One of the country’s first fly fishing writers, and an influential figure in fly fishing history, was a woman born in 1854 in Phillips, Maine. Cornelia Thurza Crosby eventually became known as “Fly Rod Crosby,” a nickname I reckon a few anglers today would love to go by.
Crosby had a tough childhood, like most did in the 19th century. Her family lived just south of the Rangeley Lakes region in Maine, and her father died when she was young. According to the American Museum of Fly Fishing, where Crosby is featured, Crosby had a brother die of tuberculosis, and while it didn’t kill her, the disease affected her for the rest of her life.
Thankfully, it didn’t stop her from falling in love with fly fishing. In fact, many doctors urged Crosby to spend more time outside as a way to cope with the disease, so she started “hanging with the sportsmen in the area and the guides, and she took up fly fishing,” Roger Lambert, a guide from Maine, said in a WABI story about Fly Rod Crosby.
That led Crosby to quit her job in a bank and start writing about her fly fishing adventures. She had no shortage of material to use, since Lambert said “she was beating [the guides] with a catch and with a cast.”
This all lead to Crosby starting a column for the Phillips Phonograph, the paper in her hometown in Maine. The column was titled “Fly Rod’s Note Book” and were written under the name Fly Rod. That column became nationally syndicated and appeared in newspapers in New York, Boston, and Chicago. For a woman in the 19th century, this was a monumental achievement. Remember, this was a time when women didn’t participate in fishing and hunting, and Fly Rod Crosby was adept at both.
Crosby once said of her occupation as a writer that “I am a plain woman of uncertain age, standing six feet in my stockings. I scribble a bit for various sporting journals, and I would rather fish any day than go to heaven.”
Crosby also spent considerable time marketing her home state of Maine. She was in love with what the state’s outdoors had done for her, and wanted to tell others about the wonderful place she lived in. According to the American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF), Crosby convinced the Maine Central Railroad to sponsor a booth at the first-ever Sportsmen’s Exposition in New York City, in 1895.
“This modest display brought great visibility to the state and helped to increase tourism,” the AMFF writes. “Crosby organized and presented expanded displays again in 1896, 1897, and 1898.”
It was during this time that she started talking about her “short-skirted sporting outfit” and was introduced to Annie Oakley.
Perhaps her most lasting legacy, though, was the effort to regulate and license fishing and hunting guides in Maine. She lobbied the Maine legislature to license guides to help generate funds for protecting fish and wildlife, and out of respect for the profession. Crosby believed it took an extra level of character to be a Maine guide, and she wanted that recognized in some formal capacity.
As a thank-you for her efforts to help that legislation pass, Crosby was awarded the first guide license in Maine, in 1898.
She passed away in 1946 at the age of 92.
To learn more about other notable women in fly fishing, check out the articles below:
5 Women’s Fly Fishing Organizations to Support on National Women’s Fly Fishing Day