The classic wet flies dominated most of the trout waters of the world in the 1800’s, but gradually disappeared from many trout fishermen’s fly boxes beginning in the 1960’s. Ray Bergman, 1891-1967, was famous for his book entitled Trout. Published in 1938, which included numerous hand painted color plates and patterns for many of the classic wet flies.

It is difficult to be absolute when the decline of the colorful classic wet flies began as they were gradually replaced with patterns that more closely resembled actual aquatic insects. There may be several generations of trout fishermen who have never seen nor used any of the classic patterns preserved by Bergman’s work as well as several other famous fly tiers. Make no mistake about it though, the classic wet fly patterns are still as attractive to trout as they were many years ago.

The purpose of this web site is to introduce you to some of the classic wet flies as an art form which are mounted and framed. The framed art pieces would be a welcome gift by many who lived and fished in the era of the classic wet flies, and make attractive displays and conversation pieces in your home or office. Also for sale are sets of classical tied wet flies that have proven themselves over time during my fishing experiences in the rivers and streams of Pennsylvania, the Adirondacks of upper New York State, North Cascades National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Alaska.

History

I began tying flies in 1948 and used many of the classic wet fly patterns or designed and fished more than one hundred of my own patterns in the northeast and western waters from 1948 until the present day. Growing up in Pennsylvania provided a wealth of fine trout waters to test my fly creations. Those wet flies were further tested in the Adirondacks were I worked during the summers while attending college.  In 1967 I was assigned as a National Park Ranger in Yellowstone as the Madison Sub-District Ranger. It was there that I continued experiments with many of my own originals and the classic wet fly patterns that I cast in many of Yellowstone’s rivers and streams. These experiments continued in North Cascades National Park and in Alaska while stationed at Denali during subsequent assignments. From that experience, and the hundreds of wet fly patterns that are recorded, I have selected twenty four patterns of classic wet flies that have proven most successful on both eastern and western trout streams and rivers

Within this website are pictures of the chosen classic wet flies, and the proven patterns of the flies I originated. Individual flies are sold by the dozen and pictures of the mounted and framed art pieces that are offered for sale. The framed and mounted wet flies include the old classics as well my own designs. Those that are my designs are from my personal records and list the year I came up with that design.