If you have spent any time fishing Catskill rivers, I have no doubt you are familiar with the name of Ed Van Put. A man of many talents and accomplishments, Ed was responsible for soliciting, negotiating and acquiring record mileage in the form of Public Fishing Rights along the rivers and streams of the Catskills. If he had accomplished nothing else, trout fishers would owe him a great debt and eternal thanks for that alone.
I am sad to say that Ed will be absent from the wide bends of his beloved Delaware River this coming season, for he passed quietly away on Saturday at his home in Livingston Manor, New York. Our hearts go out to his lovely wife Judy, his iconic mother Agnes, and all of his family and friends.
Ed was a founding member of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild, a fly tyer and an angler of legendary proportions. He remained active in the Guild, having given a presentation on the Beaverkill at our October Roundtable, drawing on the knowledge previously shared in his fine book on the river.
I was fortunate to meet Ed and talk briefly with him a few times over the past six years, finding him to be the epitome of the gentleman angler. Despite his wealth of knowledge, he was quiet and respectful of people, not one to force his ideas on anyone. Van Put had the reputation of being a classic presentationist on the water, freely admitting that he caught most of his trout on his favorite dry fly, the Adams. Tomorrow night the Guild will say goodbye to our friend by tying the Adams in his honor.
Though our meetings were brief, I feel I know something of Ed Van Put through his books. I have his “Trout Fishing in the Catskills” as well as “The Beaverkill”, both incredibly well researched and written accounts of not simply the historic fishing in this region, but the people who lived that history. I have no doubt that his appreciation for people and his love of the natural resources of the Catskills and their rivers played a large part in his success acquiring public access to those rivers.
Many knew of Ed Van Put’s storied accomplishments as an angler. Thinking of his legend on the Delaware I am drawn to one of my favorite authors, Nick Lyons. In “The Emperor’s New Fly” (Fishing Stories, Skyhorse 2014) he writes of an evening fishing that great river with Van Put, Len Wright and their friend Mike. Those latter three went fishless that night, even when the river boiled with rises at dusk, though Nick writes of Van Put constantly taking fish, and caring for his companions… “The circles-rhythmic and gentle- continued to spread in the flat water where the current widened. Ed was at my left shoulder now, willing to forego these fine last moments of the day so he could advise me. A saint.”
Bright Waters Catskill 