Leonardo da Vinci-Best Fishing Guide Ever
presented by David Ladensohn
5/18/2026
In May we welcome author and fly fisherman David Ladensohn with an exciting and unusual presentation on the premise that Leonardo da Vinci, know to us all as a painter, inventor, and genius would also have been the ultimate fishing guide. His reading of currents, seams, and water levels, would have made him the number one choice if you happened to be in Florence during the Italian Renaissance and needed a reliable and knowledgeable fishing guide.
Known for his art projects, his primary was of earning a living was as a hydrologic military engineer. HIs lifelong obsession with water resulted in spectacular but little-known drawings of various river currents, eddies, and whirlpools that will thrill anglers; David's program will highlight them. Leonardo wrote, but never published, a treatise that contains hundreds of observations about how rivers work; today the manuscript is the most valuable book in the world. He discovered the law of constant flows, inverted a type of canal lock gate that is still used after 500 years, studied and knew more about rivers than anyone who had ever lived. There is no doubt that Leonard da Vinci would have been the ultimate fly-fishing guide, and probably a great caster and fly tier.
Sit back and marvel at the many parallels between high art and fly fishing.
David Ladensohn spent over 50 years as an international banker, manufacturing CEO, family business mediator, and corporate and non-profit board member, but his passion is fly-fishing. He and his wife of 52 years live outside Chama, New Mexico, surrounded by high country trout streams. A graduate of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He also has been newly appointed to the board of regents at Harris Manchester College of the University of Oxford.
David shares Leonardo's fascination with rivers as a creative and destructive force and explains in his book why the Renaissance polymath would have been the ideal fishing guide and companion. His four years of research on this book culminated in time outside Windsor Castle with the Queen's private collection of Leonardo's original drawings.
Today David traavels the world seeking out new fishing adventures and his book FLY FISHING WITH LEONARDO will be for sale at the end of the meeting.