Ancient Indications of Angling and Ethics

By Jon Lyman

Humans have been fishing for sport as well as food for almost as long as fishing has existed. In Europe, angling for pleasure can be traced back to the first century A.D. In the Far East, sport fishing - with bamboo rods, silk lines, flies, and barbless hooks - dates back more than 3,000 years.

Parallel to this long history of sport angling are signs of the development of angling ethics. There were very early discussions about the need to limit one's catch. Releasing fish alive may be nearly as old as the sport itself.

In the 1950s and '60s, state fish and wildlife agencies brought the weight of science to bear on the problem of renewing and sustaining wild fish populations. In recent decades, agencies have focused on developing a mix of management practices to ensure the health of fish populations while providing angling opportunities. Catch and release was formalized as one management tool through extensive research.

Some fisheries managers have said that "Fishing for Fun" began in the 1950s as a pseudonym for the first catch and release fisheries. Some fly fishers maintain that catch and release began with Lee Wulff's 1939 admonition that "a sport fish is too valuable to be caught only once." But catch and release is far more ancient in origin and practice.

From Martial's poetry of the first century to Sir Humphrey Davy's "Salmonia" in 1829, anglers have written about the need to release a portion of their catch. In 23523c220x America, the earliest discussion of the need to conserve resources and release fish comes with our first great author on fishing, Thaddeus Norris. His "The American Angler," published in 1864, was the first book published in the United States wholly written by an American angler about our fisheries. Uncle Thad, as Norris came to be known, wrote about the destruction of our fisheries and the need for resource conservation. He also wrote of releasing as many fish as he kept.

Perhaps the most influential book in the conservation movement of the early years after the Civil War was written by a Boston minister named William Henry Harrison Murray. "Adirondack Murray", as he was known, published his "Adventures in the Wilderness" in 1869. The book went through eight printings in its first year and led to the building of over 200 "Great Camps" in the Adirondacks within five years. "Murray's Fools" flooded the wilderness from the East Coast through the Midwest each weekend, packing specially scheduled railroad trains which ran from urban centers to wild places. This was the birth of industrial tourism that we experience in Alaska today.

Murray wrote of the need to restrict one's harvest of fish and game to that which is needed for food, and of releasing fully half of his catch. In the final 20 years of the 19th century, editors of outdoor magazines championed releasing fish as a means of conservation. By the time of the "Golden Age" of fly fishing, during the first several decades of the 20th century, catch and release was well established as part of the ethics of responsible angling. Just a few quotes from some of the more prominent writers of the day will illustrate this.

Theodore Gordon, perhaps the most revered angling writer at the turn of the last century, remarked in 1905 on the growing practice of releasing fish. "Some say it is well to kill off the big fish. I doubt this greatly" and "I know Mr. LaBranche by reputation, and his ideals are high. He fishes the floating fly only and kills a few of the large trout. All others are returned to the water.... I fancy that a trout should be big enough to take line from the reel before it is considered large enough to kill."

In "Streamcraft" (1919), George Parker Holden took time out from describing the habits and lures of trout and bass to declare "not the least of the beauties" of fly fishing is that the quarry is hooked "lightly through the lip." Holden then instructed on how to release fish easily, with minimal damage. He quoted Harold Trowbridge, from Outlook magazine, Aug. 6, 1919, extensively on the use of barbless hooks. Here was perhaps the first documented example of catch and release with no intent to harvest:

"In one morning's fishing out of fifty successive fish which I hooked I found it necessary to take only three out of the water in order to release them from the line. Two dropped off as they came over the side of the boat, and only one required an instant's touch before the hook could be slipped from its jaw."

Holden declared: "Do not be afraid to join the slowly growing fraternity of those anglers whose password is 'We put'em back alive!'"

Hewitt's "Handbook of Fly Fishing" (1933) touched briefly on releasing fish: "It is surprising what freedom and relief one feels when the basket is left home. I rarely carry one any more, as I seldom kill more than one or two fish for a day's sport, knowing only too well how long it takes to grow these fish and how few of them are in any stream. I do not want to injure my own sport or the sport of others in future."

In 1936, Gifford Pinchot published "Just Fishing Talk." He referred repeatedly to releasing fish.

"We love the search for fish and the finding, the tense eagerness before the strike and the tenser excitement afterward; the long hard fight, searching the heart, testing the body and soul; and the supreme moment when the glorious creature, fresh risen from the depths of the sea, floats to your hand and then, the hook removed, sinks with a gentle motion back from whence it came, to live and fight another day."

These writings and many others led to Lee Wulff's famous declarations in 1939 "Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once," and "The fish you release is your gift to another angler and remember, it may have been someone's similar gift to you."

A Brief Catskill Angling History

By Roger Menard

(Roger Menard is the author of the new book, My Side of the River: Reflections of a Catskill Fly Fisherman. Mr. Menard will be a featured participant of the MTHS special program
 A CELEBRATION OF CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FLY FISHING, April 6 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at the Windham Civic Center, featuring demonstrations of fly tying and casting, a slide show, historical and art exhibits, and a book signing with Mr. Menard.)

   Angling history has been recorded for hundred of years. Fly fishing history, largely European, followed suit. Cumulative over time, information on tackle, knowledge of anglers, intimate knowledge of rivers and local lore all add to the history of fly fishing.
   Historically, New York State's Catskill Mountains capture a unique position in the annals of American fly fishing. The Catskills have the distinction of being the birthplace of the American dry fly. It was here in the late 1800s that Theodore Gordon, a Catskill writer and angler, after much overseas correspondence with Mr. F. Halford, a leading British authority, developed dry flies suitable for the fast flowing rivers of the Catskills. His signature fly, the Quill Gordon, remains a basic pattern for eastern anglers. Right next to the Quill Gordon is the very popular Hendrickson, tied by Roy Steenrod, an acquaintance of Gordon's.
   Over the years, a legion of resident fly tyers following Gordon's footsteps became the nucleus of the Catskill school of fly tyers. They included Harry and Elsie Darbee, Walt and Winnie Dette, Reub Cross, and Herman Christian. Their skills gained popularity on the Beaver Kill and Neversink rivers of the western Catskills. Towards the eastern side of the mountains, Preston Jennings and Ray Smith were tying flies and catching trout on the Esopus. Art Flick, an intrepid angler and fly tyer who owned the Westkill Tavern in Greene County, was familiar with the waters of the Schoharie Creek. He also wrote a little book on Catskill flies that still remains a classic for anglers wishing to familiarize themselves with popular patterns.
   Visiting anglers from large metropolitan areas were eager to bring fine reels imported from England, the best Spanish silkworm gut leaders, and quality hand-tied American flies to match wits with wily Catskill trout. Classic bamboo rods have also contributed to Catskill angling lore. The William Mills Company in New York City, agents for the H.L. Leonard Rod Company and the E.F.Payne Rod Company (both rods were made in Central Valley, New York), offered anglers an array of split-bamboo fly rods to cast over their favorite waters. Several rods were river-tested in the Catskills, and a few models were named after the region.
   In the mid-1800s, the coming of the Ulster and Delaware and Ontario and Western railroads to the Catskills opened up new horizons for visiting sportsmen. Fishing towns, boarding houses, and hotels sprung up throughout the Catskills. For over one hundred years notable anglers visiting the region read like a veritable "Who's Who" of fishing fame. Angling writers Hewitt, LaBranche, McClane, Zern, Wulff, and Sparse Gray Hackle led the way.
   Fishing was good, too good, and the heavy baskets of trout, along with increasing pollution, were beginning to take their toll on the rivers. Brook trout require cold, pure water for survival. Excessive timbering and the denuding of the mountains changed river channels and caused heavy silting. Warming water temperatures were devastating to the eastern brook trout.
   Things looked bleak. Fears were growing among anglers that trout fishing would become a sport of the past. Then, a significant breakthrough occurred. In the late 1800s brown trout were imported from Europe and planted in Catskill waters. Being more tolerant of warmer stream temperatures, they also had a good reputation for rising to the fly. In addition, native west coast rainbow trout were transported to eastern waters. The rainbows quickly adapted to the Esopus Creek. It didn't take long for rainbow stocks to spawn naturally. Even today, rainbow trout still fare well in the Esopus and its tributaries.
   New York City's watershed, with its myriad of reservoirs, has also had its impact on fly fishing. The Ashokan Reservoir, built in the early 1900s, has been a haven for large rainbow and brown trout. The cold water discharge at the portal in Allaben (water transported via a tunnel from the Schoharie Reservoir) enhances the quality of the Esopus and contributes to the natural reproduction of its trout population. It is a great nursery river. There is also a migratory run of browns and rainbows in the fall of the year.
   The tailwater releases below the dams of the reservoirs have been beneficial to both trout and insect populations, creating first-rate fisheries.
   The Catskills have enjoyed worldwide fame for over one hundred years as an ideal place to fly fish, and that reputation continues today. With care and nurturing, there is no reason why the Catskill rivers shouldn't lure sportsmen for another hundred years, and even much, much longer.

Roger Menard is a resident of Ulster County's Catskill Mountains. He was a charter director of the Theodore Flyfishers and is a member of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild, and Trout Unlimited. A conservationist, he was instrumental in obtaining "artificial lure-only" regulations on the Amawalk River in southern New York. An avid fly tyer, he has sat alongside the vises of his friends Harry and Elsie Darbee, Keith Fulsher, Charlie Krom, Herb Howard, and Matt Vinceguerra. Besides fly fishing his home waters of the Catskills and Adirondacks, his angling travels have taken him to the western rivers of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming as well as to the Atlantic Canadian Province of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec.