About This Issue
As we begin our second year of Angling Echoes, both Matt and myself would like to give a great thank you to everyone who has subscribed and read our little magazine. The first year was a grand learning adventure and it is just now that we feel like we’re hitting our stride. 2019 is going to be an amazing year!
The feature article this issue is Richard D. Ware’s The Trout of the Nepisiguit, which is a piece I don’t think many of you will have read before. It ticks all the boxes for me: obscure location, interesting story, and well-written. I think you’re going to enjoy this one.
My other favorite piece is by Genio Scott, who has appeared in these pages before. The author of the seminal Fishing in American Waters, his articles are always so full of information on midnineteenth century fishing that they have no peer.
There are some interesting saltwater fishing pieces in this issues. We have well-known scribe F.G. Aflalo giving some deep insight into turn-of-the-century saltwater angling, The Avalon Tuna Club’s Frank Gifford detailing the first tuna caught by a woman, Frank Stick’s funny story of an angling barnacle named the Nut, and Dr. William Magee’s treatise on striped bass fishing.
As always there’s some good fly fishing literature. Frequently highlighted Ladd Plumley covers the strike in fly fishing; a British wag going by “F.I.” details salmon fishing with a trout rod, and M.F. Jamar, Jr. gives us fly fishing in Southern Washington in 1904.
General fishing articles include “It Is The Muskallonge,” which details Dr. James A. Henshall’s attempts to ascertain whether the big pike of Eagle River were musky or northern. A veteran angler of the Potomac is interviewed, an argument for the single hook spoon in trolling is put forth, and giving tackle the once over is highlighted in an article taken from The Illustrated World, one of the large photo-heavy serials.
From the pages of the Saturday Evening Post comes a fantastic pair of angling stories, one of which is perhaps the most legendary Wisconsin angling story of all time.
Finally, my favorite piece in this issue is a chapter from Gene Stratton-Porter’s novel Laddie featuring a battle between an intrepid young girl determined to catch a fish for her sick mother’s dinner, and a vicious ram determined to keep her from doing it. For those who don’t know, Stratton-Porter was one of the early conservationists and a mean hand with a fly rod. Her works were best sellers in their day and considered important literature in the present. She was a remarkable woman and it is no surprise that there are state parks and college buildings named after her even today.
We end as always with a letter from Mary K. Kelly, the intrepid fly angling historian. I think of Mary often and am happy this magazine gets to introduce her to a new audience.
As always, we would love to hear any feedback you have on Angling Echoes. Please email us at anglingechoes@gmail.com with your kind (or not so kind) comments! II
