Angling Echoes November 2018
November is an interesting month in that, at least where I grew up, it brought the first icy fingers of winter as well as
Thanksgiving — my favorite holiday. I love that we as a nation come together one day a year to count our blessings. And Matt and myself at Angling Echoes have a lot to be thankful for this year! We managed to get a new magazine off the ground. That’s no easy task.
The feature artice this month is an interesting piece of angling fiction by W.M. Wilcox, dealing with an aristocratic trout angler, an angry lass, and a surprise ending. I am happy to have resurrected this lovely piece of writing.
I’ve always been a fan of “underdog fish” — species that are often denigrated by traditional writers — and this issue features not one but three of them. The first is a very old (1864) appreciation of gudgeon, which is a kind of minnow that grows to around 10 to 12 inches. The second is the rock bass, a very colorful fish that has always been one of my favorites, covered in a very nice article by Henry Strobridge (1890). The third is a great piece on catfishing by Herman Hansen (1916) which could well have been written today, as although great strides have been made, catfish still are looked down upon by ignorant anglers.
There are some detailed articles about trout fishing. Ladd Plumley gives us a nifty article about fly fishing deep waters with the wet fly, Joe Wharton contributes a detailed piece about fishing on Oregon’s Rogue River, and J.E. Meiers’ 1898 piece on trout fishing and camping in Nova Scotia is a classic of the genre.
Perhaps the most unique piece in this collection is by J.K. Garkuthees Bell on fly fishing and mountaineering in the High Alps.. It’s a historically important piece, documenting one of the deadliest accidents in Alpine history, as well as giving us a glimpse at what fishing in very high mountain streams is like. I can’t recall reading another piece like this before.
Marguerite Ives — wife of Will H. Dilg — wrote a very interesting piece on lady angling as well as tarpon fishing in 1912 that is reprinted here. She details her fishing career and notes that she caught a world record tarpon (women’s category) which, if caught two years before, would have been a world’s record in any category.
Another interesting article is by Edward L. Morse, who recalls his fishing career around Weimar, Germany. Published in 1919, just months after the Weimar Republic had been declared, the historian in me loves the connection to one of the most important events of the twentieth century. It’s an amazing piece.
But my favorite piece this issue is by a man known simply as Frank, and is entitled “Plain Christian Fly Fishin.’” It is an
incredible piece of fiction that is a wonderful antidote to anyone who thinks there is only one way to catch fish, and that there way is somehow better than others.
Finally, there is a great tour of the Thos. H. Chubb rod factory conducted by none other than William Harris, the publisher and editor of The American Angler. It’s a great piece for angling historians.
There are other shorter works as well — an early piece on fly tying, a funny angling anecdote about a policeman, a piece on the
first angling museum — as well as Letters from Mary Kelly.
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!
