Some of my fly patterns

GF Minky Mouse

GF Pin-Ki

GF Pike Mixies

GF Flipper Flies

Stony's Sculpin

Pin-Ki short for Pink Killer, a well known GF pattern

I started fly tying in 1979 when I was 14 years old. Walter Dünser , our youth coach in the local angling club at that time taught me how to tie my first dries and nymphs and after having landed my first trouts on self tied patterns my interest for fly tying grew constantly. In the following years I met many excellent fly tiers but the one I learned most from was Bas Verschoor(NL), one of Europe's best fly tiers. In 1995 we were travelling the whole summer through Montana and Idaho and I can tell you we tied a whole lot of flies during that trip. Bas showed me most of the tricks that can meanwhile be found in the the best fly tying books. In the States I met many good fly tiers, too. Especially the very effective tying of Royce Dam influenced my way of fly tying very much. In Europe I was fascinated by the flies of Marc Petitjean. I remember well when he came up with the new CDC techniques in the early nineties. Since that time I am a real CDC adict and Marc became a good friend.

During my first two years when I was joining the fair scene I was also tying "on stage".  It did not take long until I recognized that this lead to an extreme stress for me at these events. I had to tie flies, jump up and get out on the lawn to cast, come back in again to go on tying and so on. I was nothing but in a hurry all the time and at the end of the shows I was nearly knocked out. With my work as an examiner at flycasting instructor exams (former FFF-Europe and now EFFA) it became totally impossible to do both. I had to take a decision. So during the last decade on such fly fishing events I was focussing only on my work as an international master fly casting demonstrator and instructor. This does not mean that I will not be tying "on stage" again some day. I never stopped fly tying and fly tying will always be part of my daily schedule. In a corner of our living room there is a fly tying bench which is used more or less every day to tie the one or other fly. I really like to tie flies. It helps me to relax. I only fish self tied flies. Those who had been joining me streamside know that I really like difficult fishing for the old and big ones or at least those that could manage sucessfully to not get caught (until meeting me :)). For being successfull even in extreme situations and with difficult fish you need not only to have a more or less perfect presentation but also a good fly, nymph or streamer at the end of your leader. That's why the flies I tie are fishing flies, not eyecatchers. I do not want to say that an eyecatcher does not catch fish but if it comes to fishing, your target is an animal which looks at his prey from another point of view.