Meet the Author
David Ladensohn
After growing up in San Antonio and graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, David Ladensohn became an international banker, living in San Francisco, Seoul, Korea, Hong Kong, Houston, and Los Angeles.
He then spent 21 years managing a manufacturing company in San Antonio, where he retired as CEO. Ladensohn trained as a mediator and today specializes in resolving family business disputes. He started and manages two water rights investment funds, and recently served ten years on a Texas bank’s board of directors, eventually serving as chairman. Today he is vice-chairman of the nation’s largest wholesale grocer, one of the ten largest private companies in the United States.
Ladensohn is curious about many subjects, including the nature of time, the role of music in evolution, the vagaries of history, and which of our modern beliefs will prove laughable 100 years from now. Fly-fishing is his passion, combining outdoor beauty, catch-and-release of wild animals, solitude, travel, puzzles and mysteries, and skills that are never perfected. A lifelong learner, Ladensohn has completed business and mediation programs at Harvard Business and Law Schools and recently spent six months completing a course of study at Oxford.
Ladensohn and his wife of 50 years live primarily in the mountains of far northern New Mexico and in San Antonio. Their daughter is a professional photographer in Los Angeles.
Now Available
Fly-Fishing with Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was obsessed with water. The famed Italian Renaissance artist meticulously studied and drew every aspect of rivers, from the nature of water drops to the ways currents create and destroy the earth’s surface. His obsession led him to become a professional hydraulic engineer. He changed his mind on Aristotle’s 1,800-year-old theory of the water cycle and, through logic, came to believe in the one we use today. He discovered the nature of erosion and heretically disproved the biblical flood. He created beautiful maps and drawings of river currents and developed an audacious plan to reroute the Arno River for war and peace.
It is obvious to David Ladensohn, who has been fly-fishing for forty years, that Leonardo da Vinci would have made the perfect fishing guide. The artist’s keen sense of humor and winning personality would have made him a wonderful companion. He knew more about how rivers work than any person before him and would have been outstanding at reading the water to figure out where the fish are. Beginning with Leonardo’s remarkable biography—from illegitimate child to celebrity whose company was sought by competing rulers in Italy and France—and taking readers through the inspirations that led him to fall in love with waterways, Ladensohn makes the connection between the artist’s life and the author’s deep knowledge of the art of fly-fishing. His adventures have led him to seek out unique and storied fly-fishing locales around the world, including Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, Bhutan, Italy, Slovenia, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Costa Rica, The Bahamas, Ireland, England, and Mongolia.
Ladensohn’s research on Leonardo da Vinci led him to the artist’s native rivers in Italy, scholars at Oxford, and the inside of Windsor Castle, where he studied the finest of the artist’s original water drawings. Those drawings, which remain little-known even today, are reproduced here in color, some for the first time. Fly-Fishing with Leonardo da Vinci is meant to inform and entertain anyone interested in the artist or fly-fishing and their unlikely intersection.
Testimonials
See what readers are saying about Fly-Fishing with Leonardo da Vinci.
KEN BURNS
American Filmmaker
"A journey into the mind of Leonardo da Vinci, David Ladensohn's book captures Leonardo's love of nature and his obsession with understanding all there is to know about water, while making a compelling case that Leonardo would have been the world's greatest fly-fishing guide. Just as Leonardo saw no boundaries between disciplines, Ladensohn masterfully intertwines the science and art of fly-fishing into a marvelous book that's part biography, part manual, and part meditation on the abiding power of observation."
ABRAHAM VERGHESE
Author of "The Covenant of Water"
"A delight! It left this reader with a new appreciation for both da Vinci's genius and the nuances of fly-fishing. Ladensohn combines a naturalist's eye with an angler's treasure trove of aphorisms and maxims that are as much about life as they are about art or sport. The beautiful illustrations enhance the text."
MARJORIE MANN
LibraryJounal.com
"Leonardo da Vinci aficionados and fly-fishers will rejoice. Ladensohn pulls off explaining the link between these two topics. His highly recommended book effortlessly makes the connections relevant and engaging."
MIKE GOOD
ForewordReviews.com
"Approachable and inviting, "Fly-Fishing with Leonardo da Vinci" combines biographical research and memoir elements to deliver charming exploration of water, invention, and lives led by curiosity."
Sample Images from Fly-Fishing With Leonardo da Vinci:
- All
A Study of Water
Leonardo’s empirical studies of how obstacles in a stream or river affect the currents immediately show why he would have been such a perfect fishing partner or guide. The experiments in the top two drawings show the inside and outside of the cushion that forms in front of an obstacle of a certain shape and the spiraling, turbulent side waves that frame the calmer water behind the obstacle where trout can find a place to hold and feed. The bottom drawing is unique and unprecedented in that Leonardo combines his many intense observations of water falling into a pool with his scientific imagination of what those impacts produce below the surface. The many vortices and air bubbles he drew here conform to actual hydraulics, although Leonardo could not actually see all of this from his vantage point above the surface. The drawing is a perfect example of Leonardo’s fusion of observation, knowledge, and artistic talent. Studies of Water, Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2024
Experimental Glass Sided Tank
Leonardo draws water falling into a glass-sided tank, illustrating the bouncing waves and curling turbulence of water falling in this way. Although he was working out the effect on structures like bridges and river banks, anglers can incorporate this knowledge into visualizing the effect of small and large waterfalls and pocket water, the fish that try to hold near them, and the submerged nymphs we hope will look natural underwater as they drift near those trout. No one knows for certain whether this tank was actually constructed or was purely a thought experiment that Leonardo so clearly transcribed from his mind’s eye onto paper. Detail from "Paris MS I" © Library of the Institut de France, Ms2180.
How a River Makes its Course
This simple-looking detail illustrates two important scientific observations. First, Leonardo was focused on the manner in which the main current in rivers reflects (bounces) off one river bank and then, downstream, the other. He labels the points of impact with letters of the alphabet drawn in mirror script that appear backward to us. Leonardo used his knowledge and his calculations of how this actually happens to perform what anglers call “stream architecture”: modifying one bank with rocks or other in-stream structures to protect from erosion or shift erosion away from houses or valuable lands. Further, he predicted how over time the entire course of a river shifts downstream as the existing banks erode and the pattern of reflection changes. This future river course is illustrated in a thinner, lighter line. This knowledge is important to anglers seeking soft water near river edges and cut banks where trout love to hold. Detail © British Library Board, Arundel MS 263
A Weir on the Arno East of Florence
Leonardo drew “A Weir on the Arno East of Florence” for government officials, so he wrote in the conventional manner instead of his own mirror script. It shows how previous poor design caused erosion of farmland downstream, a flaw he could correct with his superior knowledge of “stream architecture”. He also illustrates his fascination with vortexes downstream, which progressively cause less turbulence and create good holding water for trout. Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2024
A Map of Imola
“Map of Imola” is an innovative and beautiful bird’s eye view of a town east of Florence, where Leonardo walked off every inch to produce this survey for the pope’s son who threatened to conquer Tuscany for his own gain. Leonardo may have been spying for the government of Florence under instructions from Machievelli, even as he worked for their enemy. The details of the river on the south side of the town provide an excellent guide for any angler wanting to find the areas downstream of the main current’s impact points, where trout could be found. Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2024
Fishing in Four Dimensions
“Fishing in Four Dimensions” illustrates the importance of presenting imitation nymphs with sufficient weight and sufficient time (upstream lead) for these flies to sink through the water column to reach fish holding near the river bottom downstream. © David A. Ladensohn
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