Feb. ii, 1911.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
221 
Gordon’s Fancy. 
In an autumn issue of Forest and Stream, 
I saw an article written by one whose where¬ 
abouts had become unknown by the writer, but 
who is near and dear to me, for I have spent 
many happy hours in his company on that fa¬ 
mous and productive trout stream, the Beaver- 
kill. Its author is that clever fly-tying artist, 
sportsman and gentleman, Theodore Gordon. 
I first made Mr. Gordon’s acquaintance in 
1906, when on a fishing trip on the Beaverkill 
river. The stream has its source in Slide 
mountain, a part of the Catskills, and from its 
beginning to the point where it joins the Wil- 
lowemoc river at the little village of Roscoe, 
about 130 miles from New York City, it is a 
series of pools for over thirty miles. The banks 
are heavily timbered and beneath them the 
brook trout find delightful retreats. It is a 
fisherman’s paradise and visited annually by a 
number of men who think for nine months of 
the pleasures of a day on its silver waters. 
Two species of trout inhabit the stream, the 
old pioneer brook trout and the brown. Unlike 
the native brook trout, the brown trout are par¬ 
ticularly aggressive in the early spring, and 
grow rapidly, often reaching the six pound 
mark. They are cannibals, and when one of 
their number becomes permanently located in 
a large pool nothing in the way of small fish or 
food is allowed to escape its rapacious jaws. 
^ hen I met Mr. Gordon I was sitting beside 
a large pool on this stream, where the water 
bad a peculiar swirling motion under an over¬ 
hanging tree. I succeeded in raising an ex¬ 
ceptionally large fish, which came to the sur¬ 
face in a sluggish manner, giving a view of his 
broad back and side to the extent of fifteen or 
sixteen inches. My fly was the Rube Wood. 
Swift water and the length of my cast were 
against the trout getting a firm hold and I was 
unable to hook him securely. Having fished 
for the large ones repeatedly, I realized that 
the golden opportunity for the day was past. 
The chances were a hundred to one that he 
would not rise again that day and with these un¬ 
pleasant truths in mind, I sat down to collect 
my nerves, inspect my tackle and study the pos¬ 
sibilities of getting nearer the old monarch, ere 
I again dropped the cast over his home. A 
voice attracted my attention and upon looking 
up I saw a stranger, whose cheery greeting of 
What luck?” led to a conversation. The 
stranger proved none other than Mr. Gordon 
and this pool was one of his favorites. 
A glance at his tackle told me that he was 
a real fisherman, and I exposed my secret of 
the big trout that I had succeeded in raising 
»n the pool beside us. Mr. Gordon insisted that 
I try again, which I did, but as expected without 
success. We then began to scheme to entice 
the old fellow again to feed. It was then that 
I discovered Mr. Gordon’s tact and ability. He 
matched and exactly duplicated in shade and 
color a fly like those that were swarming about 
t ie stream. Along the banks grew some wil¬ 
lows, and in these Mr. Gordon found several 
fine specimens of the fly. After securing a 
arge one, Mr. Gordon produced a box of 
feathers, gut and No. 12 fly hooks. In a re¬ 
markably short time he had tied a beautiful 
duplicate of the original and handing it to me 
insisted on another effort at the old trout 
We decided to go up stream, cross the rap¬ 
ids and address the pool from an entirely differ¬ 
ent point, an achievement which has produced 
results for me many times since. Whipping 
my fly and leader dry, and measuring the length 
of cast on another part of the pool, I was ready 
to make the supreme effort, especially anxious 
for results, after the amount of interest my 
friend had taken in the matter. Waiting for a 
slight breeze to abate, I carefully dropped our 
latest tempting lure close up to the bank and di¬ 
rectly over the home of the fish. There fol¬ 
lowed a rush, splash, a strike altogether dif¬ 
ferent from that of an hour or so before, and 
he had it. 
1 he fish was larger than I expected, and de¬ 
spite all efforts to force him out of the pool 
against the rapids, he successfully evaded me 
and pulled like a young dog to get underneath 
the overhanging bank. My rod weighed but 
4 'A ounces and with every succeeding rush for 
the bank came the reminder of a light leader 
and a No. 12 hook. Finally, I called over to 
Mr. .Gordon; “I’m going in' there, wet or no 
wet,” and in I went over the waders and all. 
t was May 22, and the mountain water was 
cold as ice, but this movement was more 
than the old monarch could stand. With 
a rush he started down stream, and for 
fully one-eighth of a mile we tumbled over 
rocks and boulders. I won, and when Gordon 
came up to me on the bank, the rule said 20U 
inches and the scales three pounds, eight 
ounces. I dubbed the fly “Gordon’s Fancy,” 
and this fly is known to-day by nearly every 
hy-fisherman in the country. 
I hat evening we ate supper together at the 
trout Valley Farm, at Beaverkill, N. Y., and 
the next day found us fishing in a lake inhabited 
by brown trout, which had the reputation of 
not yielding easily to the lures of fishermen. 
e mastered the reason why and successfully 
fished it, landing a number that varied in length 
from 19 to 24 inches. We used another fly of 
Mr. Gordon’s called Bumble Puppy, without ex¬ 
ception the greatest lure for lake trout ever 
used after they have reached the 2j/$ pound 
marb - M. T. Davidson. 
Illinois Casting Club. 
Big Albacore at Catalina. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 2 2.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Every winter about this time somebody 
sallies forth from Avalon, Catalina, and connects 
with a school of full grown albacore. Last year 
it was the lot of W. N. McMillan, of Nairobi, 
r-ntish East Africa, to turn the trick. A pair of 
alhacore of fifty pounds was the result. This 
season one of forty-seven pounds has been 
landed. The record is sixty-five pounds and 
no one is worried about its lasting. 
Edwin L. Hedderly. 
A 176-Pound Catfish. 
What is probably the largest catfish ever cap¬ 
tured m an Iowa river was pulled out of the 
Nishnabatony River here by men who were ex¬ 
cavating for a foundation for the new dam. The 
fish weighed 176 pounds. Its mouth was filled 
with scars, and several fish hooks were imbedded 
in it. 
The fish is supposed to be the one hooked so 
many times by fishermen near here, none of 
whom was ever able to land the monster.— St. 
Paul Pioneer Press. 
t , ChI “ GO ’ Jan ' 2 &—Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 he Illinois Casting Club held its annual 
meeting and election of officers on January 16, 
at which there was a large attendance After 
dinner was served, the meeting received with 
much interest the reports of the officers of the 
outgoing administration. There was especial 
appreciation evidenced at the report of scores 
made by the club members, as compared with 
known record scores, which are given here¬ 
with. 
The report of the executive committee was 
very comprehensive, containing valuable sug¬ 
gestions for consideration of the club The 
report of the secretary shows the club to be in 
ourishing condition, both as to membership 
and finances. 
An important action of the meeting was the 
adoption of a new club badge and bars as 
° <ens ’ In ,leu of button emblems used and 
given iy the club. It was also suggested that 
a new degree be created, the same to rank be¬ 
tween master and artist, because of the long 
gap between the 98 per cent, and 99 per cent 
degree awards. 
p 1 he, Section of officers resulted as follows- 
President, A. Bauer; Vice President, G. H. 
spei, Secretary and Treasurer, H. D. Willis- 
aptain, H. D. Kirk; Committeemen, N. C.' 
eston, Dr. E. F. McCarty, Charles W. Reiser. 
A hearty vote of thanks was extended to the 
outgoing officers. 
Secretary A. D. Whitby made the following 
report showing a comparison of high scores 
made by the club during the past season as 
compared to national record scores in each of 
record CVentS ° f they haVe aUthentic 
The average attendance in 1909 was o 6 - the 
average attendance in 1910 was 33; the number 
of completed scores in bait and fly events in 
1909, 26; in 1910, 36. 
In the quarter ounce accuracy bait W H Ball 
(on June 18) and E. K. Pierson (on Aug. 2 n) 
made scores of 99 7 / I0 per cent., the highest 
scores made in either of the accuracv baits in 
the Instory of the game. The tie was cast off 
b W ° n ° Ct0ber 9 - and was won 
‘ ?a S Wh ‘ ch earned him what is known 
as the All Chicago High Score Button.” The 
scores made by Messrs. Ball and Pierson es¬ 
tablished new club records, and are undoubtedly 
world records. y 
In the half ounce accuracy bait W. H. Ball (on 
June 4) and J. T. Hartly (on the same day) made 
scores of 99 5/10 per cent, which equalled the 
chtb record of last year, made by J. E. Amman 
This score was also made by D. F. Beatty at 
the National Tournament of 1910 and by O E 
Becker, both of Chicago Fly Club. 
In the quarter ounce distance bait (average of 
5 casts) L. E. De Garmo established a new club 
record (on August 27) of 143 3/5 feet, and N. 
Heston a new club record for the longest 
single cast (on same date) of 167 2/3 feet. 
These scores were exceeded by N. L. Place, 
casting for the Anglers’ Casting Club of Chi¬ 
cago (on Sept. 11) who scored 154 1/3 f ee t 
(average of five casts) and 177 f ee t longest 
single cast, which are world records. 
In the half ounce distance bait the club rec¬ 
ord of last year was surpassed by C. E. Lingen- 
