The Art of Fly Fishing...
The art that is related to fly fishing is an important part of fly fishing to me. When I cannot be on the water, the art I have collected over the years helps to "keep me in the game" much like fly tying does. To my mind, art...much like beauty, is in the "eyes of the beholder". From photography to carving to fly tying it is all around us if you look.
Photography
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David Lambroughton - I met David back in the 1978-1979 when he was guiding for a fly shop in Burney, California owned by Bob Quigley and was spending a lot of time working on Fall River. He was just out of college and it was easy to see that fly fishing was a part of him...like your nose, it was obvious. I lost touch when he moved on to bigger things. In the late 80's, when on a steelhead trip on the Umpqua River in Oregon, I wandered into the Steamboat Inn...a beautiful little place perched on the bluff right above the river (probably for a beer) and there in the main lodge room was a wooden crate full of matted photos. Click here to see more...
R. Valentine Atkinson - Like David Lambroughton, I met Valentine Atkinson on the river...this time on the Henry's Fork in 1980. Val was a friend of Mel Krieger and Mike Lawson and both were friends of mine. Val (as his friends call him) took a series of photos over several days of a 5 day fly fishing school that Mel and Mike were holding on the Henry's Fork. I do not recall how I ended up being the subject of several of the photos but that is what happened. Eight of those photos ended up hanging on the wall of Henry's Fork Anglers from 1980 until 2006 when they moved into the new shop many years later. Mike gave me two of the photos when they were taken down...they are among my greatest treasures. Val has gone on to become a world famous photographer in many areas, especially fly fishing. He is also a world class angler and person. To see more about R. Valentine Atkinson, click here...
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Val Atkinson photo from a MIDCURRENT article.