Fly Tying Suppliers from Years Past

[Prospector]

Due to spending more time in the house during this time of isolation, I've begun to attack things that I never have time for when I'm running to here, there and everywhere. Today I decided to empty my 20 odd containers of fly tying materials and reorganize and consolidate. It's amazing how many cards of chenille one man can accumulate. For the record I have 83 of varying colors.

But what I found most interesting was the reminder of fly tying suppliers of days gone by. At this point, just names on cards of yarn or chenille that mean very little to some but a lot to others. Memories of the shops we drove hours to get to and the great people that we interacted with who shared our passion when fly fishing wasn't mainstream.

I thought I would share a photo, hoping it will also trigger some good memories for those of you that have been at this for some time.

 

[troutbert]

That's interesting.

Do you have any original Honey Bug chenille cards?

And how about Herters?

I wonder if the flyfishing museum collections include this kind of stuff?

 

[Dave_W]

Cool.

I have many packets of materials that I still draw from that have Flyfisher's Paradise stickers on them from the 1980s as well as Yellow Breeches Anglers and Cold Spring Anglers from the same era.

 

[wbranch]

I have a Herter's Fly Tying, Spinning and Tackle Making in very good condition. I used to live 20 minutes from Reed Tackle in Caldwell, NJ. That is where I used to buy my fiber glass blanks when I first started building rods. He was about the only shop selling good selections of fly tying material. I'd say everything back then was natural only. No synthetics. Chinese and Indian game **** necks. No genetically orchestrated hackle. Fur only on the skin. Raffia, not phony Swiss Straw. Mustad hooks only. Decades before chemically sharpened Japanese hooks. Gladding tippet was the preferred material. 6X was 1.2# test and 7X was .6# test. We used to get very pumped up if we landed a 18" on 6X. Now virtually anyone can land a 20" on 6X.

Another great tackle supplier was Dale Clemens in Allentown, PA. Cheap newsprint catalog. He had all kinds of rod building stuff and blanks. I can't remember if he sold fly tying material.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I still have my Herters Vise from the 50's.GG

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I have an old Herters Catalog. Reading it was a winter time activity.Being locked in I may dig it out for a few laughs. GG

 

[sgrim]

In the mid 90s I was doing some technical work at Gudebrod in Pottstown. I' mentioned that I was familiar with their fishing products. I was gifted this at the end of the engagement. It was old even then.

 

[wbranch]

sgrin,

Now that is a cool memento of your visit there. I recently gave away a leatherette package of thirty pieces of various synthetic furs from H.L. Leonard (Central Valley, NY) that I bought around 1966.

I was disappointed to learn of the closure of the Gudebrod thread company.

 

[Bamboozle]

I got packages of materials & tools from Eric Leiser, Fly Fisherman's Bookcase, Hille, Eyler's, Nestor's, Whitetail Fly Tying (when it was owned by Chris Helm), Cold Spring Anglers, Yellow Breeches (when Baltz & Shenk were there), The Angler's Roost in NYC, Walt Dette, Harry Darbee, The Sporting Gentleman (when they were on Baltimore Pike); Cox's (Bryn Mawr), Windsor Fly Shop (Stroudsburg), The Bedford Sportsman (when it was owned by Peter Phelps), The Little Lehigh Fly Shop, Don Bastian, Bob Clouser's plus materials from a ton of other places I can't remember at the moment and even a tin of line grease from Ed Hewitt's shop.

A LOT of the owners of those shop have passed on and I miss them a lot, along with the wisdom they freely passed along to me when I was just starting out.

 

[salvelinus]

I will add Raymond C. Rumpf to Bamboozle's list, a lot of which I have too.

 

[Prospector]

troutbert wrote:
That's interesting.

Do you have any original Honey Bug chenille cards?

And how about Herters?

I wonder if the flyfishing museum collections include this kind of stuff?

Troutbert,

I'm not sure where the original came from, but here are the ones I have. I doubt if mine are museum worthy but the 2 in the upper right are obviously very old and a bit faded with time.

The top 5 in the picture seem to be the preferred fish catchers. The one to right on line 2 is what Spruce Creek Outfitters carries today so they probably feel pretty good about that one. I don't think the bottom 2 are very popular but in certain years I've seen sinking inch worms that match the color on the bottom right.

I like the little bit of flash in the Kettle Creek packet but I have no way to tell if it actually works better than the others. Despite being prepared to tie these flies I rarely use them. I do use a variation on wild brook trout streams tied with ultra chenille on a real small hook. Makes following your fly real easy.

 

[Bamboozle]

salvelinus wrote:
I will add Raymond C. Rumpf to Bamboozle's list, a lot of which I have too.

I should have remembered that one, not far from me.

 

[Tigereye]

When my BIL's grandmother passed I was helping them empty the house. BIL said Boone in his family fished and I was welcome to Pop's fly fishing/tying eqpt. Most of the hairs threads etc were pretty ratty. This was in one of his books along with an invoice for materials he had purchased. Perhaps some of you SEPA guys recognise the company.

 

[Tigereye]

That should read no one not "Boone". Dang auto correct.

 

[tztrout]

My first fly tying kit was from HJ Noll, got it from Santa in the mid-seventies. Still have the box, unfortunately contents were crap!

 

[troutbert]

Tigereye wrote:
When my BIL's grandmother passed I was helping them empty the house. BIL said Boone in his family fished and I was welcome to Pop's fly fishing/tying eqpt. Most of the hairs threads etc were pretty ratty. This was in one of his books along with an invoice for materials he had purchased. Perhaps some of you SEPA guys recognise the company.

This book was very popular when I started flyfishing.

Noll Guide to Trout Flies and How to Tie Them
by H. J. Noll

I didn't know they had a fly tying materials business. Where were they based?

When I started out E. Hille in Williamsport was our main source of flyting materials.

 

[redietz]

gulfgreyhound wrote:
I still have my Herters Vise from the 50's.

I got mine in 1964. Still pull it out from time to time. I also still have some of the materials from the Herter's fly tying kit that it came with. After 55 years, I still haven't figured out a use for lime green guinea fowl.

 

[salvelinus]

tztrout wrote:
My first fly tying kit was from HJ Noll, got it from Santa in the mid-seventies. Still have the box, unfortunately contents were crap!

Same here, mine was from the late 60s. At least it got us started in the right direction!

 

[Tigereye]

The letterhead says Doylestown. TZ trout purchase stuff from the 70's. I am assuming he came back from WWIi and restarted his business. I found the letter to be touching that he would reach out to customers like that.

 

[Bamboozle]

troutbert wrote:

This book was very popular when I started flyfishing.

Noll Guide to Trout Flies and How to Tie Them
by H. J. Noll

The color plates of flies in the Noll book are beautiful and reminicent of the plates in Bergman's Trout.

I bought an old copy of the Guide about a year ago and plan on getting those pages framed.