The Mysterious Mary Orvis Marbury, with Historian Steve Woit

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mary Orvis Marbury, daughter of Orvis founder Charles Orvis, is an important figure in the history of American fly fishing. She was the first person to catalog and standardize American fly patterns, but she led a sad and mysterious life. Historian Steve Woit [37:50] has written and expansive and spectacular book about Mary and the artifacts that helped her catalog flies and has also uncovered some little-known aspects of her life. If you are interested in how our fly-fishing traditions have developed you'll want to listen to my interview with Steve.

Coming back to the present we have some great questions in the Fly Box that may help you on your endless fly-fishing learning experience:
Can trout see tiny midges at night?
Should I grease my leader?
Will Mucilin hurt my bamboo rods?
What should I do when a fish is hooked deep?
What should I do if I inadvertently "high-hole" another angler?
A great tip from a listener on how to travel through the woods with a nymph on a dropper.
Is there a rule of thumb on how long to make a leader loop?
Are there orthotics that can be used in wading boots?
A tip from a listener on a great way to apply desiccant powder to dry flies.
A tip from a listener on how to fly fish without stressing the fish.
Why do other fish chase a hooked fish?
I though snowshoe rabbit's foot would make my flies float higher. Why do you use it and how do you fish these flies?
What is the best way to put a fly rod into a rod sock?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing podcast.
0:15.2	This is your host, Tom Rosenpauer.
0:17.6	And the subject this week is Mary Orvis Marbury. Mary Orvis Marbury was the daughter of Charles
0:26.5	Orvis, and she was an important person in the history of American fly tying, but very
0:35.2	enigmatic and a bit mysterious.
0:38.4	And the great historian, Steve White, has recently completed a spectacular book about
0:45.3	Mary and her flies and her life as much as he could determine, beautifully illustrated.
0:52.8	And so I have Steve as my guest today on the podcast to talk about
0:57.8	the research that he's done and some of the more interesting and little known facts about
1:05.2	Mary's life. So if you're interested in flies and the history of flies and the history of American fly fishing,
1:13.0	then I think you'll enjoy the podcast today.
1:17.2	And before we do the flybox, I just wanted to give you some ideas for your own fly fishing
1:24.6	travel in case you were looking to go to a new part of the country and you
1:29.5	want to go with a vetted guide, a guide who is going to give you a great trip, is going to give you
1:37.1	a safe trip, is going to be nice to you, and it's going to give you the best experience
1:42.1	possible.
1:42.8	And that's what you get with an
1:44.4	orvis endorsed guide or lodge or outfitter so um the first uh the first location that i'm
1:52.6	going to tell you about this week is the driftless fly fishing company and um this is owned and operated
1:59.6	by a great guy named Mel Hainer.
2:02.5	Mel is a veteran guide and fly tire.
2:05.9	He's fished all over North America.
	...

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