Voices from the Past: Larry Koller (1938)

We've spent a lot of time covering the early years of Larry Koller of late, but I'd be remiss not to reprint this early article on the subject of bass bugging with a fly rod. Much of what Koller wrote back then is still applicable today. It was published, like much of his early work in the Middletown Times-Herald, this particular one from June of 1938.

To read the original posts Click Here and for the update Click Here; for the first Voices from the Past article Click Here.

FLY TACKLE FOR BASS

by Larry Koller

The fly rod for bass fishing has developed during the past few years into a tool designed for a specific purpose. Early bug fishermen used the regulation type of trout rod of about nine feet in length with medium action. Since the development of bass bug fishing as an accepted and highly successful method of taking both species of bass, the rod makers have been putting forth more effort to produce rods just for this style of fly casting and at a price within the reach of the fishing public.

The rod ideally suited to handling a bass bug must have a greater casting power and more length than trout rods. The big flies and bugs offer a great deal of air resistance and can only be handled with a heavy line. This line of course necessitates a rod of ample power to make a well balanced outfit. Then, too, the large hooks require a heavy strike to set them in the tough mouth of a large bass. Length is needed to give easy pickup and quick striking ability, for most bass bugging is done from a boat with the caster in a sitting position, placing the rod in a lower position relative to the water surface.

Bass fishing causes severe strain on the rod to which the ordinary trout rod is not subjected. Serrated ferrules are almost a necessity, in order to eliminate any possibility of breakage at the ferrule which is a common occurrence with the shouldered type. A good rod for bass under general lake fishing conditions should be about nine and one half feet long, weighing about 6 1/2 ounces. Such a tool, equipped with tungsten guides and tops together with a screw type locking reel seat and serrated ferrules is the last word in bug rods.

Next in order of importance is the line. A rod of the type just described will handle well with a size C level line, preferably with an oil-waterproof finish. There is sufficient weight in a line of this size to handle any of the larger lures even against a breeze. The more particular angler will prefer a Big-Head or Torppedo Head tapered line in size GBG for his bug casting as it will give greater distance with less effort than any level line. Such a line is constructed with the heavy portion in the forward end in order to unpart maximum earning power.

Either type of line wifl give good results after an application of line dressing for the line MUST float in order to set the hook and to give clean pickup for the cast.

The reel can be single action, large enough to comfortably carry the line and balance the rod. The automatic is preferred bv many bass fishermen for its quality of giving complete control of slack line. The choice in a reel is largely a matter of personal preference for it serves no purpose other than to hold the remaining line which is not used in actual casting. However, no matter which type is used single action or automatic, a reel large enough to carry the line without crowding should be selected. Jamming a large line on a small reel will soon strip off the finish, ruining the line beyond repair.

Leaders should be either 4 1/2 or six feet long, and of six to ten pound test. For the beginner, the shorter leader will handle the easiest, but under some conditions, the long leader will produce more strikes. Only genuine silkworm gut should be chosen for bug fishing as it retains its full strength after soaking and gives a certain amount of spring to the cast which helps to lay a straight line. The artificial or knotless type of gut possesses neither of these qualities and in addition, can not be depended upon to give good satisfaction after it has been used once. Natural gut, on the other hand, will retain its strength and elasticity for a whole season if it is kept always moist.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: Larry Koller (1934)

We've written a lot lately about noted outdoor writer Larry Koller (to read the original posts Click Here and for the update Click Here. I promised some early fly fishing writings from Koller, and here is a splendid example. It's from this column "With Rod and Gun" in the Middletown Times Herald and is dated May 25, 1934. Keep in mind he was only 22 when he wrote this! But despite his youth, this article reflects the clear and concise advice he was so famous for later in his career. It's solid advice even today.

WITH ROD and GUN

By LARRY KOLLER

ON DRY FLIES

The beginning fly fisherman usually encounter a great deal of difficulty in their initial selection of flies. The tendency nearly always is in the direction of the English type double split wing floater, but these flies are for the use of the expert only. The novice must have a fly which will float easily and in a correct position on the surface. The double split wing fly must be cast very delicately in order to float at all and must land with the wings cocked in an upright position to be at all effective.

We would recommend highly the bivisible type of dry fly to the beginner as meeting all conditions of easy floating and casting as well as good visibility. This floater, being tied of hackle only, without wing, is a very high floater requiring only a minimum of false casting to dry it. Also, as it has no wings, It looks correct from the trout's viewpoint in no matter what position it may land. At the head of the fly is wound a white hackle, which gives the bivisible its name and makes it very easy to follow with the eye, on the water. Probably the best patterns are the Brown Badger, Pink Lady, Cahill, and Grey Bivisible, named in the order of our first personal choice.

They most certainly have a place in every anglers kit no matter whether he be novice or expert. We can especially recommend them on fast-water streams and for late evening fly fishing when the bigger fish are apt to start feeding.

THE POPULAR CAHILL

Almost every dry fly man has at one time or another used the Cahill. This excellent all-season fly is perhaps the one most popular dry pattern the country over. It is a good fly to use when there are no fish raising, even though they may be in a feeding mood. It resembles a great many natural insects and in the light pattern it matches closely the majority of fly hatches which predominate on the Beaverkill and Willowemoc.

In our experience, the buzzwing fly of the Cahill type is infinitely superior on our streams to any of the standard double split wing type. This type of wing is delicately like those of the natural insects, appearing semi transparent from beneath the surface of the water. The double split wing being made from a section of feather taken from a quill vane is more or less opaque, and does not let the light through as it should to imitate closely the wing of a natural insect. Of course many trout will always be taken on this type of fly, but on wary fish it is best to use every possible advantage. A list of the best patterns of buzz wing type flies in the order of their excellence would be the Cahill-Light and Dark, Hendrikson-Light and Dark, Quill Gordon, Mallard Quill, Cahill Quill.

The Fanwings have many admirers and there is no doubt but that these big floaters will raise fish when all others fail, especially if the trout are inclined toward bottom feeding. The large outcurving wings drop the fly lightly on the water and make it clearly visible even in very poor light. The majority of anglers who have used this fly without results and give it up, do so because of their inability to make it float correctly. The general complaint is that the fly lands either upside down, lying on one side, or standing up. The reason for this almost without exception is the anglers using the overhead cast. The only way to make these flies light correctly is by the use of the side arm cast with the rod held nearly parallel to the water’s surface.

COACHMAN’S FAVORITE

As to patterns, the Royal Coachman is the general favorite—it's the easiest to see and raises plenty of good fish even though it resembles nothing in nature. For late evening fishing on long deep runt and pools, under low water conditions when the weather is hot, it is without equal. Other good Fanwing patterns are the Pale Evening Dun, the Dark Cahill, and the Pink Lady. The Fanwings are most productive when fly hatches are scarce and fish are on the lookout for surface food even though there may be none present. The large size of the Fanwings will attract attention to the surface and bring investigating rises from trout when no other fly will.

-- Dr. Todd

UPDATE: More Info on Larry & J.J. Koller

UPDATE: More Info on Larry & J.J. Koller

This week we get an update to the Larry Koller post from last week.

First, Joe Stagnitti sends us a really neat photo of some J.J. Koller boxed lures. The box on the right has the crossed out Goshen address, replaced with a handwritten Miami one. Note also the box on the right is a "Streamliner" bait; perhaps J.J. was producing these at the same time his brother was making Ruff-Nek lures. Nifty!



Neat, neat lures!

Next, we get an informative letter from Bass Bug historian extraordinaire Jerry Martin. Jerry writes:

I have three Ruff-Nek bugs that came with a Pflueger Sample Room card. The card indicated that the bugs were received from J.J. Koller, Goshen, NY on September 29, 1944. Two of the bugs were "Ruff-Nek style". The other was a typically flared and trimmer deer hair bug with wings tied in directly behind the hook eye projecting 90 degrees.

A small J.J. Koller ad appeared in the June 1943 issue of Field & Stream. The ad stated that the Ruff-Nek Bass Bug was "Designed by Larry Koller" (no indication that  L. Koller tied them?).

Well, that definitely fits with my theory that J.J. took over when tying these bugs when Larry went to Connecticut during the war. Jerry has a few questions that perhaps other can help answer:

Does anyone have an authentic sample of a Koller Minnow. Were the minnows streamers, bucktails or fly rod lures?

And finally, concerning "hand-tied" bugs and flies. I am still looking for a machine tied example.

If anyone can help out Jerry on this, drop me a note and I'll put you in touch with him!

Finally, noted fly tier Mike Valla writes to remind me that Koller was an enormous influence on him in his formative days tying flies in the Catskill region. Mike in fact references Larry a number of times in his new book The Classic Dry Fly Box, which is available by the way in paperback.

Many thanks to Jerry, Stag and Mike for their help. Larry Koller was a fascinating guy and he created a great set of baits!

-- Dr. Todd

Remembering Larry Koller, Catskill Fly Tier

Remembering Larry Koller, Catskill Fly Tier

Last week, Gary Deppe posted a boxed lure on Joe's Board marked "Ruff-Nek Lures, tied by Larry Koller, Middletown, New York." I thought I'd spend a little time expositing on the history of this fascinating gentleman, who started his career as a Catskill fly tier.


Larry Koller in the mid-1950s with a black bear he bagged with a .308.
Larry Koller (1912-1967) was a Brooklyn-born writer who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s as one of the most prominent outdoor writers in America. Having moved to Orange County, New York in 1919, he took to the woods like the proverbial fish to water, and by the mid-1930s was a popular local guide as well as a budding gunsmith. His expertise was so great that he was hired by the Middletown Times Herald as an outdoor writer, his first experience in the field. He wrote a regular column for the paper until the start of World War II. We'll have some of his early writings from these columns in forthcoming Voices from the Past features.


In the middle-to-late 1930s (I believe around 1936 or so), Koller opened up a sporting goods store in Middletown. It was from here that Koller sold hand-tied flies and bass bugs under the Ruff-Nek name. When World War II started, he closed the sporting goods store and went to work in New Haven, Connecticut as a barrel department foreman, which honed his gunsmithing skills to the point that from this period he would become a renowned American gunsmith and gun designer.

After World War II, Koller's fame spread widely as both a fishing and hunting writer. As outdoor editor of the popular magazine Argosy, he had a unique finger on the pulse of the sporting nation. He began publishing books (his hunting books far outnumber his fishing ones), and some of his most popular titles include Treasury of Hunting, Larry Koller's Complete Guide to Handguns and Shots at Whiteails. The latter is still in print today, forty years after its first publication. He founded Guns and Hunting magazine in 1957 and lived to see it become a successful publication.

He wrote a number of fishing books, too, and these include Treasury of Angling and The Complete Book of Tackle, among others.

Koller was a prominent Catskill fly tier even at a relatively young age. For example, when he was 24, the August 19, 1936 Middletown Times Herald noted that at the State sportsmen's exhibit that year "Larry Koller who featured last night with a varied demonstration of fly tying and bass-bug making will return Thursday and Friday." It is not known when he began tying commercially, but the earliest advertisement I could find is dated 1937, although it referenced the lure as available in 1936.


Gary Deppe's Ruff Nek lure was clearly the Bug pattern, as there were two styles of bass bugs made by Koller (Bug and Minnow). Each was available in ten patterns.



They were .75 each, which was not cheap for the time (that same year Pflueger offered the Pal-O-Mine wooden, glass eyed lure for .75). Koller also noted it "accounted for nearly all catches of large bass on the fly rod" in the region the previous year.

There is an interesting mystery tied to Larry Koller. Bill Stuart asks:

"What relation was Larry Koller to J. J. Koller of Goshen, NY (it says on his box that the lures were designed by Larry Koller, who later moved to Florida)? J.J. Koller continued to sell some of his hair baits in the Goshen box with Goshen marked out and a Miami, Florida address written in hand in pencil under the crossed out Goshen address.

Well, I don't have a definitive answer. I believe, however, that John J. Koller of Goshen, New York was Larry Koller's brother. My current theory is that when Larry shuttered the sporting goods store in 1941 to take over as barrel foreman at Winchester, his brother (who was living in Goshen in the time) began selling his excess stock for him. He had the address changed to his Goshen home, and when the war ended and J.J. moved to Florida, he took what remaining stock he had and sold it in the same boxes, crossing out the old address and adding a new Miami one. Koller's sister Mrs. Frances Craig also lived in Miami at the time.

Regardless, Larry Koller was a great outdoor writer and, for a brief time, a prominent local tackle maker. His Ruff Nek lures are rare as hen's teeth, and the owner of one, like Gary Deppe, is lucky indeed. I believe they date from 1936-1941.

-- Dr. Todd