Here’s a great piece of film footage from the very first episode of the “American Sportsman” television show, shot in 1963, hosted by Curt Gowdy and featuring legendary angler Joe. . .
Read MoreClassic Video: Joe Brooks on Casting Into the Wind
fly-fishing history
Museum Pieces: Flies So Good They’re Scary
Written by: Peter Nardini, American Museum of Fly Fishing
The Ghost, one of the beautifully dressed flies in Mary Orvis Marbury’s display from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Photos courtesy AMFF
In honor of All Hallow’s Eve, we have come up with a few historic fly patterns from our collection with some spooky monikers. . . .
Read MoreMuseum Pieces: Five Go-To Streamers for Fall
Written by: Peter Nardini, American Museum of Fly Fishing
One of the first saltwater bucktails, the Gibbs Special is forefather of many modern striper flies.
Photo courtesy AMFF
One for the Salt: Harold Gibbs Striper Bucktail
Harold Gibbs is considered the father of modern striper fishing in the Northeast. Originated in the 1940s, the Gibbs Bucktail (above) was one of the first attempts at suggesting a specific forage. . .
Museum Piece: A True Gartside Gurgler
The original Gurgler was all white, but Gartside has added some color and flash here.
Photo by Sara Wilcox
The American Museum of Fly Fishing is located right next to the Orvis Flagship store in Manchester, Vermont. The folks from the museum will be sharing. . .
Read MoreVideo: “Finding Joe Brooks,” and the Enlightenment of Argentina
For a few years now, we’ve been given teasers, trailers, and peeks at the upcoming documentary about the fly-fishing icon Joe Brooks, but here’s the first extended footage, which I think you’ll . . .
Read MoreMuseum Pieces: A Fly-Fishing Icon’s First Reel
Lefty Kreh improved his line drag by cutting a thumb insert in his first fly reel, this Pflueger Medalist.
Photo by Sara Wilcox
In the photo above, you can see Lefty Kreh’s very first fly reel, purchased in 1947, the year Lefty discovered fly fishing while guiding legendary angler Joe Brooks. Here’s the story as he told it in. . .
Read MoreVideo: Trailer for a New Documentary About Joe Brooks
Joe Brooks (right) and the legendary Florida guide Jimmie Albright.
Way back in 2014, we posted the teaser for an upcoming documentary about the legendary angler and writer Joe Brooks, featuring parts of his story that have never been told. Finally, here’s a . . .
Read MoreMuseum Pieces: Thaddeus Norris, the “Father of American Fly Fishing”
Written by: Peter Nardini, American Museum of Fly Fishing
Thaddeus Norris was known as “Uncle Thad” to his legion of angling fans.
Photo courtesy AMFF
Once described by Arnold Gingrich as “the American Walton,” Thaddeus Norris (1811-1877) is considered one of the founding fathers of American fly fishing. He was among the first to. . .
Read MorePersonal History: Birth of an Angler in Colorado
Written by: Gordon M. Wickstrom
Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, just a few years before this story takes place.
It was after morning recess in Mrs. Winter’s sixth-grade class at Mapleton School in Boulder, Colorado. I remember the moment precisely, when the boy behind me, right in the middle of . . .
Read MoreBombshell Article Reveals Fly-Fishing Text Older than the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle
The Haslinger Breviary codex
Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London, via amff.org
One of the few things that almost every fly fisher knows is that the sport’s first appearance in print was the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, which may have been (but probably wasn’t) . . .
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