About

I held a spinning/bait casting rod since I was old enough to fish with one. About 40 years ago, I was driving down the road next to a river. I looked at this river and saw a man fighting a huge rainbow fish with a 9 foot fly rod. I stopped my truck, and went over to him and saw what just did. The rest is history!

I bought the necessary equipment and that’s when I started fly fishing. However, being new to fly fishing, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was buying flies from the fly shops and the box stores and I found out real quick that the flies I had bought were plain junk!! And tied in foreign countries by kids making just pennies on a fly and never saw a trout our even know what it was. 

I met up with a master fly tier here in Hamilton. His name was Frank Marabito. I learned from one of the best fly tiers in the world! He passed approximately 5 years ago to my sadness. 

How ironic that I now teach fly tying. So, with that in mind, when I am on the bench and tying a fly, it has to be perfect and durable to my specifications, then it comes off the vise for sale, and to catch a fish. I will go to the Big Hole River for 3 days to test a variety of flies before I sell them. 

To this end, I have created a passion and love of fly tying.