Welcome to my home page. It is hoped that you will find  something informative and useful.

I was born into the world of fly-fishing and spent my early life in Happy Camp, California, where my father had a fly-fishing guide service that focused primarily on the Klamath and Trinity rivers during the 1940s and 1950s. Naturally this early exposure to the world of fly-fishing brought about an interest in fly tying and eventually I became immersed in all phases of the fly-fishing business, both wholesale and retail.

The business afforded me the opportunity to have an on going exchange of information with leading experts in fly tying and fly-fishing. It also provided me the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world discovering sources of fly tying materials and other products that were sold on the international market. For instance, annual trips to northern India to buy furs and feathers also meant the opportunity to spend time in Kashmir fishing some of the rivers flowing out of Himalayas.

While growing up my father would allow me to tag along when he guided others in the Rocky Mountain States during the summer months. As a youth I was often left in a state of confusion. I never was able to determine if we were mixing business with pleasure or pleasure with business. From all of the destinations that we visited, the northwestern part of Montana always held the most attraction for me, especially the Kootenai River. At one time during this period I also fantasized about locating a small cabin on the river where I could fish throughout the summer and tie flies during the winter. After 50 years I now have the opportunity to visit Montana often and fish with my wife, Patricia, where we have the famous Kootenai River at our doorstep.

The focus of this web site is about fly-fishing and the tying of flies. Besides the articles I have written on fly-fishing and fly tying, I have authored three books, Popular Fly Patterns (1976), Fish Flies (1995), with now a revised edition, Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art (2005), which is a culmination of a lifetime of work. This entire project has obviously become an obsession and it can only be described as a work in progress with yet another edition of Fish Flies simmering on the back burner. Your inputs will make it all possible.

As time passes there will be additions made to this page, so we hope you will visit us again and possibly discover something new and interesting, at least to you, in the world of fly-fishing and all it has to offer.