Perry Ehlers

SeemoreLewey · 08-10-2010, 05:22 PM

Looking for any available history about Perry Ehlers from North
River.Photos,books,tied flies,museums or stories.

PaulK · 06-20-2016, 02:29 PM

Gone but not forgotten, the man has a rapids on the Upper Hudson river at North River named after him on the USGS topo maps. I've heard about Ehlers through some valuable time spent with Ed Bendl in his shoebox of a fly shop in Northville in the 2000's.

I've since seen a few web pages on Ehlers, on some discussion pages like this one. Also, I've come across pictures of an auction of his salmon flies. For a man from North River tying flies in the40-50's?, the salmon flies in the pictures are high quality, perfectly constructed. There's no doubt Ehlers was a well-equipped master tier in those days.

BTW, I fished the glide above the Perry Ehlers rapids Sunday morning and released a 16" brown and many smaller browns during a spinner fall of a #16 Blue-Winged Olive. I wasn't into fish until I clipped the fly to imitate the folded wings of the natural lying tipped over in the film with glassy wings. Classic fly fishing on the glassy glides of a big Adirondack river. Good times!

Someday, I'll try to find out what house Ehlers lived/tied in there. The "little" history of Adirondack fly tiers is fascinating stuff.

The whitewater rafting flows receded by 6pm Sunday night and I was the only guy fishing with the full moon rising and the trout porpoising up and down on the darkening river. In the evening, all I caught were rainbows, no browns, but a brown of 17" porpoised right on top of my fly and could have been after it. You can see, wading in the middle of a big river at dusk makes one sense extraordinary things, like who came before us and what old bamboo rod they heaved with silk lines on the river. Maybe one of the old South Bend bamboo rods I saw for sale in the North Creek Trading Company store was Ehlers? Here we know practically nothing of the life of a dedicated fly fisher and professional fly tier on the Upper Hudson at North River. How does this stuff get away from us?

St.Regis · 06-21-2016, 10:29 AM

PaulK - Great post.

vtflyfish · 06-21-2016, 05:15 PM

I agree - great post. I'd be interested in what comes out of the research.

chaser · 06-21-2016, 11:06 PM

Good stuff Paul K.

06-20-2016, 02:29 PM	#2
PaulK Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 185	Gone but not forgotten, the man has a rapids on the Upper Hudson river at North River named after him on the USGS topo maps. I've heard about Ehlers through some valuable time spent with Ed Bendl in his shoebox of a fly shop in Northville in the 2000's. I've since seen a few web pages on Ehlers, on some discussion pages like this one. Also, I've come across pictures of an auction of his salmon flies. For a man from North River tying flies in the40-50's?, the salmon flies in the pictures are high quality, perfectly constructed. There's no doubt Ehlers was a well-equipped master tier in those days. BTW, I fished the glide above the Perry Ehlers rapids Sunday morning and released a 16" brown and many smaller browns during a spinner fall of a #16 Blue-Winged Olive. I wasn't into fish until I clipped the fly to imitate the folded wings of the natural lying tipped over in the film with glassy wings. Classic fly fishing on the glassy glides of a big Adirondack river. Good times! Someday, I'll try to find out what house Ehlers lived/tied in there. The "little" history of Adirondack fly tiers is fascinating stuff. The whitewater rafting flows receded by 6pm Sunday night and I was the only guy fishing with the full moon rising and the trout porpoising up and down on the darkening river. In the evening, all I caught were rainbows, no browns, but a brown of 17" porpoised right on top of my fly and could have been after it. You can see, wading in the middle of a big river at dusk makes one sense extraordinary things, like who came before us and what old bamboo rod they heaved with silk lines on the river. Maybe one of the old South Bend bamboo rods I saw for sale in the North Creek Trading Company store was Ehlers? Here we know practically nothing of the life of a dedicated fly fisher and professional fly tier on the Upper Hudson at North River. How does this stuff get away from us? Last edited by PaulK; 06-21-2016 at 12:33 PM..

06-21-2016, 05:15 PM	#4
vtflyfish Brookie Addict Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: West coast of New England Posts: 2,595	I agree - great post. I'd be interested in what comes out of the research. __________________ Oscar Wilde:Work is the curse of the drinking class

06-21-2016, 11:06 PM	#5
chaser pond jockey Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Up on Whiskey Creek Posts: 488	Good stuff Paul K. __________________ Red means run son, numbers add up to nothing.....

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08-10-2010, 05:22 PM	#1
SeemoreLewey Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 8	Perry Ehlers Looking for any available history about Perry Ehlers from North River.Photos,books,tied flies,museums or stories.

06-21-2016, 10:29 AM	#3
St.Regis Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 1,528	PaulK - Great post.

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