Adventures in Fly Tying and Publishing
The cover fly is Bill McMillan’s Winter’s Hope tied by Forrest Kopponen. Bill was a founding member of the club in 1975. He is a renowned fisheries conservationist, author, and advocate specifically known for his work in the Pacific Northwest regarding wild steelhead and salmon. The Winter’s Hope was the first pattern I tied for fishing steelhead on the Hoh River on the OP
I never intended to be a published author. It just happened.
The project had a simple start. I thought it would be cool if in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of my home fly club, Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, someone would collate the favorite fly patterns of our 250 + members and publish a page for the Club’s website. Warning bells should have gone off at this point but as I looked around the figurative room I saw nothing but a mirror. What began as a webpage quickly grew as members contributed more patterns and stories, prompting me to compile everything into a book that could reach a wider audience.
Long story short, today there are 66 fly patterns covering the breadth of the fly-fishing game from steelhead to trout to sailfish tied by some of the finest fly fishers in the Pacific Northwest. The book lives on the club’s website (csfly.net) and is available in soft and hard cover and Kindle editions on Amazon.
I took some liberty with the ‘Author’s Photo’. I wish I had never sold that boat; a ‘92 Tatman 12’ pram I built from a kit in a chicken coop in Port Townsend. Sorta like rowing a coffee table down the river until that first rock. The boat now lives to fish the Tillamook tidewater.
