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Thread: Fly Fishing Trivia Question

  1. #21
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    The Lewis & Clark expedition has always been an interest to me (have wanted to pack up the camper and retrace their route, stopping off here and there and wetting a line where ever possible). I've read the log book/journals they kept of that incredible adventure and stand in awe of their accomplishments. There is a particular account of how much meat each member consumed each day on an average and occasionally there was mention of fish consumed, too. Makes you wonder just how the fishing was accomplished. Evidently they did not venture into where the national park is today but as the as the attached site says, they passed some 50 miles to the north. Also says one member of their party stayed behind for the return trip and says he (John Colter) was probably the first white man to see the wonders of the park during the winter of 1807-08. This all does not have much to do with who first fly fished the area but I can't help but think it's of some interest to whoever visits there.

    http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisi...ad/Yell273.pdf

  2. #22
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    Dale,
    I share your interest in Lewis and Clark. I got the audio version of the great book done on their expedition. Really enjoy reading about how they managed to make it across. It was really as nearly impossible as going to the moon was 40 some years ago.

    What I find interesting, also, is that there is good evidence that the early Macedonians caught trout using a hook covered with bright wool and having feathers affixed. I think there is evidence they did so as far back as 300 AD.
    So, you wonder if the native Americans also did so in what we now call Yellowstone Park. They must have seen fish rising to insects. Am sure they fashioned some sort of an imitation of an insect and flipped it out on the water - very early fly fishers????

  3. #23
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    John,
    Wish your water was closer to Last Chance and I would fish it this summer.

  4. #24
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    Secretary of the Interior in 1881 was Samuel J. Kirkwood. He was an Abolitionist, Republican Senator in the Iowa State Senate, Governor of Iowa during the (un)Civil War, and served as Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield, and Arthur from 1881 to 1882. In 1860, while he was governor, one of John Brown's raiders, John Coppeck escaped to Iowa after the raid. Kirkwood refused to honor extradition papers and allowed Coppeck to escape, causing a national scandal. He left the Governors Office in 1864. From 1865 to 1867, he served in the US Senate, and again from 1877 to 1881. In-between time, he was once again elected Governor of Iowa. In 1881, he was appointed Secretary of the Interior. Not much is known of him personally, but indirect sources seem to indicate that he was fond of fly fishing. Could it be he?

    Are you sure it wasn't 1891? Because, with the exception of the upper Yellowstone River Drainage, all of the rivers and lakes above major falls in the Yellowstone National Park were virtually devoid of any game fish prior to government stocking programs, which began in 1889.

    There is evidence that Paleo Native Americans of the Clovis culture were making fish hooks in the region as far back as 11,000 years ago. It doesn't take a big stretch of the imagination to figure that at some point, someone would've gotten the idea to tie a few feathers, or fur to a hook to imitate an insect.

    In 1817, John Coulter recounted his adventures in the Yellowstone area to British writer William Bradbury. During the winter of 1807-1808, Coulter described his experiences of catching fish in the upper Yellowstone by what passed for angling in those days. Bradbury published Coulter's memoirs as a footnote in his 1819 book, "Travels in the Interior of America. However, since this was before Hardy's patent for the fly reel in 1888, you may not consider this fly fishing, but the 1881 expedition wouldn't qualify under those conditions either.

    I'd put my money on a Clovis fisherman with a fly and a club. Somewhere there is probably an undiscovered cave-painting depicting just such an event........

  5. #25
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    Gig,
    That's what I was suggesting too in an earlier post.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allan View Post
    The topic of Yellowstone Park on another page reminded me of something so I thought I'd post this here as a trivia question:
    According to the literature, or at least in the book I read, who was the first fly fisher to specifically use that method of fishing in Yellowstone Park? Also, according to the literature, the purpose of that initial effort was to feed an army cavalry unit which he was able to do with the number of trout caught. Who was this fly fisher?
    Answer to follow.

    Allan
    I believe it was General George Armstrong Custer (probably a better fisherman than strategist)

  7. #27
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    I know. I wasn't trying to steal your thunder, just expanding on it. My point was that Coulter's fishing was documented, albeit by a 2nd-hand account. But so was Hewitt's.



    Quote Originally Posted by Byron haugh View Post
    Gig,
    That's what I was suggesting too in an earlier post.

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