First Bass Fly Fishers
The first fly fishers for bass undoubtedly were the early residents of northern Kentucky, the same good people who developed bait casting and brought the multiplying reel to its present perfection. These men were of British ancestry, educated and of more than ordinary abilities in many ways. Some of them were well-to-do; all of them found ample leisure to indulge their hobby. We suppose that they, or their forebears, brought fly tackle with them from their old homes and northern Kentucky, being neither mountainous nor far enough north for trout, they no doubt used this tackle for taking the bass that were plentiful in the near-by streams. Dr. Henshall informs me that the first man to take up fly fishing for bass seriously was J. L. Sage, the reel maker of Frankfort, Ky., later of Lexington. He made a rod and reel especially for fishing for black bass with flies as early as 1848.
