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Welcome back to the new NEFF. Take a break from Twitter and Facebook. You don't go to Dicks for your fly fishing gear, you go to your local fly fishing store. Enjoy!
This is where fly fishing started!
- Thread starter mtthwnvk
- Start date
Rusty Spinner
Active member
You may find some here that believe that river was the upper D and the date was as soon as those two big tailwaters were created
Trout Nazi
And...Boom goes the dynamite.
Your all wrong, Gene Simmons invented fly fishing, around the same time he invented rock and roll, and just about everything else (except the Internet, that was another asshole).
JOE.T
Dry Flies Only
Love Fishing Montana, however the birth place of DRY FLY Fishing was on the Beaverkill in Roscoe NY.
Fly-Fishing
Fly-Fishing
Future Fanatic
Nirvana
Gordon lived on the Neversink, didn't he?
No matter, because he stood on the shoulders of Thaddeus Norris, who was fly fishing before Gordon was born, using dries at that...
Norris loved the Brodhead...
JOE.T
Dry Flies Only
He sure did live on the Neversink, so did Hewitt and Lenny Wright.Theodore Gordon actually tied and used a "real dry fly", and designed it to float better for the pocket water on the Beaverkill. He is considered the godfather of Dry Flies amongst many of the purists .There is a pool on the upper Bkill that was named after him because he fished it so much..
Norris tied a wet fly with some hackle and attempted to float it, so in theory he tried.At leat he had the foresight.
Bottom line I really don't give a shit since I only use Comparaduns,Parachutes various emergers cripples, and funky spinners.
Neither of the flies they both tied would be a consistent fish catcher on the D.
You should read all of the books by the Gordon, Hewitt, and Lenny Wright instead of referring to Wikipedia
Future Fanatic
Nirvana
I love history of technology and generally the evolution of stuff has a lot of branches. The Pennsylvania fly fishermen certainly have a claim to being early. Look at James Allen's hunting and fishing lodge Trout Hall around which the city of Allentown grew. He had a upscale fishing lodge there before the Revolution when I doubt few people were fly fishing in Roscoe.
I like reading Norris, he had a nice conversational style of writing like Ray Bergman's. Gordon was influenced by Norris, not the other way around. Couple of things about Norris. He fished the Musconetcong and pointed out the big spring where the Muskie Trout Hatchery was built back in the 1860's - which makes it a very early trout hatchery. He also wrote that you could trim a wet fly, put a split shot on the tippet, and catch a lot of fish drifting it near the bottom but that would be bait fishing with a fly and not fly fishing. Some arguments go back a long ways.
The Catskills always had good press. The sports publications used to all be centered in NYC and those writers fished the Catskills. Hence much of the celebrity of those waters. However, Pennsylvania anglers have been dipping flies into streams going back to colonial times and figuring out ways to hook those wary limestone creek trout. First split bamboo fly rods were made in Easton, PA and I'm sure they evolved to delicately present a fly on a local spring creek. People studied the beginnings of bamboo rods, but there isn't really much on how they actually fished them. However, these guys didn't write much, except for Norris, until the days of Charlie Fox and Vince Marinaro. I would make a guess that Fox and Marinaro were building on earlier Central PA traditions. Fox started out with a rod made a generation earlier by a Harrisburg maker. It seems the old rod probably came with some history to it.
I like reading Norris, he had a nice conversational style of writing like Ray Bergman's. Gordon was influenced by Norris, not the other way around. Couple of things about Norris. He fished the Musconetcong and pointed out the big spring where the Muskie Trout Hatchery was built back in the 1860's - which makes it a very early trout hatchery. He also wrote that you could trim a wet fly, put a split shot on the tippet, and catch a lot of fish drifting it near the bottom but that would be bait fishing with a fly and not fly fishing. Some arguments go back a long ways.
The Catskills always had good press. The sports publications used to all be centered in NYC and those writers fished the Catskills. Hence much of the celebrity of those waters. However, Pennsylvania anglers have been dipping flies into streams going back to colonial times and figuring out ways to hook those wary limestone creek trout. First split bamboo fly rods were made in Easton, PA and I'm sure they evolved to delicately present a fly on a local spring creek. People studied the beginnings of bamboo rods, but there isn't really much on how they actually fished them. However, these guys didn't write much, except for Norris, until the days of Charlie Fox and Vince Marinaro. I would make a guess that Fox and Marinaro were building on earlier Central PA traditions. Fox started out with a rod made a generation earlier by a Harrisburg maker. It seems the old rod probably came with some history to it.
Future Fanatic
Nirvana
Be careful there, JeffK... You'll get yourself banned from the Catskills... Or accused of relying on Wikipedia...
JOE.T
Dry Flies Only
Actually Gordon was influenced by Fred Halford from England,There is a reason why Roscoe is know as trout town USA, even out West...
1886-1892
In this period, George Marryat was Halfor’d brilliant, non-literary collaborator in the development and propagation of the dry fly and its dressings. Their work was based on careful entomological studies of the English chalk streams.
Theodore Gordon
1890, in America
Theodore Gordon, a finely talented angler—in mid life, in delicate health, and of straitened means—retired early to the Neversink River in New York’s Catskills. There he became the dean and grand master of American fly fishing and fly tiers. On February 22, 1890, Gordon received from Englan’d Frederick Halford a full set of Halford’s revolutionary dry flies. These flies and correspondence with Halford started Gordon on the way to defining the dry fly for America, though he steadfastly refused Halford’s dry-fly purism. His Quill Gordon pattern became the premier American dry fly and the first in a line of Catskill School trout flies representative of American insects. Gordon gave the dry fly both an American home and character. His seminal and delightful “Notes” were published in England’s Fishing Gazette and later in the American Forest and Stream.
1890-1920
During this period, the Catskill mountain streams of New York, under the inspiration and technical virtuosity of Theodore Gordon, came into ascendancy as the center and model of American fly fishing.
1886-1892
In this period, George Marryat was Halfor’d brilliant, non-literary collaborator in the development and propagation of the dry fly and its dressings. Their work was based on careful entomological studies of the English chalk streams.
Theodore Gordon
1890, in America
Theodore Gordon, a finely talented angler—in mid life, in delicate health, and of straitened means—retired early to the Neversink River in New York’s Catskills. There he became the dean and grand master of American fly fishing and fly tiers. On February 22, 1890, Gordon received from Englan’d Frederick Halford a full set of Halford’s revolutionary dry flies. These flies and correspondence with Halford started Gordon on the way to defining the dry fly for America, though he steadfastly refused Halford’s dry-fly purism. His Quill Gordon pattern became the premier American dry fly and the first in a line of Catskill School trout flies representative of American insects. Gordon gave the dry fly both an American home and character. His seminal and delightful “Notes” were published in England’s Fishing Gazette and later in the American Forest and Stream.
1890-1920
During this period, the Catskill mountain streams of New York, under the inspiration and technical virtuosity of Theodore Gordon, came into ascendancy as the center and model of American fly fishing.
Nobody fishes the Beaverkill anymore - it's too crowded.
IMHO, there is a lot of fishing history lost because most people don't write it down. Halford and Gordon certainly have influenced the way we fish now, but plenty of old timers going back to Aelian noticed trout feeding on the top and tried to do something about it. Dapping, blow line fishing, Spanish style from a clothesline, and working a top topper on the surface with anchor fly to balance it have been around 100s of years. Over on this side of the pond flies heavily hackled with deer hair have been around forever. A couple show up in Mary Orvis Mayberry's book and the originals were at the fly show a few years ago. I do t see how they could sink very well. The way we fish is certainly patterned after Halford and Gordon, but people have taken trout on top a long time using the stuff they had at hand.
IMHO, there is a lot of fishing history lost because most people don't write it down. Halford and Gordon certainly have influenced the way we fish now, but plenty of old timers going back to Aelian noticed trout feeding on the top and tried to do something about it. Dapping, blow line fishing, Spanish style from a clothesline, and working a top topper on the surface with anchor fly to balance it have been around 100s of years. Over on this side of the pond flies heavily hackled with deer hair have been around forever. A couple show up in Mary Orvis Mayberry's book and the originals were at the fly show a few years ago. I do t see how they could sink very well. The way we fish is certainly patterned after Halford and Gordon, but people have taken trout on top a long time using the stuff they had at hand.
JOE.T
Dry Flies Only
A few times a year With my 2 oldest boys, a few spots that have plenty of heads up in the evening and no people around..
Rusty Spinner
Active member
I fished it twice this year so far. I'm headed that way on Monday to look at a stream restoration potential project and was going to fish somewhere local.
mudbug201
loose loops, sink tips
I agree with DC. I often like knowing where things came from, but in the case of fly fishing I don't seem to care for some reason. All I want to know is what's hatching and how I can imitate it now, in 2015, with a typical budget of about $10 to spend on flies. Sorry Theo.
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lightenup
A fan of Boobery
I enjoy history...I really don't care weather it's fishing or anything else. I believe the knowledge we gain from the past helps us excel in the present.......I also like the old style reels, especially the Hardy ones....
I don't know how it could make me fish better, but I enjoy it anyway....
I don't know how it could make me fish better, but I enjoy it anyway....
JOE.T
Dry Flies Only
Hi John
You have been invited to fish with Jeff (Brachy) and I to do a float with us.We can help you with Insect ID,Casting,setting up on a fish.Just a boat load of fun and info.
Just fyi due to high water we may need you at certain times to be our anchor if that's ok with you? It should be safe we'll have a rope tied around your waist and you'll have waders on of course.
PM Jeff if your interested , he;s looking so forward to finally meting you in person.
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