Great fish caught on split bamboo fly rods

Kathy Scott has written an interesting book about Everett Garrison, who began making split bamboo fly rods in the early 1930s and continued until his death in 1975. I didn’t realize how famous Garrison was throughout the world until I read Kathy’s book.

This book is titled The Letters to Everett Garrison.  It’s an interesting collection of letters written to Garrison by lots of important and famous people who are also briefly profiled in the book. Every one of these people worshiped Garrison and considered him the best rod maker in the world.

I especially enjoyed all the stories of fabulous fish caught with Garrison’s rods. His customers  often let Garrison know how successful they’d been fishing with his rods. And they fished all over the world in many famous waters.

Kathy and her husband David Van Burgle, are amazing people. They also build bamboo fly rods but even more important they teach split bamboo rod making at the Catskills Fly Fishing Center and Museum. They focus a lot of their work on kids, something I greatly admire. Kathy and David have won many awards. Kathy has also written four other books.

Kathy is currently chair of the Maine State Council of Trout Unlimited and on the board of the Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. The American Museum of Fly Fishing honored Kathy in their exhibit A Graceful Rise: 50 Women in the History of Fly Fishing.

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.