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The Catoctin Banner. | Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC)
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Currently viewing the tag: "Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC)"

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BY Dan Neuland

The 79th Annual Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC) Campfire Weekend was held at Camp Airy in Thurmont on May 17-19, 2019. The camp hosted a total of 365 attendees, which included 179 boys and their adult sponsors from 16 different states. A total of 44 boys were new to the program this year. The camp is located near several excellent local trout streams and has two spring-fed stocked ponds on site that are stocked with trout for the annual event.

Briefly, the BOJC is an organization that was founded in 1940 in the Catoctin Mountains of Frederick County by a group of conservation-minded fly fishermen. The annual campfire weekend is designed to pass on the knowledge, the skills, and the love of the sport of angling and, particularly, fly fishing, to young men. As stated in the BOJC Creed, adult members pledge to “annually take at least one boy a-fishing, instructing him, as best we know, in the responsibilities that are soon to be wholly his.”

The BOJC is an organization that is steeped in tradition. The name chosen to represent the group comes from the waxed neck feather of the male Indian jungle fowl, a chicken-like bird, prized for its beautiful plumage. Feathers from the cape of the jungle cock have been used for salmon flies since the 19th century. A jungle cock cape feather is prominently featured in the BOJC logo worn by its members.

Bob Abraham, Sr. of Thurmont has been a member of BOJC for 61 years. It all began on a rainy spring day in 1958, when Abraham was driving through Catoctin National Park.  He saw a fly fisherman walking along the road and stopped to offer the angler a ride to his vehicle that was parked at the Camp Peniel parking lot.

Abraham was working for the Department of Natural resources as a game warden. The angler accepted the ride and introduced himself as Gurney Godfrey from Baltimore. He informed the warden that he was in the area that weekend for the Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock Campfire being held nearby at Camp Airy in Thurmont. “Gurney held his fly rod out of the vehicle window as we traveled down the road and we exchanged conversation,” said Abraham. Godfrey thanked Abraham for the ride and invited him to supper that evening at the camp.

Abraham accepted his invitation and he attended the dinner wearing his uniform. He joined BOJC that same evening sponsored by Godfrey. That chance encounter was the start of a great friendship between the two fly fisherman and the beginning of a close connection between Abraham and the BOJC program.

After joining the BOJC organization in 1958, Abraham became very active in it. He was elected to the board of directors and eventually held the position of president from 1976-77. Abraham has become the friendly and welcoming face of the organization.

Currently, at 86 years  young, he is still very active. He attends the annual BOJC weekend and he can be found stationed under a canopy between the two ponds at Camp Airy with hundreds of hand-tied flies displayed on a table for the young anglers to use. At the 2019 BOJC program, Abraham handed-out a total of 21 dozen flies! Young anglers seek out Abraham for his trusted advice on fly selection and Abraham offers his encouragement. When they are successful, they eagerly run to him to show off their prize catch and share their fish story.

Thomas Burrill, an 11-year old who lives in West Virginia, has a fish story that is worth retelling. Thomas was attending the camp for the first time with his uncle, Ron Burrill of Foxville. Using a green streamer fly tied by Abraham, the young angler hooked and landed a rainbow trout that taped out at just under 25 inches and weighed 5.5 pounds!

BOJC volunteers also sponsor an annual Wounded Veteran Fishing Event in partnership with Project Healing Waters. The Thurmont American Legion Post 168, the Taneytown Country Kitchen Restaurant, Roy Rogers, as well as the many BOJC and Project Healing Waters volunteers contributed to the success of this year’s event on May 25, 2019.

These programs at Camp Airy are high-quality experiences, thanks to volunteers who give so much of their time to share their knowledge of fishing.

The seven-year BOJC instructional program is designed for boys eight-years old or older, starting with the basics of beginning angling and taking them toward the opportunity to fish with “the masters.” It is above all, a hands-on, outdoor educational program for young men. Classes are taught by experienced adults and include conservation, fly casting, entomology, equipment maintenance, fishing knots, fly tying, rod building, and net making to name a few.

Thomas Burrill is shown with his 25-inch rainbow trout with Bob Abraham.

2019 Wounded Veteran fisherman and event volunteers are shown on May 25, 2019 at Camp Airy in Thurmont.


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Deb Spalding

DSC_0468The name, The Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock (BOJC), sounds naughty today, but when the idea of forming the organization was discussed in the 1930s by a few men, Joseph W. Brooks, Jr., J. Hammond Brown, and Frank L. Bentz, who gathered for a weekend of fishing at the Catoctin Recreation Area above Thurmont, it was just the name of a bird. The jungle cock name solely refers to the neck feather of the Indian Jungle Fowl (now endangered), whose colorful feathers are sought by anglers for fly-tying. In the early days of the BOJC, members wore a single jungle cock feather in their hats to let others know they were part of the organization.

Those few men who gathered in the 1930s decided to create an organization whose purpose was to share angling with youth in order to carry forward the love of the sport. In 1940, the name “Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock,” was formally adopted during a meeting that was held at Camp Airy in Thurmont. The first annual camp fire was officially held there in the spring of 1941. The BOJC still meets annually, seventy-five years later, at Camp Airy. The organization hosted 430 participants this year.

BOJC’s 75th year president, Robert Abraham, Jr., opened the 75th Anniversary Celebration Dinner by reiterating the sentiment of the founders.

“The Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock is about youth, fly fishing, and conservation—to make sure it continues beyond our time,” said Abraham.

He was followed by Bosley Wright, executive vice president and sixty-three-year member of the BOJC, who recognized Gus Day for serving as the organization’s Treasurer from 1978 to 2013. Wright indicated that it now takes three people to do that job.

DSC_0454The invocation was given by John Adametz and dinner was served. Dinner was catered by Crooked Creek Grillers. Special guests were acknowledged and a presentation was given by Mike Brooks and Lefty Kreh. Kreh is a renowned fly fisherman and outdoors writer who worked with Mike Brooks to create a documentary about Brooks’ great uncle, Joe Brooks, Jr. In addition to being one of the founding fathers of the BOJC, Joe Brooks was a notorious angler who pioneered the sport in the 1960s and 1970s with appearances on ABC’s American Sportsman. BOJC guests were given a preview of the documentary about Brooks that Mike and Lefty have been working on. It’s titled The Father of Modern Fly Fishing, and tells about how Joe Brooks’ and his wife’s love story changed fishing forever. There is a memorial in honor of Joe Brooks along Route 77 in Catoctin Mountain Park. For more information about this documentary, please visit www.joebrooksdocumentary.com.

The BOJC is ceremonial; there is a creed, a prayer, and a poem. Attendance over the years allows young anglers to tie flies, build a fly rod, make a net, and fish. Participation culminates with a graduation of sorts called, “Fishing with the Masters” where seasoned, expert anglers take a boy fishing to where the big trout frolic.

Cole Shanholtz, a first-year participant in the BOJC, and his father, Brian Shanholtz, were beaming with pride, along with a few hundred other young fishermen at the 75th campfire of the Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock.

During the campfire, first-year participants received their BOJC patch.

Cole’s sponsor is his grandfather, Randy Gross of Keymar, Maryland. Randy sponsored two of his sons, Jason and Joe, in the early 1990s. Now he has nineteen grandchildren—eleven are boys that he plans to sponsor through the BOJC program.

Gross beamed from ear to ear as he talked about his grandson, Cole.

He said, “Today was his first time fishing, and he caught four trout—the maximum you can get—and had an awesome day.”

Cole said his favorite part was, “reeling them in.”

Gross said that he will continue to share the love of angling and the lessons of conservation with his grandsons, as he did with his sons. About the BOJC, he said, “It’s the greatest organization on earth!”

Each year, a plaque with the current year president’s name is added to the monument in front of the Thurmont Food Bank building along Hunting Creek.

For more information about the Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock, please visit www.bojcmd.wordpress.com/.