February 2019 Angling Echoes
About this Issue
Someone once said February days are the teeth of winter, and where I grew up, the month served as the heart of the ice fishing season. Now that I no longer live in the frozen northland, I find it a strange month that can be minus 20 one week and 70 degrees the next.
This issue of Angling Echoes is, like the month itself: an eclectic one. It’s filled with articles I’ve archived over the years and wasn’t able for one reason or another to fit elsewhere. Yet taken together, they work in harmony.
The feature article is from 1888 and entitled “Salmon Fishing on the Restigouche.” It is wonderfully illustrated and an example of a classic salmon fishing article.
I didn’t realize it until after but there are two perch articles in this issue — a rarity indeed. The first might be my favorite article of the year. Edward James’ “Perch Fishing Club” is a remarkable look at aristocratic rural life in Great Britain in the early nineteenth century. It’s really well written and a charming look into a world that was already disappearing in 1836 when it was written. The life of leisure that men of wealth led at the time was remarkable, but so was their sense of responsibility for their workers. The other piece is Frank Bates’ article on fly fishing for white perch, a species you don’t see written about very often.
There are a couple of international articles of note. The first is a short piece that prefaced Walter Gallichan’s book on fishing in Spain, and the other is an interesting (and bizarre) piece on New Zealand fishing techniques.
Fly fishing is well represented in this issue. A selection from the 1883 Hardy Bros. catalog on fly fishing for trout is interesting, as is the great John Harrington Keene’s piece on salmon fishing in Labrador, resurrected from a very obscure English fishing journal and published in 1892.
There are also some great traditional angling articles, including one on pike fishing in Lake Champlain, another on bass fishing with floating lures (by noted author Robert H. Davis), and George E. Case’s piece on cloudy day bass fishing. Christopher Davies’ article on carp fishing is of interest as well.
There are some historical pieces of note as well. Frank W. Cheney’s piece on how to define an angler is still applicable today. There’s an interesting piece from 1891 on the history of the fish hook. Francis Brimley’s article on William T. Porter as an angler is well worth reading as it outlines this legend of American fishing angling proclivities.
There are some short articles on eclectic subjects — sightless minnows found deep in a Dakota well, tuna fishing on the west coast, and a pair of sticky finger youths who steal a fishing reel — that round out this issue well.
Sometimes I want the issues of this magazine to have a common theme, but other times, I like to bounce around in truly eclectic fashion. February’s issue is dedicated to those who enjoy this kind of reading.
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!
February 2019 Angling Echoes
