an entirely
new audience-giving us an entirely new future!
I try very hard to keep the "I" and "me" words out
of this little column, but the Museum of the Rockies
event was one of the proudest moments of my life,
and I wanted to celebrate it with you-all of you
made it possible. Thank you again.
GARYTANNER
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
Note: In Paul Schullery's book, Mountain Time: A
Yellowstone Memoir, there is a chapter titled "Is There
Anything Here to See?" It focused my thoughts for this
piece, and I thank Paul for sharing it.
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PO BOX
97 BELLWOOD, P A 16617
814-742-3299
FAX 814-742-3298 WWW.TOPARADISE.COM
HE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING
nationally accredited, nonprofit, educationinstitution dedicated to preserving the rich
eritage of fly fishing, was founded ir
Ianchester, Vermont, in 1968. The Museun
.rves as a repository for, and conservator to
le world's largest collection of angling an(
~gling-relatedobjects. The Museum's w l
ctions and exhibits provide the public wit1
lorough documentation of the evolution o
y fishing as a sport, art form, craft, and in
ustry in the United States and abroad from
Le sixteenth century to the present. Rods.
reels, and flies, as well as tackle, art, books
-~anuscripts,and photographs form the ma
,r components of the Museum's collections
The Museum has gained recognition as a
nique educational institution. It supports P
ublications program through which its na
onal quarterly journal, The American Fly
isher, and books, art prints, and catalogs are
bgularly offered to the public. The Museum'
aveling exhibits program has made it possi
le for educational exhibits to be viewec
:ross the United States and abroad. Thc
[useum also provides in-house exhibits,
dated interpretive programming, and
search services for members, visiting schol
s , authors, and students.
The Museum is an active, member-orient
1 nonprofit institution. For informatior.
lease contact: The American Museum of Fly
Fishing, P. 0. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont
05254.802-162-1100.