02.21.23 During research I found a cool book from way, way back......

 

     Imagine you're a fly fisherman, or woman, sitting in your tenemant in the center of Trenton, New Jersey in 1865. You're just starting your journey into an obsession that could take you from your local 

water, the Delaware River, or to waters far and unknown. In the local book store you find a new book titled, Superior Fishing, or The Striped Bass, Trout and Black Bass of the Northern States. I'll just assume, like me, the person sitting in that railroad flat is obsessed with fly fishing for striped bass. And you know what, there is mention of that and of the Delware River in this book. I guess around 1850 fly fishing, well started to take off. In 1856 a company was started that appealed to the fly fisher, it was the year Charles Orvis started his company in Vermont. There was no TV, radio, of course internet, so any information came in local newspapers or printed books.  I believe most of the fly fishing done 250 years ago was freshwater, and any saltwater fly fishing was doner mainly for salmon. 

     I've been doing a lot of research lately looking for early 19th and 20th century articles, books, or just a mention of striped bass fishing in the rivers of New Jersey, particularly the ones that have rebounded from the Industrial Revolution and human pollution. 

     I was surpised to find the above book, which was the second in a series by author Robert B Roosevelt. Roosevelt was born in 1829 and was a politician, conversationalist, a fly fisherman and hunter, and Uncle to President Theodore Roosevelt.  He penned several books, including Superior Fishing, and The Game Fish of North America and The Game Birds of Our Northern Coasts. 

    In his book Roosevelt writes, "Fly fishing for (striped) bass, however, is the perfection of the sport, and infinitely surpasses all other modes of killing these noble fish". And then describes how "The ignorant and debased natives who inhabit the romantic region",  speaking of the areas off the Chesepeake Bay, specifically around the Potomac River, "manufacture a fly by winding red or yellow flannel round the shank of a large hook, adding sometimes a few white feathers". Wow, that is cool. 

     And then the surprise for me, again this is written in 1856, "Although the true fisherman may pursue the small fish of the Delaware or Hudson, of New York Bay or the Sound....." And there you have it. For me that's the first mention of fly fishing for striped bass in the Delaware River, 1856. That's 247 years ago! Imagine that there was another book, The Compleat Angler, written by Izaak Walton in 1653. In a later edition, 1676, there is a chapter on fly fishing written by his bud, Charles Cotton. That was, what, almost 450 years ago? Amazing. 

     In Roosevelt's book there are six pages of illustrations, some of them in color. Below is either the first illustration of a fly rig set-up or a spreader bar, I'm not really sure. His book has been rewritten 

and published at different times over last century. Roosevelt penned another book, The Game Fish of North America, and in that book he tips his hat to the fly fisherman who fishes for striped bass. "The most scientific and truly sportsmanlike mode of taking striped bass must be admitted to be with the fly." 

     He then goes into the best set-up for targeting striped bass on the fly rod, "Fly fishing may be done either with bthe ordinary salmon rod, or in strong current with the common bass rod, by working your fly on top of thge water and giving a considerable length of line. The best fly is that with the scarlet ibis and white feathers mixed, the same as used for black bass, but bass may be taken with any large fly, especially those of gay color. Excellent sport is frequently had in this way from off some open bridge, where the falling tide, mixed with the fresh water, rushes furiously between the piers". This book was published in 1884. Striped bass on the fly......1884.

     When I think of Fly Fishing in Salt Water I think of the book written by Lefty Kreh, first in 1974, with revised editions coming later. I have the 1986 edition on my shelf with the rest of my favorite fly fishing books. I love old fly fishing books. 

     During this winter I have formulated a list of anglers who called the Delaware River home and fished it from the 1960's through today. I hope to meet up with each of them and get a history of the river and the fish, from the dead days of the 1960's and 1970's through the rebirth of the river we see today. That river holds an amazing history and throughout it the fish have survived, no matter what we did to them and how hard we tried to kill the water and everything living it in.