James "Jim" Deren owned and operated the Angler's Roost, a well-known fishing-tackle shop in New York City, for over forty years. The many notable clients of the Roost included

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 ...

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

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, and

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. Deren invented several flies, such as The Fifty Degrees and Deren's Fox Dry Fly, and he was well known to anglers as a good source of information. He was a guest on "The Sportsman's Guide", a television show that ran for 26 weeks on the

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, and a technical panelist on the radio show "The Rod and Gun Club of the Air".Frazier, Ian
"An Angler at Heart"
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'', 19 April 1982. Retrieved on 9 September 2013.Levin, Dan
"Lures, Lines And Philosophy Are The Stock-in-trade At Jim Deren's Angler's Roost"
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'', 24 November 1969. Retrieved on 9 September 2013. Deren began tying flies in grade school in New Jersey and sold his flies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He started out as a fishing-tackle buyer for a shop in Newark and then worked for Alex Taylor and Company in New York City. He then became a buyer and salesman for Kirkland Brothers, where he advised clients on the technical aspects of fly-fishing and handled their fly-tying material. At that time he also began selling flytying material through a mail-order business he ran at night. This side business led him to quit his job at Kirkland Brothers and open the first Angler's Roost at 207 East Forty-third St., between 2nd and 3rd Ave, which later moved to the basement of the Chrysler Building and then the East Forty-fourth St location on the third floor of 141 East Forty-fourth St. near Grand Central Station. Deren was a first-rate angler and well known raconteur in the world of flyfishing. One of his notable quotes was posted in his shop: "There don't have to be a thousand fish in a river; let me locate a good one and I'll get a thousand dreams out of him before I catch him—and, if I catch him, I'll turn him loose." He worked at the Roost until shortly before his death in 1983. In 1985, a tag sale and auction of his remaining merchandise was held for two days at Bedford Historical Hall in Bedford Village, NY.Bryant, Nelson
"Angler's Roost a Lure to the End"
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'', Bedford Village, NY, 24 March 1985. Retrieved on 9 September 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deren, James Year of birth missing Year of death missing Fly fishing American fishers