Hoagy B. Carmichael

Hoagy Bix Carmichael—producer and director of film, television and theater, sometime tap dancer and eldest son of America’s favorite songwriter—is also the author of “A Master’s Guide to Building A Bamboo Fly Rod.”  This extraordinary work exists today because, in 1968, Hoagy met Edmund Everett Garrison, was astonished by his fly rods, and wished to pay homage to everything that his friend “Garry,” knew about the craft of rodmaking.  This meant photographing, documenting and explaining every step that Garry took—as well as accounting for all of Garry’s complicated mathematical formulae.  The project was undertaken during the 1970’s when bamboo rods had fallen almost completely out of favor with the fly-fishingpublic, and the were almost no known amateur builders.  Hoagy chronicled the work of perhaps America’s greatest living expert and surely the only man willing to share his craft and his knowledge.  It is largely because of this book that Garrison will live in posterity as “The Master,” while Hoagy himself has won widely-deserved notoriety and respect for his part in rejuvenating the craft of bamboo rodmaking.