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3. CFFCM Announces the 2010 Fly Fishing Hall of Fame Inductees

Fly Fishing Hall of Fame 2010
at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum
October 9, 2010

Contact: CFFCM 845-439-4810

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum (CFFCM) in Livingston Manor, NY is proud to present the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame Class of 2010 to be honored in a ceremony and dinner at the CFFCM at 3 PM on October 9, 2010 followed by dinner at Kings Catering at 6PM. New inductees will be: Louis Rhead, Jack Gartside, John Randolph, and Art Lee.

The Fly Fishing Hall of Fame was established in 1984 to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to the sport of fly fishing in the past and provide a lasting impression for all fly fishers.

For your immediate use, the following thumbnail bios are below:

Art Lee, observer, inquisitor, essayist, teacher, author and piscator, is a complete angler. Nobody likes a know-it-all, but everyone loves a great coach. For over 40 years, Art explained the ins-and-outs of fishing a dry fly more effectively on Catskill trout streams than anyone else. He shared the secrets of fishing the riffling hitch for salmon. His common sense articles written when ”Editor at Large” of Fly Fisherman Magazine were delightfully composed to be informative for every angler. Art continues to write articles and in particular for the Atlantic Salmon Journal where he has written more consecutive articles than any other fishing writer in any other magazine.
In a review of Art’s book, Fishing Dry Flies for Trout on Rivers and Streams, Gray’s Sporting Journal said, “It is said that, back in the ‘40s and 50s, if an angler had one book on trout, it would be Ray Bergman’s Trout. This book is--shoot me if you want--a better written, more sophisticated book." High praise indeed, and yes, good old Izaak Walton would have indeed liked Art Lee.

John Randolph, Editor Emeritus of Fly Fisherman Magazine, has made world-wide contributions to the sport of fly fishing. Following in the footsteps of his father, who wrote the daily Wood, Field & Stream column for The New York Times, Randolph first came to the Catskills in 1956. In the late 1960’s he began his newspaper career as a writer/editor for a Vermont newspaper and then founded The Vermont Sportsman Monthly. His association with Fly Fisherman Magazine came in 1978, where in a short time he became editor/publisher, a position he held until his retirement in 2009. Beyond his contributions to Fly Fisherman Magazine itself, Randolph wrote numerous fly fishing pieces for other major outdoor magazines and also authored three books. Randolph often brought into his writings not only fly-fishing technique pieces, but also the important environmental impacts that affected waters around the world.

Louis Rhead (1857- 1926) a talented artist, came to America in 1883 from Etruiria, Staffordshire England. Although Rhead was widely known for his professional accomplishments in the surrounding NYC art world of the early 1900’s, including his contributions to a series of juvenile classics (Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver, Grimm, Anderson and others) Rhead is most admired by anglers for contributions to Fly Fishing literature. Given Rhead’s obvious artistic passions, he could not have selected a more apt subject for his first book, The Speckled Brook Trout, published in 1902 by R.H. Russell in New York. In the volume, he marveled that the fish was “the most beautiful of our fresh water fauna, the more so from its mantle of rose and violet which it wears”. Above all of Rhead’s contributions that he made to the sport of fly fishing, through his staggering number of written pieces largely focused on Catskill waters- (including several books and dozens of magazine articles); one cannot deny that he was the first to help sever the American fly fisher’s dependence on British fly fishing entomological works. His American Trout Stream Insects will likely remain a cherished work in the history of American fly fishing.

Jack Gartside was one of fly-fishing’s great iconoclasts, he represented the Huck Finn in all of us. His innovative fly patterns, like tiny soft hackle patterns, his elegant “sparrows” and the rambunctious saltwater “Gurglers”, were often tied on a vice clamped to the steering wheel of his taxi while waiting for fares in and around Boston. That is how he made enough money to go on his next fly fishing adventure. Jack lived a fishing life with unbridled enthusiasm, from the trout rivers of Yellowstone Park and New Zealand, to his beloved Boston Harbor for striped bass. “I frankly don’t make much of a living, but I make a hell of a life,’’ he told the Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a “trout bum” in the best sense of the words, before we even knew what one was.
Among his many recognitions, he received the FFF’s “Arnold Gingrich Award”, TU’s Appreciation for the Protection and Enhancement of Cold Water Fisheries, the Outstanding Achievement Award for Fly Tying and The Izaak Walton Fly Fishing Club’s prestigious "Jack Sutton Award". Jack Gartside relished living his dreams of being able to “light out” at a moment’s notice, astride “Gerald” his inflatable giraffe, just like Huck on his raft; something not lost on this former high school English teacher.

Please save the date. The 2010 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be in the Museum on October 9, 2010 at 3 PM. This induction ceremony is open to everyone with a meet, greet, and photo op reception immediately following. There is no charge for this ceremony. A dinner will follow at Kings Catering at 5:30 PM.

For more information call CFFCM 845-439-4810 or via email flyfish@catskill.net

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center is located at 1031 Old Route 17, Livingston Manor, NY 12758. Easily accessible from Route 17/86 Exits 94 (Roscoe) and 96 (Livingston Manor).