By now many of us have recieved the Cabela's Fly Fishing 2007 catalog with Dan Burr's clever rendering of an angler in an all too familiar bind--struggling to thread on a fly while trout are gorging on the hatch all around him. It "captures the moment." A link in the catalog will lead to Wildwings the site where you can buy it.



I won't be buying it because for the last 15 years I have been looking at an almost identical picture that already captured that same moment 40-50 years ago. A print of Mead Schaeffer's Fly Fishing Virtuoso has been hanging on the wall of my family room for over 15 years. Schaeffer, a book and magazine illustrator who died in 1980, probably created it in the 40's or 50's.



Only the angler's faces and a few other details were changed for the reincarnation. This all reminds me of when it turned out that one of George Harrison's hits featured a melody lifted from another rock tune.

My Sweet Lord, Cabela's and Wildwings! Help me if you can!


Mike