I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. I began fly fishing in the early ‘60s, and took up tying shortly after that. I learned to tie from books in our local library, and caught some trout then with flies that I would now describe as hideous. One day I walked into our local drug store, which doubled as a sporting goods store, and there was a box of flies tied by Fran Betters of Wilmington N.Y. I didn’t know who he was then, all I knew was that I wanted to tie flies like that some day. I had never seen anything like them, and mine weren’t even in the same universe. That began my quest to become a good tier, one that I’m still on today.
I like to fish dry flies, almost to the exclusion of everything else. I currently live in Delaware, Ohio and fish our Mad river all year. I try to get to Montana and Idaho when I can, and fish there with Bruce Copeland, with whom I began fly fishing as a boy, and other friends made along the way. I tie almost every day, fish when I can, and enjoy talking fly tying with the friends I’ve made on line.