Andrija is a native of Yugoslavia and Macedonia, where the first artificial fly was reportedly invented.  He is a professional fly tier, fly angler, and journalist, with over 500 articles published on fly fishing and fly tying topics.  

He participated in the Slovenian International Fair from 1988 until 1992.  He won four awards.  In 1989 the flies were: Prvenka - Baetis rhodani CDC Olive Emerger and Patkova pupa- Philopotamus montanus CDC Cream Caddis Pupa.  In 1990 they were: Kobilica Olive Hopper and Patkova sivomaslinasta pupa - Polycentropus flavomaculatus Bubble CDC Grey-Olive Caddis Pupa.  In 1991 the fly was: "Tanja" - streamer (not indexed).

Andrija's flies were featured in books by Darrel Martin, Taff Price, Mladen Merkas Goranin and personal friend Dr Voljc.  He is also a friend of  fly fishing journalist, Edgar Picenbauer, who uses his flies for fishing.

His hobby was wood carving.  After injuring the forefinger and middle finger of his left hand, he had to invent new methods of fly-tying.

Andrija's motto:  Every fish is ''fly-fishing'' fish and fulfills more than three wishes.  

The photo at right was taken on the 30th anniversary of Andrija's pilot career.  With his comrades he spent many lovely and dangerous years .

The photograph below is the upriver section of the river Radika in Macedonia.  It was Andrija's river of his dreams.

Although Andrija was not fluent in English, his good friend and fly angler, Dr Dimitrovski, with whom he had spent wonderful fly-fishing moments on different waters, helped him translate enough to communicate.  

In Andrija's words...

"Distinguished fly tiers, I, Andrija Urban, now and old fly-fisherman, after grace and divine punishment, have decided to present my artificial flies.  They were created under different influences.  Now they are a mixture of traditionalism and a contemporary approach to fly-tying and imitations.  I am still ashamed because of some failures and creative misleading.

These flies have passed many changes due to my maturation and practice as well as due to improved use in fishing.  Creations of some imitations have colors that are approaching reality while impressionism in flies is a part of nostalgia and respect towards other authors.

My way of thinking and tying techniques was influenced by domestic, Yugoslavian, and world-wide masters of thread and writing. The principles of general look or as the French say "impact" (general design, impression), respects the characteristics of the species of natural flies and describes parts of their life cycle.

  Apart from introducing you to my flies, indirectly and with my view of sport fishing and fly-tying, I wish to partially present the situation in Yugoslavian and Macedonian fly-tying through the Internet-network.  All present and unfinished creations of flies have passed several years of testing on many rivers of the Balkan peninsula, where I have fly-made all types of fish."

Note by Ed Gallop:  Andrija passed away in November of 2002.  He was one of the best fly tiers I have ever known and we are very fortunate that he shared his unique creative talent with us on this web site.  

I will miss Andrija's frequent conversations about his passion for fly tying and fly fishing.  He will be missed forever by all of those that knew him.   Ed.