+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: NYC

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Clara City, MN USA
    Posts
    1,756

    Default NYC

    I have a meeting in New York City starting on Wednesday of this week. After years of reading Nick Lyons and other city-achored writers, I was just wondering if there are any historic fly shops in the Big Apple worth visiting -- sort of like Hemmingway's Paris bookstores? I look forward to your answers. JGW

  2. #2

    Default

    None that I know of. Jim Deren's place in the Chrysler Bldg has been gone for decades, he was the last of his kind. A close friend has Jim's favorite Leonard, and I still have some tying materials bought at his shop. It was the most cluttered little dump of a fly shop I've ever seen, and I always smile when I think of it and its crusty proprietor.

    Not to hijack your thread, but does anyone else remember Deren and have any stories ?

  3. #3

    Default

    Historic? Nothing historic since the Angler's Roost and A & F closed.

    The Orvis store on 5th Ave @ 45th Street is a disappointment at best. The Urban Angler; 206 Fifth Avenue, Third Floor, (between 25th and 26th street), may not be historic but while in the neighborhood check out the Flatiron Building, considered to be the oldest "remaining" skyscraper in NYC.

  4. #4

    Default

    GrsdLnr:

    I saw you comment about Jim Derren after I posted my reply.

    I had the great fortune of living about three blocks from Jim?s store after he moved out of the Chrysler building into the third floor digs he had at 141 E. 44th Street. I went there almost every day I could and often hung out there on Saturdays poking through his stuff and listening to his stories. He was an interesting old curmudgeon who only helped to fill my youthful head with the stuff of fly fishing legends and lore. I still remember him going on a rant when I showed him my then new ?Zoron? vise. He rather angrily proclaimed the Zoron people ?stole? the idea from his ?Angler?s Roost? vise. He was right by the way; the Angler?s Roost vise predated the Zoron Vise by many years.

    While not in Jim?s shop; back in those days I had the pleasure of rubbing elbows with the likes of Walt Dette, Harry Darbee, Nick Lyons, Peter Phelps, Hoagy Carmichael, Walt Carpenter and many other of my Catskill heroes. I was like a star struck baseball fan at a Hall of Fame induction. NYC often presented the fly fishing addict ample opportunity to meet the ?big and historic? names of the sport. Ahhh, those were the days!

    If you haven?t already read it, you must read the book, ?The Fish?s Eye?, by Ian Frazier. There is an entire chapter called, ?An Angler at Heart? all about Jim and the Angler?s Roost. It brought a tear to my eye when I read it; refreshing so many memories faded by time.


    [This message has been edited by Bamboozle (edited 27 February 2005).]

  5. #5

    Default

    Thanks, bamboozle.

    I got to meet a few of the famous names of my misspent youth in the Angler's Roost, too. Ed Zern comes to mind. I was there when Zern asked Deren if he had any Golden pheasant crests, and Jim just pointed and growled something like "Ahh, there're over there someplace", without even looking up from what he was doing. And he LIKED Zern. If he didn't like a guy, you can imagine the treatment he got.

    I'll look for Frazier's book, thanks again.

  6. #6

    Default

    GrsdLnr:

    I wish I got to meet Ed Zern.

    I did call him once and got him to agree to inscribe all of my copies of his books. Anybody who has never read "To Hell With Fishing", "How to Catch Fisherman", and "Are Fisherman People" and "How to Tell Fish From Fisherman" is missing the funniest books ever written about the sport.

    Cheers!

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts