What to do with Dunnage?

Some years ago a vessel from the East Indies discharged a cargo of sugar at this port. For dunnage to the cargo, which was in mats, large bamboos, some even six inches through, had been used. When the vessel had discharged, these were thrown out upon the dock. A friend secured two or three pieces, […]

Leonard Production Output and Price

It is probable that the total output of strictly first-class custom fly rods since Hiram L. Leonard made the first one is today not greatly in excess of 100,000 and that the current output is nearer 2,500 rods a year than 5,000. As to price, Leonard’s first rods sold for $35 in a time when […]

Leonard and “Tonkin” Cane

Leonard was, if possible, even more secretive about his third contribution to the modern fly rod-the use of Tonkin cane as a rod-making material. Tonkin (a misnomer), the bamboo used for fly rods today, is a thick walled and heavy-fibered cane found in China which, weight for weight, is unequaled for elasticity and resilience by […]

The Leonard Beveler

Chief of the several machines which he invented was the "beveler," which Leonard had in use certainly in 1877 and probably in 1876. It cut the triangular, tapered strips, six of which go into each section of a rod. It cut-and still cuts, for makers of Leonard, Thomas, and Payne rods, and maybe others, still […]

Leonard “Firsts”

He was the first man to make, in 1871 or 1872, a six-strip rod instead of the four-strip construction previously used. Anyone who can calculate things like longitudinal shear and bent-beam stresses can prove by immutable mathematical principles that the six-strip rod of hexagonal cross section is inherently the best. I can’t. But it is.
Leonard […]

Hiram Leonard: The Father of the Fly Rod?

Henry David Thoreau met him in 1857, when he was a hunter, and described him in Canoeing in the Wilderness as a handsome man of good height but not apparently robust, of gentlemanly address and faultless grooming. He was a spiritualist, a vegetarian who abhorred liquor and detested tobacco. He was a good musician, playing […]

Charles F. Murphy: “Split” Bamboo

"Says I, ‘There is a lot of waste material in that rod, and the joints in the cane are no good;’ and so it came about
that I split the cane, only into four parts at first, shaved down the pulpy inside and glued the pieces together, and
had a rod that was springy enough […]

Who Came First?

Dr. Henshall, in his "Book of the Black Bass," pp. 201-203, under the caption of  "Origin of the Split Bamboo Rod," says:
"For though purely an American invention as now constructed, the idea or principle is really of English origin."
The Doctor then gives the date of the first split bamboo rod made in this country, by […]

Why Peter Went A Fishing by W.C. Prime

Never was night more pure, never was sea more winning; never were the hearts of men moved by deeper emotions than on that night and by that sea when Peter and John, and other of the disciples, were waiting for the Master.
Peter said "I go a fishing." John and Thomas, and James and Nathanael, and […]

The Vom Hofe Reel

Edward vom Hofe
In the late 19th century, Edward vom Hofe a New York watchmaker, machinist, fishing tackle builder and noted big game angler who outfitted the famous anglers of his generation, introduced his first two fly reels, starting his own business in 1867. Edward vom Hofe had become famous for his precision salt water big […]

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