Fly Fishing's Quirky "Anti-Catalogs"

May 10, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

Bob Scammell writes in Canada’s Brooks Bulletin about the good old days when fly fishing suppliers weren’t afraid to tout virtually every one of their products as “The Best” or “The Only.” He mentions the House of Hardy, Herter’s, and R&R Feather Merchants of Rough and Ready, Californian, then notes that one company — a mail-order book business started by Gary LaFontaine, still delivers the goods. “All this nostalgia came buzzing out of a Pandora’s box of half a dozen books I had ordered when I found the real treasure tucked inside: the latest copy of one of the quirkiest and best of the ‘anti-catalogs,’ the ‘Book Mailer,’ from Helena, Montana.”