I was raised on a small hobby farm located in Pennsylvania. My father was not a fisherman but he loved to hunt. Dad had a friend who hunted with him quite frequently. His friend had a son my age and they loved to trout fish. He would buy worms from me that I would dig from around our winter manure pile for his trout fishing. One day he asked my father if I could go trout fishing with him and his son. My dad said it was alright if I would like to go. I jumped on the offer. When we arrived at the stream, I was instructed on how to use worms and minnows, with a fly rod. It was a deadly way to catch trout.
The long rod had such a good feeling and the action was great. I fell in love with it. It was not until my senior year of high school when I could finally afford my own fly rod; however, there was not much time for me to introduce myself to it and the use of artificial flies as I was enlisted into the U. S. Marine Corp and was in Vietnam before my muscles could heal from boot-camp.
When I came home from Vietnam and was discharged from the Corp I had my problems just like all returning soldiers. While serving in Vietnam most of my time was spent in mountainous areas. I had a longing to go back to the mountains. While staring at my fly rod in the corner of my room, I decided to pack my van and drive to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I found a place to park my van outside the town of Jackson Hole. I then proceeded to back-pack high into the Teton Mountains of Wyoming and Idaho. My knowledge of using the long rod and artificial flies was limited. Beaver ponds always fascinated me, so I fished everyone that I could find. Within these ponds I caught my first trout on a dry fly, with many other trout to follow. The first trout caught rose to a Royal Coachman. While observing the fly in this trout’s mouth the question why entered my mind. That is when my devoted interest turned to fly fishing. Why did this trout take the Royal Coachman? This fly did not imitate anything on, in or around those beaver ponds. .
I finally returned home to Pennsylvania to try and put my life together. I met Sherill and we seemed to get along good for a couple of years, so we got married. We raised two sons Michael and Shane. Mike had a friend who started him fly tying. Mike would ask me to help him with his fly tying and I enjoyed it so much I started to tie. Mike started hitting the books because he wanted to go to college. I started to get more involved in my fly tying. Michael and Shane both became fly fisherman. The boys went off to college and I got more involved with tying. Sherill thought everyone left her but she made it through.
My life became consumed with fly tying and fishing, always searching for the answer to “why”. I fish freestone streams to spring creeks, large to small, from New York to Idaho. I established quite a library of select books with more being added. My son Michael and I constructed a slant tank so I could observe what trout see. A slant tank is a wealth of knowledge. Both Michael and Shane attend the fly fishing shows with me and help with questions + answers, also demonstrating the slant tank. .
I own Trout with Flies, a highly respected, licenced and insured fly fishing guide service in Pennsylvania, free lance writer, photographer, custom fly tier and teach fly tying. In 2009 I made my first DVD on clean water, fly fishing and tying six of my flies with one bonus fly. The DVD is entitled “Trout With Flies” and is available here on MyFlies.
The river that I hold above all that I have fished and keep close to my heart is the South Fork of the Snake River, in Idaho. There is a word in the Lakota Sioux language - Akita mani yo (pronounced - ah kee tah mah nee yo ) Definition - "observe everything as you walk…" wise words, especially to an angler.
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