Just found a box full of Fly Fisherman Magazines from the 70s thru the 90s sitting under a table in my classroom. Someone gave it to me a couple of years ago, and I had forgotten about them.
I started going through them, and am enjoying reading things I have never seen, yet have seen in recent magazines. Just goes to show that what comes around goes around. Tapply’s stories at the end are giving me much enjoyment right now. It is also nice to read about areas I haven’t read about in modern mags, as well as the “way it usta be”.
Glad I found them. Let me know if you need one to finish a collection, I’ll see what I got. I will leave it up to you to decide if they are worth more than postage.
Sometimes the “old ways” are better than anything “new”…but then what really is new…it’s still about getting a fly out on the water that a fish will take…and Bill Tapply stressed that better than most…have fun with your find
Jimmy’s All Seasons Angler in Idaho Falls has quite a library of fishing magazines from the era that you mentioned. The past couple winters I made it a habit to grab a few each time I was in the store and spend some time each week reading them.
Those were GREAT magazines. The writing was excellent. The articles were informative. There was a minimum of advertising and gear discussion, as I recall.
Compared to what I’ve seen lately in the way of fly fishing magazines, there is no comparison. Consider yourself lucky to have such a collection.
I started reading Fly Fisherman magazine back in the 70’s. It seemed like everytime I got a new copy, I’d spend at least a few hours reading each issue from cover to cover. It seems like about 10 years ago or so, my interest in all fly fishing magazines just waned. Now if I take a look at a fishing magazine while waiting in line at the grocery store, a quick flip thru the pages, and I generally lose interest.
Don’t know if it’s me or the magazines, but something changes from the old days.
This tread inspired me to check to see if the book resulting from a collection of Corey Ford’s the Lower Forty column could be found on the internet. And there is was, a little pricey for the moment but when I get closer to my second million I know it can be had. If you are a youngster and are not familiar with Corey Ford, he wrote a humorous outdoor column for Field and Stream back when I was a kid and when to the barber shop and paid a dollar to get my flattop hair cut. Now I can’t grow enough hair to have a flattop. And there was Ted Trueblood, which was his real name although I suspected it was made up for years.
Good memories, I may have to go get out my copy of “Mostly Tailfeathers” by Gene Hill tonight.
I have quite a collection of articles torn from magaines of Gene Hill’s work. I pull them out often to reread and rekindle my dream of writing in a similar style. Will never happen.
Jim Kearney