Outdoors: Group preserves love of fly fishing
A stone monument in the Catoctin Mountains stands as a silent tribute to a man who is known as the “father of modern fly fishing,” Joseph W. Brooks (1901-1972).
Most motorists traveling through Catoctin National Park on Md. Route 77 pay little attention to the structure which occupies a pull-off area across from the park office. However, if there is a vehicle park in the vicinity, you can bet there is someone fishing Big Hunting Creek which flows behind the monument.
Brooks was a fly fisherman and popular outdoor writer. He was also the outdoor editor for The Baltimore Sun. Brooks taught many celebrities to fly fish, and became lasting friends with them, including Bing Crosby, Ted Williams and Jack Nicklaus. He was featured on the ABC show “The American Sportsman.”
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The monument is actually a tribute to Brooks’ dedication of teaching the art of fly fishing, particularly to young people. The edifice was erected by an organization Brooks had a major part in organizing — the Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC).
Formation of the BOJC can be attributed to a snowstorm. In late 1939, Brooks and a group of anglers met at a cabin in the Catoctin Mountains for a traditional spring outing to fish Big Hunting Creek. But on a Friday in April, a snowstorm hit and kept the group off the stream.
While forced off the stream, the fly anglers discussed a common idea — sharing their sport.
“They wanted to protect it to ensure that future generations of anglers would be able to enjoy fishing as they had,” according to the BOJC. “They determined to pass on the knowledge, skill and ideals of conservation to the youth of their generation. How best to do so was the topic of conversation on that Friday night.”
Thus was the formation of the Brotherhood in 1940. For 77 years the organization has met near Big Hunting Creek for an annual campfire — always the weekend after Mother’s Day. During the three-day weekend, members pass on to youth their knowledge and skills and love of the sport.
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A seven-year instructional program is currently being used. It starts with boys eight or older, teaching the basics of beginning angling and taking them through an opportunity to fish with “the masters.”
Classes taught include: conservation, reading the water, stream-side instruction, entomology, terminal tackle, equipment maintenance, knots, fly tying, rod building and net making.
Attendance is by invitation only and a man can only attend when he sponsors a child.
From its start in Maryland, the Brotherhood has grown with chapters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Virginia.
The unusual name comes from the waxed neck feather of the Indian Jungle Fowl, which was worn as a symbol of the group. This chicken-like bird is on the endangered species list now. The feathers are a source for “eyes” on trout and salmon flies.
Prominent on the Brooks memorial is the Creed of the BOJC:
“We who love angling, in order that it may enjoy practice and reward in the later generations, mutually move together towards a common goal — the conservation and restoration of American game fishes.
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“Towards this end we pledge that our creel limits shall always be less than the legal restrictions and always well within the bounty of Nature herself.
“Enjoying, as we do, only a life estate in the out of doors, and morally charged in our time with the responsibility of handing it down unspoiled to tomorrow’s inheritors, we individually undertake annually to take at least one boy a-fishing, instructing him, as best we know, in the responsibilities that are soon to be wholly his.
“Holding that moral law transcends the legal statutes, always beyond the needs of any one man, and holding that example alone is the one certain teacher, we pledge always to conduct ourselves in such a fashion on the stream as to make safe for others the heritage which is ours and theirs.”
Bob Marchio is outdoor writer for The (Hanover) Evening Sun. He may be reached at: bmarchio@embarqmail.com.
Also of interest, a gallery of photos below:
