Back in 1959, Bob Abraham was a state game warden. One day, while patrolling the banks of Big Hunting Creek at Thurmont, he came upon a fisherman. He approached the man, asked if he had a fishing license.
He did indeed have a valid Maryland fishing license. His name was Jim Gilford, and he was an outdoor columnist for The Frederick News-Post.
Abraham and Gilford became good friends, lifelong friends.
“I treasured his friendship,” said Abraham in a recent phone interview.
Jim Gilford died on Aug. 19. He was 92.
From 1965 to 2006, Gilford wrote two weekly columns for the News-Post — Bassin’ Notes and The Drumming Log. He also compiled the Outdoor Notes column, a tradition we’ve carried on at the News-Post.
Gilford was an outdoorsman’s outdoorsman. He wrote about fishing, hunting, conservation and was not afraid to spar with the state over proposed regulations and conservation efforts that he believed to be, or not be, in the best interest of sportsmen and wildlife.
Abraham recalled that when, in 1964, he proposed Big Hunting Creek become a catch-and-release stream — a first in Maryland — it was Jim Gilford who became the plan’s biggest and most vocal advocate. This radical idea for the time was given the go-ahead from the state fishing commission to make one mile of the trout stream catch-and-release only. Today, all of Big Hunting Creek is a catch-and-release, fly-fishing-only trout fishing stream.
“Jim was a leader in a variety of conservation efforts,” said Dan Neuland, current News-Post outdoor columnist. “He was a strong advocate for protecting and improving wild brook trout streams in western Maryland.”
Gilford was one of the founding members of the Potomac Valley Fly Fishers. The first organizational meeting was held in his living room. PVFF awarded Gilford, Abraham (who, initially, as a game warden did not want to single out one sportsman’s group to join) and a third founding member, Walker Zimmerman, with specially designed ceramic plates marking PVFF’s 50th anniversary in 2017.
Passing the torch
When Gilford was hired here as the outdoor columnist in 1965, his predecessor and Frederick native, the late Lefty Kreh, devoted one of his last columns to the new guy: “You’re going to like Jim. He’s an excellent fly fisherman, loves spin fishing, has trained his setters to a T, is an avid archer, a photographer, is eager to learn and best of all a nice person.”
In one of his first Drumming Log columns, Gilford introduced himself to Frederick County sportsmen. He grew up in Pennsylvania and his father worked for the Game Commission in the “outdoor paradise” section of that state. That’s where he learned to hunt for grouse, fish for trout and grow his skills from bait to fly fishing, learned to train bird dogs, hunt deer and bear, and all about bassin’.
“I tie my own flies and popping bugs, fletch my own arrows, and wrap my own rod guides because I enjoy doing such things,” he wrote. “I feel no need to prove myself the best in any outdoor activity. I like just being where the hard road ends.”
He continued to write his columns until 2006, when he announced his retirement — from writing regular columns, that is, after 41 years. One writer of a Letter to the Editor penned: “Since the sixties, Jim’s column has been this newspaper’s most outstanding feature. … Long ago, I expected him to be lured away by a major newspaper or outdoor magazine. It was about as likely for a writer of his quality to have stayed here for so long as it would have been for a Cal Ripken to have spent his whole career with the Keys.”
Then-Sports editor Stan Goldberg, who confessed he didn’t know the difference between a trout and a bass, wrote a tribute column saying, “I was very glad to have someone like Gilford, someone who could give the local hunters and fishers” what they wanted to read.
“Jim was a dedicated outdoorsman who obviously loved writing about his experiences,” wrote Goldberg in a recent email. “He made you feel that you were right there with him. He was the person I went to when someone called in about an outdoors item and he always gave me good advice.” Goldberg recalled that when Gilford would send the (hunting season) deer kill reports, the list “got so long they crashed our system. It must have taken him days” to collect the names.
“He was a good and dedicated writer who meant a lot to our sports section,” Goldberg continued. “His columns appealed to a large segment of our population. The paper was lucky to have him.”
As a member of the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association, Gilford also duly reported their annual tournament results. “His columns often spotlighted a variety of Chesapeake Bay issues such as the changing regulations related to striped bass, oyster and blue crab populations,” Neuland wrote in an email.
Gilford received many honors and state appointments, including chairman of the Maryland Department of Game and Inland Fish Trout Advisory Committee, served three decades on the DNR Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission, was appointed on the federal level to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Striped Bass Advisory Panel, and he received the state’s highest civilian award, Admiral of the Chesapeake, in 2007.
“I can’t imagine a better mentor during my early years as an outdoor writer than Jim Gilford,” Neuland wrote in an email. “I felt a strong connection with Jim even before I met him personally as a result of reading his columns for over a decade. Jim’s Drumming Log column was the primary reason I subscribed to The Frederick News-Post. Jim thoughtfully provided me with insights into the good ole days of deer hunting and the changes in wildlife management he has witnessed throughout his lifetime. He will be remembered as a respected authority on the outdoors who was admired by all.”
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