Bruce is a huge fan of the stillwater trout scene and his patterns here at MyFlies reflect that passion. In fact, he’s spent so much time on the finest lakes the U. S. has to offer, he moved from southern California to Island Park, Idaho to be closer to the beloved Henry and Hebgen Lakes as well as Clark Canyon Reservoir.
On the shores of the south fork of the American River, Bruce's Uncle Jerry, introduced him to the wonders of fly fishing and fly tying. This began at the age of twelve and two years later, at fourteen, he and a buddy started their own tying business, "Smith and Haynes flies". They tried to pawn these shakily tied fur and feathers to unsuspecting Junior High teachers, "I think we actually sold about a one dozen flies to my teachers, of which I am sure was just gesture kindness and a way to keep us pestering kids out of their hair". Since then, Bruce has worked in some aspect of the fishing industry.
The lure of the saltwater scene of southern California proved too much for him to resist and Bruce became a deckhand aboard the long range sport fishing vessel Searcher in 1991. From there, he quickly learned the ropes, went to school, applied for and passed the Coast Guard test for his 100 ton master mariner license. After a couple of boat changes he landed on board the Shogun in 1998; where, for the last twelve years, he has retained his title of captain and 2nd mate. While working on board these long range sport fishing boats there have been instances where they strictly do blue water fly fishing; destinations being Magdalena Bay, Cabo San Lucas, Revillagigedos island chain and Clipperton atoll.
At these locales, they chase and catch striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, bluefin trevally, wahoo, rainbow runners, etc. all on the fly and set many IGFA records in the process. Bruce and the Shogun spend about thirty days a year collecting specimens, yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, bonito, barracuda, dolphin(fish), and some pelagic sharks for the Outer Bay Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Bruce has always had the fly fishing fever; he didn't succumb to the stillwater bug until 1999. Lake Crowley of the eastern Sierra is where he cut his stillwater teeth and it didn't take long before he was traveling to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to sample the productive stillwaters of these western states.
For the past four years, Bruce has been commercially tying on a small scale and started several web-sites concerning the stillwaters of the western United States and saltwater conventional fishing. He has also written a number of informative articles for Western Outdoor News, the FishSniffer newspapers in southern and northern California and several web-sites, most notably SD Long Range.
Some of Bruce’s flies are featured: on Hans Weilenmann’s Danica Fly Tying site: Danica and appear in "Modern Midges" by Rick Takahashi and Jerry Hubka. Bruce built and temporaily owned Everything Stillwater forum/Big Fish Happen web-sites and on-line store.
Make sure you take a moment to check out some of these other websites that are pleased to showcase some of Bruce’s talents: Danica, Big Fish Happen Blog, Facebook, and Shogun Sport Fishing
View Bruce's Flies
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