Jeff Hartzell

As far back as I can remember, I loved to fish. Growing up in a small mountain town in Colorado afforded me countless opportunities to chase trout and other cold water high altitude.species. Summer vacations to grandma and grandpas house on the lake in Minnesota gave me the warm water bug. On those vacations, if I wasn't sleeping, I was probably on that dock and, when old enough, out in the boat. In high school  is when I picked up a fly rod and belly boat. The addiction to fly fishing only continued to grow as I began college but the cash supply was dropping. So out of necessity I bought a $45 beginner fly-tying kit from McGuckin Hardware and proceeded to teach myself how to tie flies. I still remember the first fish I caught on a fly and the fly. It was an averaged sized Boulder Creek brown trout on a weird white marabou streamer/nymph type fly. Since then I haven't bought a single fly.  I really enjoy tying flies of all types and learning and then hopefully perfecting new techniques as well as experimenting with different materials. I only tie flies for me to actually fish and not just to frame. I've tied flies for everywhere that I've fished including flesh flies for rainbows on the Kenai, Crazy Charlies for monster bones around Oahu, huge articulating streamers for mutant pike from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal or crawfish imitations for bruiser carp along the Front Range of Colorado.