When I was doing the research for the Hardy-Marston "Blagdon" Rod I came across an excellent book by Geoffrey Bucknall charting the story of Marston's "Fishing Gazette". It was while reading this book that something caught my eye, but I didn't note it at the time, something about James Ogden's "Invicta". It's been nagging at me ever since, so I finally found the quote. It has been a long held belief that the "Invicta" was invented by James Ogden and included in his 1879 book, "Ogden on Fly Tying". However, the Fishing Gazette describes the fly as being "new" in 1902. A further careful reading of Ogden's book revealed no mention of the "Invicta" and in fact the fly was devised and brought to market by his nephew, also James Ogden who had inherited his Uncle's shop in Cheltenham. You can read more on the Ogden's Legacy page linked in the previous post.
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One of the many puzzles in the vintage tackle world has been the story of Ogden & Scotford. James Ogden is well known in the literature. Inventor of "Ogden's Fancy" and an early exponent of shorter rods and "floating fly" techniques, he was also the father of Mary Ogden, the matriarch of Ogden Smiths Ltd. However, there is next to nothing in the reference books or on the Forums about Ogden & Scotford. Who was Scotford, and what was his relationship with Ogden? I hope to have at least uncovered part of the story. You can read about it HERE.
Nothing very special to add this month, other than that I have been working on something which I hope will be of interest to a lot of people. I am waiting for a few items and additional data to arrive and once all of these have been processed I'll be adding the finished piece to the site.
As ever...watch this space! |
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April 2023
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