Howard Fischer

In 2016, while I was living in Washington State, I picked up fly fishing as a lifelong bass fisherman. Since then, fly fishing has become one of my greatest passions, devoting time and energy to learning more about the sport, conservation, and teaching others. In 2018, I kind of fell into fly tying as a natural progression of my growing passion for fly fishing. I got started on a 30-year-old Griffin vise my father gave me along with a handful of hand me down materials and repurposed dental instruments. From there it was off to the races!

Something that I truly love about fly tying is that there is so much creative liberty in it. I for one am pretty much completely self-taught (with the help of YouTube University), and when people ask me questions about specific things, I often find myself saying, “Use whatever you have/want.” Ultimately there are only so many ways you can tie one pattern, but you can tie one pattern so many ways and find what is most productive for you. I have personally come to appreciate tying flies as a way to spend time when I can’t get on the water, and to help get away from stress and anxiety!