04/09/2026
I don’t post a lot about what I do with my time, so I thought I’d give you a sample of one aspect of my retired life: fly tying.
I’m an avid fly fisherman, as well as an avid fly-tier. I started fly tying way back in the early ‘90s and have developed it as an extension of my passion for fly fishing.
I’ve had the good fortune to fish on the rivers of Alaska for Salmon, in the Caribbean and Florida Keys for Bone Fish and Tarpon, as well as lots of trout fishing in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. A few years back, Brenda and I even went on a service project to build a modest home for a family in the Guatemalan countryside and tacked on a couple of days fishing for Sailfish on the Pacific Coast.
For all of those trips, I did the fishing research and tied all the flies. It’s a marvelous avocation. I tie a lot for our Etsy business, Fly Fishing Extras (Etsy.com/shop/flyfishingextras) and have tied custom orders for customers in Australia, Europe, and even Japan.
The pictures below are just some samples. The picture on the far left is a palette of midges for Trout. None of them is bigger than about half the width of the nail on your little finger. The picture on the top right is a new pattern squid pattern I’ve designed for an upcoming trip to San Diego where I hope to get out and fly fish for some Bluefin Tuna and Mahi-Mahi. The picture on the bottom right is a tube fly I designed for fly fishing for Sailfish and Marlin.
I know it’s a pretty niche art form, but get a lot of pleasure out of tying these flies and enjoy sharing them with customers and other fly-tiers!