Meet the Authors!

MyFlies.com is privileged to offer an array of talented Authors that provide insight into the techniques of both fly tying and fly fishing and that explain the Entomology that drives the Fly Tier’s instincts and creative mind in developing many of these unique patterns. All of our Authors’ prices include personalized books; some offering hand-tied flies. Any of these books make a great addition to your personal library collection or a wonderful gift for the Angler/Tier that has everything.

Take a moment to meet some very talented Authors…

Rick Hafele has a Masters degree in aquatic entomology and a minor in fisheries biology, and has worked as a professional aquatic biologist for over 30 years. He has also penned the Entomology column for American Angler magazine for over 25 years. Books to his credit include An Angler’s Guide to Aquatic Insects and Their Imitations (with Scott Roederer, Johnson Books, 1995), Western Mayfly Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Pub, 2005), The Complete Book of Western Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Pub, 1981), and most recently Nymph Fishing Rivers and Streams (Stackpole Books, 2006)

Rick is also well known for instructional DVD’s that include the 1983 classic Anatomy of a Trout Stream and more recently the four volume set titled, Fly Fishing Large Western Rivers, plus Nymph Fishing Basics (included with his latest book or sold separately) and the 2-disc set titled Advanced Nymph Fishing. Few fly fishermen have Rick's knowledge about the world in which trout live, and for many years he has been sharing that knowledge with fly fishermen through books, articles, slide shows and seminars. More info about Rick and his programs can be found at his website: www.laughingrivers.com

Dave Hughes is author of more than 20 books about fly fishing for trout. They include the classic Western Hatches (with Rick Hafele), American Fly Tying Manual, Handbook of Hatches, Reading the Water, Strategies for Stillwater, Fly Fishing Basics, Wet Flies, the massive Trout Flies, Essential Trout Flies, Trout From Small Streams, and Western Mayfly Hatches (with Rick Hafele). His newest book is Nymphs for Streams and Stillwaters, and has almost 400 pages of text and 1,000 color photos of naturals, nymph patterns, tying steps, and the types of water where you'll want to fish them.

Dave was founding president of Oregon Trout in 1983, and was awarded the Lew Jewett Memorial life membership in the Federation of Fly Fishers in 1985. He is an honorary life member of the Flyfishers Club of Oregon and his home club, the Rainland Flycasters in Astoria, Oregon.

Born on the 4th of July, 1945, in Astoria, Dave worked his way through college at jobs specializing in the 3 Ds—Dirty, Difficult, and Dangerous: mink ranches, tuna canneries, and shrimp boats. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1967, from Infantry Officer Candidate School in 1968, and served 6 months in Viet Nam as a communications site commander in the Mekong Delta and one year as liaison officer to the Commanding General of communications in the Southeast Asia theater.

Dave is an accomplished amateur aquatic entomologist. His hobbies include collecting, identifying, and photographing aquatic insects that are fed upon by trout, as well as tying and fishing the flies that match those insects. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, fly fishing writer and artist Masako Tani, and their daughter Kosumo.

Dave grew up fly fishing small coastal streams for wild native cutts, and has fished the Deschutes River and other northwest waters extensively for many years. Long a voracious reader of all things fly fishing, he developed a special affinity for the study of aquatic insects and related fly patterns. In 1977, during post-bac studies at Oregon State, Dave audited an aquatic entomology class taught by Dr. Norm Anderson, and began fishing with lab assistant Rick Hafele. The rest is history, though we hope it’s not yet all been written. Rick and Dave began teaching a workshop called Entomology and the Artificial Fly, and went on from there to co-author Western Hatches in 1981. For more than 30 years, Dave has continued to read, write, study and photograph the aquatic insects, tie and fish the fly patterns that match them.

Dave has fly fished all across the US and Canada, and has also traveled and fished in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan. He has long been a popular speaker at fly fishing club meetings and banquets, as well as sport shows and fly fishing conclaves.

“Pudge” Kleinkauf is Alaska’s leading woman fly fishing instructor, fly tier and guide. Renowned for her teaching skills in both fly fishing and fly tying, she is also Alaska’s best-known woman guide, offering lodge-based flyfishing schools and small-group guided trips for women and couples to a wide variety of Alaska’s best known fly fishing locations. She also leads guided trips for saltwater fly fishing to Mexico each spring. A regular presenter at outdoor shows around the country, Pudge is also one of the “Special Explorers” for the Alaska Magazine Television Series on PBS.

A retired University professor and lawyer, Pudge is member and one of the founders of the Intl. Women Fly Fishers. She serves as a Fly Fishing Ambassador for patagonia®, and as a Pro Staff member for Ross Reels, Scientific Angler™, Sierra Stream Mountain, Jay Fair, and others. Her business, Women’s Flyfishing® is a member of Trout Unlimited’s Outfitters, Guides, and Business Members Program, as well as a member of the Guides Association of the Federation of Fly Fishers.

In addition to owning and operating Women’s Flyfishing® Pudge is the author or two books and a contributing editor for Fish Alaska Magazine. Her first book, Fly Fishing Women Explore Alaska, 2003 Epicenter Press, received several awards, and her second book, River Girls: Fly Fishing for Young Women,2006 Johnson Books, won the first-place gold award in the Benjamin Franklin Awards’ Sports and Outdoor Recreation Competition. Her third book, Sailfish of the North: Fly Fishing for Alaska’s Arctic Grayling, Amato Publications, is scheduled for release in late 2009.

Ted Leeson began fly fishing for trout on the spring creeks of southwest Wisconsin .  He has been a freelance writer for 25 years, and his work has appeared in numerous fly-fishing and outdoor magazines, as well as Gray’s Sporting Journal, Men’s Journal, Audubon. Utne Reader, Big Sky Journal, and others.

Ted is currently a contributing editor to Fly Rod & Reel and Field & Stream magazines.  He is the author of three books of essays on fly fishing and, with photographer Jim Schollmeyer, co-author of six books on fly tying.  He live in Corvallis, Oregon and teaches English at Oregon State University.

After spending twenty-three years in the high-pressure world of real estate sales in Dallas, Texas, Don Oliver was a prime candidate for a midlife crises. However, instead of buying a fancy motorcycle and getting a trophy girlfriend, he knew it would be safer for his health to move to Colorado and become a fly-fishing guide. About 10 years into his guiding career he was approached to write a weekly fly-fishing column for a newspaper in New Mexico. He later moved the column to two newspapers in Colorado. He also made it a monthly column. Flies and Lies is a compilation of many of his columns. The columns, while humorous, reflect many of his views about life through fly-fishing.

Tracy Peterson is an expert tier, with over 20 years experience as well as an exceptional and well seasoned angler and guide. He guides in Montana on the Lower Madison, Yellowstone, Boulder, Stillwater and Big Horn rivers; Armstrong and Depuy’s Spring Creeks. In his off-season, he fishes the rivers in Oregon, Western Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Tracy is a Signature Tier for Umpqua Feather Merchants and has written a number of fly tying articles that have been published in noted magazines such as Fly Fishing and Tying Journal. His Fly Pattern articles can be found in Northwest, Southwest, and Eastern Fly Fishing magazines. He recently co-authored his first book, “Basic Stream Flies-How to Choose, Fish, and Tie Them (Amato Publications) with Jim Schollmeyer.

With his quick-wit, demonstrative personality and easy-going style, his presentations and tying demonstrations are always very well received! He is available for Presentations and Fly Tying demonstrations.

Jim Schollmeyer is a professional fly-fishing photojournalist from Salem, Oregon. Raised in North Dakota where he fished for bullhead, yellow perch, and pike (one of his favorite fish), he first picked up a fly rod in the late 60’s and began chasing hatches, tying flies to match them, and fishing for trout throughout the West.

Jim guided full-time for nearly a decade on Oregon’s Deschutes River, where he refined his skills as an entomologist, photographer, and fly tier. He sold his first photograph in 1981, and since then his images of rivers, aquatic insects, artificial flies, and fly-tying instructional sequences have appeared in many dozens of books and periodicals. Jim is one of fly-fishing’s best and best-known photographers and has authored or coauthored a number of books on insect hatches and fly tying. He is a Life Member of the FFF.

Dick Talleur is a well traveled, well respected, highly regarded and accomplished angler, tyer, photographer and prolific author. He grew up in rural Dutchess County, east of Poughkeepsie, NY. Dick got into serious trout fishing in the Catskills circa 1955 with worms and minnows. In 1957, he wisely started fly fishing (badly) and in 1961, started tying his own flies (clumsily), but decided to stick with the sport anyway, thus “wasting “his entire life (joyously).

Dick’s passion and love for fly tying trout and salmon flies are evident in the array of successful books, articles, photographs, VCR's, and DVD’s that he has penned, had published, and produced. His latest book, “Trout Flies For the 21st Century” was awarded “Book of the Year” honors by United Fly Tyers.

A veteran and well seasoned angler and traveler, Dick speaks fair Russian, and throughout the years has managed Salmon fishing lodges in Russia, and has been aired on ESPN’s Jerry McKinnis' Fishin' Hole with his Atlantic Salmon Fishing In Russia program.

Dick, his beautiful and gracious Russian wife, Vera along with step-son Yuri Kovalenko are at home in North Carolina.