I cannot think of a better way of starting the Fishing Flies website than with an old family story. I have a large family on my Dad’s side, with most of us born in California. Currently we have around 80 or so family members. Dad’s uncle, Uncle Bob was one of my favorite uncles. When not fishing or rock collecting he would show me around the Arizona desert in ways that only someone who loved it could. Most people would think it was just rock and sand. He educated me on the inner beauty of the desert; from the deposits of turquoise just lying on the ground, to adventuring down new trails. One of the other life lessons he taught me was to respect wild animal life. For example, we had a trailer for vacations on the California side of the Colorado River. About twilight, just when the bats would come out in the hundreds to get their fill of insects, Uncle Bob and Dad would send us out collecting mesquite beans. We would spread the beans out around the trailer for the wild donkeys to eat as they passed by on their way to the river sometime around midnight.

Uncle Bob and Dad were avid freshwater fishermen. My Dad preferred the casting rods and reels; my uncle liked those too, but preferred his fly fishing equipment. Together they helped me catch my first fish on the Colorado River on top of a floating boat dock in front of the house they called the Rock House. Uncle Bob had built this house completely from rocks years before.

Like most fly fishermen, he was passionate about his sport. When he wasn’t collecting rocks or entertaining family (he drove the ski boat), Uncle Bob would be tying flies, checking his equipment or making necessary repairs. Some of the flies would be from a pattern he had created on his last vacation or new ones he wanted to try. He did not like store-bought flies. He always tied his own from patterns that he sampled from the river or lake he was camping near that year. (Your artificial flies need to look like the local insects if you want to catch fish with them). I was told that he would never travel anywhere without his insect net, a fly fishing rod and some hand tied fishing flies. It was said that he stored his equipment in the jeep even when rock hunting, just in case he got the urge to throw a line in the river on the way home.

I am out of time,

Fishing Flies – Michael

 

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