History

Chris Hunt put together a great piece in Hatch Magazine which highlights some of the great work Scientific Anglers and The American Museum of Fly Fishing are doing to help preserve fly fishing history. The Museum and SA have worked together to preserve some of fly fishing's classic films online. They're now free to view, and feature videos from folks like...

If you're any sort of fly fishing history buff, then Ted Leeson's piece over at Fly Fisherman Magazine is for you. In it, he details the 50 greatest milestones in modern fly fishing history, starting way back in 1947 with the introduction of the Wonderod - the first fly rod built with a synthetic shaft material. This is a wonderfully fun trip down memory...

A new educational course from PBS Wisconsin is now available, detailing the life of legendary fly fisher and tier Carrie Frost. Frost was one of the first women in America to start tying flies commercially, and her efforts led to the founding of a fly tackle company - all during a time when women still weren't allowed to vote in the United States. Her story...

Catching a marlin on a fly rod has long been a dream of mine, even before I read Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. So, for today's Throwback Thursday, I figured why not look to the past for examples of catching these massive fish on a fly rod? What I found is a video that supposedly shows off the first marlin ever caught on a fly. Check it out, and...

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, located in Livingston Manor, NY, is getting work done, according to The River Reporter. The main goal of the work is to expand the museum to include more of the history and artifacts that are currently just gathering dust. Read the entirety of the story here.

I'm a big fan of vintage fly gear. I own a fair number of old graphite rods, bamboo, and classic reels. A few years back, I even picked up an early-70s Hardy Princess at a pawn shop for $40. So when I saw this story from Steve Woit in Hatch Magazine, I knew I had to run it. Woit takes readers on a journey through a variety of fly fishing collectors...

The old classic film Fishing USA was released in 1969, starring a fellow by the name of Gadabout Gaddis. With a name like that, you're sort of destined for the hallowed halls of fishing fame, aren't you? This is a clip from that Fishing USA, where Gadabout flies through wild Maine in search of brook trout and salmon. Take a look at the old fiberglass...

If I asked you to tell me what Mary Orvis Marbury did for the fly fishing community, could you answer? I couldn't, when I first came across her name. I reckon most anglers can't. But she's someone you absolutely need to know about. Mary's contributions to fly fishing are varied, but perhaps her greatest achievement was creating a classification system for...

The Lahontan cutthroat trout captures the imagination of anglers everywhere, for two reasons. The first being that it's just incredible the fish even exists today (it's a true conservation miracle) and the second, of course, being that these things grow pretty damn big. Thankfully, you can get your Lahontan fix without the trip to Pyramid Lake in a recent...

Continuing the theme of Throwback Thursday, I scoured up this old video about fly fishing in Alaska. It's a gem, because it shows us a glimpse into the Katmai area of the state, long before the issues that plague it were even considered. And, as the narrator says, it's rare for a cast in the Brooks River to not hook a fish. If you already didn't have enough...