The curious case of Fifty Degrees

Seemingly the first mention of Fifty Degrees was in the article about fishing in the Catskills in the 1946 issue of Fortune magazine. This pattern was devised by Jim Deren, the owner of the famous Angler's Roost fly shop in the Chrysler Building in New York City.

"The shop was, I believe, a converted apartment with about 3 rooms. The "front room" was his shop and you sometimes had to climb over a couple boxes of waders, etc. to get to the counter. Once there, Jim would put down his cigarette and help you find some really neat stuff. His back room had a closet full of bamboo rods, most in terrible shape."

"The Angler’s Roost is a walk-up apothecary shop specializing in relief of the fishermen’s malady. You have to sidle in, then turn sideways to the left, then sideways to the right, then drop your left shoulder, and then move up to the counter. Yesterday’s mail, and the day before’s, and the day before the day before’s mail is piled there and you are standing in the most incredible disarray of angling equipment that could possibly be imagined.

It is a veritable angling kaleidoscope. Creels and boots, rods and reels, and flys and flashlights and knives and books and lines and ointments and oils and wings and beaks and barrels full of feathers and behind the counter, always in a kind of soft, reposing anger, is Jimmy Deren, reading something." "… ‘And I’d like some hooks. I’d like some #10’s, extra long shank." ’And what do you want those for?’ Jimmy growls like a dog at his bowl. "Well, I thought I’d tie some nymphs." ’you don’t want that kind of hook. Here’s what you want." And again without moving, Jimmy tosses a little packet of hooks on the desk with ‘ten-n’ neatly printed on the packet. You call out the rest of your order while being growled at and corrected on each item until you’re done.

I remember once trying to buy a flashlight he had in the glass case on the wall. ’You don’t want that goddam thing,’ he said. ’It’s not worth a damn.’ And no matter how much I pleaded, he wouldn’t sell it to me. So this is Jimmy Deren, old rooster, who badgers, reprimands, instructs and cajoles every customer who sidles into the Angler’s Roost. The old rooster who sits there with his thinning crewcut comb, making noises at you deep in his throat, and you love every minute of it because you know you’re talking to Jimmy Deren." "… And when you leave you know you’ve visited an oracle – and as you are leaving he calls out in sounds you almost mistake for his clearing his throat – ‘Have fun!’…" Woods Hole, MA USA"

Fifty Degrees is also mentioned in Ray Bergman's book Trout (first published in 1938). My copy of the book is from 1959. There was a revision of the book in 1952. So was Deren's Fifty Degrees already in the original 1938 edition or included since the revision?...

Several people have confirmed that Fifty Degrees appeared in Trout with the 1952 revision:

"...the 1938 1st edition had 16 plates. Since the Jim Deren patterns were on plate 17 of the 52’ edition, I believe they were added in later editions."

"My copy from 1943 does not mention it"

From 1946 issue of Fortune magazine (illustrations by John Atherton):

Ray Bergman's book Trout: