applies the same painstaking attention to minutiae that brought him success in a career in information technology. He scrutinizes every piece of fishing tackle, every stitch and seam on a vest and pair of waders, every fly rod, line, and pattern, with the idea that landing the fish of a lifetime will ultimately depend on the performance of his gear. If an item is flawed, poorly designed, poorly manufactured, or otherwise substandard in any way, he will not sell it to a customer, and he certainly will not get caught using it himself.
Bob has chosen both the waters and the writers for this book with the same exacting standards. No starry-eyed romanticism, no nod to nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia, has clouded his judgment in making his selections. No storied past in and of itself will earn a river or stream a place in this book if it is flawed or substandard and can no longer support a healthy fishery. If it is accessible, well-regulated, and well-maintained, it probably made the cut. If it is deficient in any of these qualities, he will not waste his time, or yours, by including it.
Just think: if you live in the Northeast you will never have to sit in another crowded airline seat to get to a fishing destination. If you made a list of the great waters you have fished in your lifetime, would there be fifty? Here are fifty great fisheries you can visit within a day’s drive of home. Here, too, are the resources you will need to make your trip worthwhile, including tips about where to and how to fish them, by expert anglers who know the water.
—THOMAS AMES, JR.
Thomas Ames, Jr. is the author of Hatch Guide for New England Streams, Fishbugs, Caddisflies: A Guide to Eastern Species for Anglers and Other Naturalists, and numerous articles on fly fishing.
Chris Major on the upper Saco River. Fly Fish America
Introduction
I ALWAYS KNEW I would someday be involved in writing a definitive guide to fly fishing in the Northeast. Over the years friends, associates, and peers encouraged me to take the plunge and write down what I knew. I started several times, but I never finished. I struggled with the format. Where-to guides come in many flavors, and I just did not know where I wanted to go with it. Sometimes there seemed to be too much information. Other times, too little. Sometimes there were glaring omissions. Other times, odd inclusions.
I wasn’t interested in writing the kind of kiss-and-tell book that identifies specific pools to fish, where to park, and what fly to use. I was not sure that level of detail was necessary. I wanted to tell people where to go and why. I figured they would know—or figure out—what to do when they got there. Sure, some basic tackle and fly information was useful, but to try to delve into too deep a level of detail without consideration of the current weather, water levels, water temperatures, and so on, seemed futile, and worse, potentially misleading.
While working on Terry and Wendy Gunn’s 50 Best Tailwaters to Fly Fish, I realized that I had finally found a format that worked for me. In addition to telling the angler where to go and why, the book provides information about local fly shops, guides, lodging, and food that would be useful to the visiting angler. The book is not burdened with a level of minutiae that was as likely to be wrong as it was right.
It did not cover waters for the sake of covering waters—there was no room for filler. It focused solely on the best.
Next was the author/editor vs. solo author approach used in the book. Tapping fly-shop personnel, working guides, lodge owners, and others to contribute chapters wherever possible would allow me to create a veritable all-star team of regional expertise. This would in turn increase the value of the information in the book, and make it more interesting to read. It would give me a chance to share the limelight with friends, acquaintances, peers, and even competitors. It would present a real challenge to try to pull it all together— far harder, in reality, than writing everything myself.
When the same publisher, Stonefly Press, contacted me about the possibility of writing a book about the Northeast, I jumped at the opportunity. Finally, a format that worked for me and a publisher who understood that more is not necessarily better, and that less detail is better than inaccurate detail. The folks at Stonefly Press have brought a fresh and modern view to the fly-fishing where-to book. They have breathed new life into a genre that had become a bit stale. They have set the bar higher than it has ever been set before. I commend them for helping to reinvent the fly-fishing where-to book.
Blueback trout. James Prosek
The Northeast
COMPRISED OF THE SIX New England states, plus New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the Northeast represents a relatively small part of the country from a geographic standpoint. No state ranks higher than 30th in the nation in regard to size. Six are among the 10 smallest—including the smallest, Rhode Island. Eight of the 9 are within the 20 smallest.
Conversely, four of the states are within the top 10 in the nation in regard to population. Six of the 10 most densely populated states are in the Northeast—including the top four, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Population densities range from a low of about 40 people per square mile in Maine to over 1,000 people per square mile in New Jersey. The Northeast is home to roughly 20 percent of the nation’s population—and within a short drive of about another 10 percent.
The History
While the focus in regard to fly fishing has shifted west over the years, it is important to remember that the Northeast is where it all started. From the historic hotels and sporting camps of Maine, to the hallowed waters of the Catskills, to the fabled limestone creeks of Pennsylvania, the Northeast has a rich fly-fishing history.
The Northeast was a hotbed for early fly design. From Carrie Stevens and her fabled Grey Ghost streamer, to Bill Bennett and his groundbreaking Pontoon Hopper, to Theodore Gordon and his delicate Quill Gordon dry fly, much early fly innovation came from the Northeast. In recent years, tiers such as Fran Betters, Dick Talleur, Dick Stewart, David Klausmeyer, Don Bastian, Ed Muzzerol, and David Mac have been torch bearers for classic fly tying.
Many early fly-fishing tackle manufacturers came from the Northeast as well. From Orvis—founded on the banks of the Batten Kill in Vermont—to Thomas and Thomas in Massachusetts, to Cortland Line Company in New York, to outdoor giant L. L. Bean in Maine, to the numerous early bamboo rod shops scattered across the region, the Northeast accounted for much of the fly-fishing tackle available in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Northeast was also well represented on the literary front. From Arthur R. MacDougall, Jr., famous for creating the fictional character Dud Dean, to the classic writings of Alfred W. Miller—aka Sparse Grey Hackle—to the technical genius of Vince Marinaro, Charlie Fox, and Ed Koch, to the insightful writings of Ernie Schwiebert, to the conservation prose of Ted Williams, to entomology guru Thomas Ames, Jr., the Northeast has produced some of the most important and groundbreaking fly-fishing writing in history.
Then there is the celebrity. From the time when the first Atlantic salmon caught in Maine each season went to the president of the United States, to the local ramblings of baseball legend Ted Williams and his friend, sportscaster Curt Gowdy, to TV personality Gadabout Gaddis and his 1970s show, The Flying Fisherman (filmed on the banks of the Kennebec River in Maine), the Northeast has been highly visible in the world of fly fishing.
