The Golden Age of trout fishing

[Eperous]

When folks are asked about "the Golden Age" of trout fishing, what do you think about/feel, if anything at all? And, what authors come to mind, who wrote about it?

Thanks.

Ed

[creakycane]

Prof Gordon Wickstrom had some words to say about fly fishing’s Golden Age. I miss his Boulder Creek Angler......

http://www.amff.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... No3web.pdf

GW implies it was that time preceding the popularity of spin fishing, but after brown trout were in our rivers, when Walt Dette, Ray Bergman and Payne influenced the spread from east to west in the US. 1920-1945........ I’m sure anglers as diverse as Gordon, Halford, Stewart and Cotton might beg to differ, and Gingrich also has some things to say on this topic in his “Fishing in Print”.

[Caneghost]

I think of Dana Lamb, Sparse, Hewitt, the Darbees and Dettes, as well as authors who came afterwards but celebrated the traditions like Gingrich and Schwiebert! Many of the finest works were written during or about the Golden Age, and many of the finest rods and reels were developed and crafted during those stellar times as well!

[Brier549]

Sparse, Rube Cross, the Dettes, the Darby’s and Art Flick , just to name a few.

[davemaine]

Like all "golden ages" it mostly exists in myth and legend. I think of "Fishless Days, Angling Nights" by Sparse. That book sort of epitomizes the sense of nostalgia for the Catskills of Gordon, LaBranch, and Hewitt. (Note that most of what he glorifies occurred on private water fished by the wealthy and well-connected.)

I agree with the idea that this period coincides with brown trout, fly rods and reels reaching a certain perfection of form and function, and the development of the "modern" (relatively speaking) techniques.

Interesting that Bergman (as far back as "Just Fishing" in the 30s) talks about overcrowded, over-fished streams. And of course, the brook trout and Atlantic Salmon were decimated in the Northeast long before this.

If there was a golden age of western trout fishing, it must have been a little later (40s-60s)?