Rich Strolis grew up in the Foothills of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, where he picked up fishing in general at a very early age. Western Massachusetts is littered with dozens of lesser known mountain streams that are full of small native Brook Trout; no better a place to learn the ins and outs of trout fishing. By age 11,Rich had been introduced to fly fishing and that summer, caught his first trout-on-a-fly with a Muddler Minnow. It was then and there that a serious addiction was born. By 13, he was teaching himself how to tie flies, albeit not very well mind you and by 20 he was spinning up respectable flies. His tying was mostly trial and error and he wanted to improve so he took a few classes from notable local tiers. About that same time, he decided to attend The Wulff School of Fly-fishing to fine tune his skills. He made some great friendships, his tying went to an entirely different level and the rest is history.
In his mid-twenties, Rich moved to Northwestern Connecticut, just a few minutes’ drive to the Farmington River, the river he now calls “home”. During the first three years, he made it his personal mission to learn the nuisances of this very technical trout fishery by getting up close and personal with it on a daily basis. He succeeded and through the coaxing of well known photographer and author, Thomas Ames Jr., Rich became a guide and worked for a local outfitter before branching out and starting his own guide service.
Guiding, tying, selling flies and starting a family added up to some very exciting times, but time was in short supply so Rich took a personal inventory and decided to put his guiding on the back burner for a while and focus on solely teaching fly tying.
One only has to be around Rich a short amount of time to fully realize just how deep his passion runs for fly tying and fly fishing. The other thing that is very apparent, is his eagerness and willingness to share his knowledge with others; especially true when it’s a person new to the sport. Rich’s flies reflect his pride in doing “it right”; well designed, quality materials, expertly tied.
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