Gordon M. Wickstrom at the London Fly Fisher’s Club. photo by Linnea Wickstrom

Editor’s note: For the next few months, we will be featuring entries from Gordon M. Wickstrom’s The History of Fishing for Trout with Artificial Flies in Britain and America: A Chronology of Five Hundred Years, 1496 to 2000. In this chronology, Gordon marks significant events—the publication of seminal books, tackle developments, important social changes, the dissemination of trout species beyond their native ranges, etc.—on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Wickstrom is the author of Notes from an Old Fly Book (2001) and Late in an Angler’s Life (2004), editor of The Boulder Creek Angler newsletter, and writer and director of The Great Debate—A Fantasia for Anglers, an imagined debate between Frederic M. Halford and G. E. M. Skues.

Click “Read More” for Part I.

Read More

I cut my teeth fly-fishing on Maine’s Rapid River for landlocked salmon and brook trout, and it was on that steep, tumbling freestoner that I first fell in love with traditional streamer patterns. Of course, the Rapid begins at Middle Dam, just a lake’s length from Upper Dam, the spot where Carrie Stevens invented her famous featherwing streamers, such as the Gray Ghost and the Colonel Bates. The Black Ghost was first tied by Herbert Welch, of Mooselookmeguntic, . . .

Read More

The first time I ever heard of bowfin was a couple of years ago, when I was ice-fishing for pike on Lake Champlain with a couple of friends from Orvis—I didn’t work here yet—and a few of their friends. Several of the guys were members of a bass-fishing club that held events on the big lake, so while we waited for the tip-ups to go off, there was lots of discussion of the fishing to be had during warmer. . .

Read More

The Orvis Home Office in Sunderland, VT

Today, we feature two of our California retail stores looking for people who can add their experience and passion to selling our great selection of fly-fishing gear! With more than 300 days of sun each year, the Pasadena and San Jose retail stores are great locations for someone interested in working for Orvis.

Read More