I fished a great deal as a kid but had not fly fished much.  Watching Curt Gowdy and Lee Wulff fly fishing on TV was a high point while in grade and high school, and of course I read every article on fly fishing in Sports Afield, with fly tying as a part of that interest.  But, I never got a chance to do any serious fly fishing until about about 8 or 9 years ago.  An old friend got me even more active about 3 or 4 years ago and I'm paying him back for his treachery by getting him interested in fly tying.

Of course, I had wanted to tie flies as a kid, and realized a couple of years ago that I wasn't getting any younger, so asked around until a couple of friends told me a little about tying, and loaned me some catalogs.  I borrowed and read a couple of books, got a few low dollar tools, and started tying.  

Currently I enjoy tying streamers, nymphs, and hair wing flies, and have recently started tying more wet flies.  Of special interest is trying to work with materials that are obtained locally.  Quail, pheasant, duck, and goose feathers, and hair from local game animals is used whenever possible.  I play with my own patterns a little, but fundamentally tie standard patterns, modifying them slightly to use what I have on hand, or to use what I enjoy tying with.

This picture is in the Colorado Rockies at our camp at near 10,000 feet where I am tying on a picnic table in a screened tent.  At the time I was tying a "Dead Chicken."  It's a fly that amounts to a large Griffin's Gnat.