Tell us about the idea to hand make these tremendous fly wallets and the flies that can fill them.
The fly wallets are clearly a product of our team’s collaboration. I honestly can’t remember exactly how we came up with the idea of making the wallets. All I remember is sitting around my living room with a bunch of FFC team members bouncing around ideas on how to raise money for the orphanages. All of the sudden someone brought up an idea about making wallets. Someone else brought up the idea of tying flies for them and then, like a pinball machine, the ideas just kept coming. By the end of the night we all jumping out of our seats ready to get the project started.
What do you love most about fly fishing and how does that aspect relate to your everyday life?
There are three things that Fly Fishing brings me closer to, three things that I value very much. First it’s the quiet and solitude that I often get when Fly Fishing that connects me closer to God. Call me crazy if you want to but I hear from Him all the time when I’m alone on a river. His whispers resonate in my mind when I finally get a chance to empty it from the chaos and concerns of life. I wouldn’t go so far as to calling the river my church, because church is made up of people, but it’s definitely a sanctuary for me, a sanctuary I often visit.
Also, the beauty that I’m immersed in when fishing help connect me to nature. I really believe that we have a close connection to the created world that we often overlook. Fly Fishing brings me back to this realization. It renews my passion for the planet and to care for it.
Lastly, the shared experiences when fishing with friends help make my relationships so much more meaningful. I see sides to people, parts of their character and make up, that I’d never see otherwise if I didn’t fish with them. For better or for worse I’m sure they get to know more of me too. Since we exist better in relationship, the deeper we go in our friendships the better off we are.
Fly Fishing, for me, is very spiritual. Yes it’s incredibly fun (I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t) but it’s much more than that too. The connections I get with God, nature, and people not only affect me when I’m fishing they carry over to my everyday life as well. Often times I get back from the river having been, what I call, “brought back to center.” When I’ve gone fishing I’ll often come back with my priorities back in line and re-energized to live life to the absolute fullest. I would say it has radical effects on my everyday life. From the moment that I first held my grandfather’s fly rod age thirteen all the way up to know Fly Fishing has been a wonderful therapy and source of discovery.