I grew up around fishing and easily connect to the movie “A River Runs Through It”.  As a minister’s son, fishing was how our family connected. 

Top photo is John casting to a cutthroat on White Mountain, Arizona's "Big Lake" in summer 2002

Bottom photo is John instructing sons Michael and Luke on how to catch a citthroat with an Apache Peacock wet fly.  At least Luke is paying close attention.

Much of the year was spent in Iowa fishing for warm water species such as bass, bluegill, crappie, walleye, northerns, & muskie.  We would go to Colorado (Boulder) during the summers where my Great Aunt & Uncle had a cabin in Left Hand Canyon.  My Great Uncle Homer Pennock was a well known fly fisherman and tier, and many of his fishing buddies were also well known. 

(Bottom Photo -

It’s around Left Hand Creek and the Beaver Ponds with beautiful Greenback Cutthroat Trout, Boulder Creek, St. Vrain Creek, Big Thompson, the Poudre etc., that I learned to fly fish.  I was instantly drawn to the split bamboo fly rod with silk line on an old Heddon automatic reel.  I didn’t have the patience to sit on my butt & wait for the trout to bite while bait fishing.  At first I drifted a grasshopper, and later fished a pair of wet flies.  I still have a fondness for well tied classic wet flies, such as Bergman and others, and still believe they catch the big ones, although it’s a lost art.

Fly tying started as a hobby.  I did not take it seriously until I moved to Colorado after college.  While living in Colorado, people would tell me how much they liked my patterns and that I should sell them.  This led to my side business, Alpine Custom Flies, selling flies to tackle shops as well as to my professors in graduate school.  This provided spending money while being a poor graduate student. 

One of my professors helped me land a job as a Park Ranger in Yellowstone the summer of 1988.  I spent all my free time fly fishing and creating new patterns.  In 1995 I moved to Arizona.  At first I seemed lost but quickly found a fantastic variety of fly fishing for Bass, Striper, walleye,  northerns,  trout, and saltwater fly fishing on the Baja & Rockypoint, Mexico.  Yes there is a vast variety of trout here also.  Not just Lee's Ferry Grand Canyon, but also White Mountains with all its streams & high mountain lakes, Oak Creek, Verde & Tonto Creek, and much more.  We even have Rose Lake 20 miles away on Mount Lemmon.  Trout include Rainbow, browns, cutthroat, lakers, Apache cutthroat, Gila trout, and grayling (did I miss any).  Winter days in the mid to low 70’s; and yes...  Charlie Meck wasn't  kidding about Blue-Winged Olive & Trico hatches in mid-winter.

 While Alpine Custom Flies is still a side business, I spend a lot of free time sharing my recipes with others as well as my passion for fly fishing.  I keep busy also with swaps and another year of competing in the Mustad International Fly Tying Competition.

One day my wife, kids and I hope to return to the Rocky Mountain country (Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado) where I hope to continue teaching music, guiding fly fishing, and share my love of fly tying.  I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to fish so many beautiful waters.

It’s another day in the 70’s and it’s late December.  Time to pull out the fly rod and go fishing.