Following on from his interview, here's what the man has been up to thus far... enjoy!
Darrel Martin - Tacoma, Washington. USA
I was born in Wenatchee, Washington, near the Cascade Mountains. In 1805, Lewis and Clark used the term Wahnahchee for the location, a term derived from the Indian We-na-tchi, meaning "river from the canyon or valley." Mountains, rivers and forests were my playmates. During my formative years, we moved to a "stump ranch" near Eatonville, in Western Washington. From our home I could see Mt. Rainier (14,410 feet) through the thick stands of Douglas fir. The noisy trill of the "Chickaree" or Douglas' squirrel filled our forest. As a country boy, I milked cows, fed livestock, split wood, hauled water, and with Tony, our workhorse, plowed fields and skidded logs. I also rode Tony bareback through the woods and fields. I was a solitary lad who roamed the woods and hunted. Infrequently, I provided rabbit for dinner. Although I caught some small fish, my steel fly-rod was virtually un-castable. It would be years before I had an adequate rod.
In the winter-time, I sometimes worked a small trap line, catching a few rabbits and once, even a Sewellel or Mountain Beaver, a primitive and odd rodent. I tanned the hide to make a knife sheath. Times were meager, so I crafted most of my own toys, including bows and arrows. My grandmother, a true Victorian lady, provided me with books that kindled a love of literature, words and writing. Among other volumes, she gave me Kipling's Plain Tales From the Hills and Departmental Ditties and Barrack-Room Ballads. Such books took me to distant lands and high adventure beyond our mountains.
I entered military service early. It gave me the challenge and adventure that I craved. While in the US Army (1953-1956), I was light-weapons infantry in Korea with the Second Infantry Division, 9th infantry regiment. In Korea, I attended Combat Leaders School and NCO School. On my return to the USA, I entered the Armored Infantry at Fort Hood, Texas where I placed 2nd in US Army foil fencing competition (1956).
After the service, I completed my education under the GI Bill. I went on to receive a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Puget Sound (1963) and later, a Master's degree from the University of Washington (1971) in English Literature, Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. I am a retired teacher of English Literature, American Literature, Western Philosophy and College Writing as well as a fencing instructor (foil, saber and épée). My advanced placement students had the distinct experience of reading The Battle of Maldon, The Battle of Brunanburh and poems in the original Anglo-Saxon. They also tackled Sir Orfeo, Horn and other works in Middle English. Although challenged, my students took pride in their accomplishments and knowledge. Fortunately, as Department Head, I often wrote my own curriculum.
I have always admired good writing, and the urge to write led to my first article, "Lakes that Grow Dragons" in Fly Fisher magazine. It described the Eastern Washington desert pot-hole lakes, the dragonflies and the muscular trout that took them. Thus, while still teaching, I began a modest writing career. Although my articles, artwork and photography are found in Fly Rod & Reel, my work has appeared also in Fly Fishing the West, The Fly Fisherman, Sports Afield, Fliegenfischen (Germany), Fly Only (Germany), Flugfiske i Norden (Sweden and Norway), Fly Fishing & Fly Tying (UK), Tightloop (Japan), and Muskareni a Vazani (Czech Republic).
I have written nine books on fly fishing, initially with a small press that published, Imitations (1980), The Waterlogue (1981), and The Fly Tyers Sketchbook (1981). While fishing in Montana one summer, I met Nick Lyons. His interest in my work led to a contract and a life-long friendship. His encouragement and counsel has been a constant in my life. And his press gave birth to my major works: Fly Tying Methods (1987, Lyons Press) which won the United Fly Tyers' "The Book of the Year" award. Like most of my books, this one included some notable European tyers and patterns as well as unusual chapters on aquatic plants, the artistic rendering of fly patterns and electron microscopy of tying materials. A Norwegian edition of Methods (Fluebinde-Metoder, Bokklubben Villmarksliv) appeared in 1987.
My growing interest in small insects and patterns later produced Micropatterns (1994, Lyons & Burford). This work─ based on hook size 18 and smaller─ included detailed information on small insect identification, hook-stress graphs and tying methods. Dr. Sherman Nornes, a friend and Professor of Physics Emeritus, constructed the hook-stress measuring apparatus, and guided the research on hooks. The results were unique computer-generated "ramp charts" that revealed how small hooks behaved under stress. The numerous insect drawings in Micropatterns were made with Rapidograph pens and "painted" with carbon dust. I have always done my own artwork and photography, finding pleasure in "painting" with words, ink or film.
My annual travels presented new opportunities. While fishing in the Czech Republic one summer, I met Dr. Milan Pohunek with whom I collaborated on The Czech-English Dictionary of Angling ( Anglicko-Cesky a Cesko-Anglichy Rybarsky Slovnik (1999, Plzen). This work details information for English speakers fishing in the Czech Republic and for Czechs fishing in English-speaking countries. My background led me to this unusual project. My paternal ancestors were Czech; my birth surname was Mrachek (Mraček).
My graduate work in Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and English linguistics flowed naturally into an interest in antique angling books. Through the years, I added some truly classic titles, not all first editions, to my modest library. There is Thomas Barker's The Art of Angling (1820 reprint) which offers the first detailed English tying instructions. Next to it is a limited printing of An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle (printed 1883). On the shelf below is William Blacker's The Art of Fly Making (1842), whose meticulous illustrations created one of the most attractive tying books ever written. It is claimed that Blacker "stood at the elbow of the artist" to bring the engraving to perfection. There is also a first edition of Frederic Halford's monumental Floating Flies and How to Dress Them (1886). Halford, who codified the dry fly, set a new standard in tying directions. Here also is Best, Bowlker, Dennys, Howlett, Pritt, Cotton and Skues and many more, some with exquisite engravings and watercolor washes.
The wordsmith in me collected the spindrift from centuries of fly fishing. The Fly Fisher's Illustrated Dictionary (2000, Lyons Press) grew from my "antique disposition," my interests in etymology and early angling words. Ancient angling terminology has history as well as romance and mystery. Later, my historic interests and my old books finally led me to The Fly Fisher's Craft (Lyons Press, 2006). In this work, I explored our angling past. Many of my 18th and 19th century books detail directions for making tackle. Reading these early writers, soon made me wonder. Was it possible to make the fly patterns, the fly hooks, the horse-hair fly lines and the loop-rods described in those volumes? My answers appear in The Fly-Fisher's Craft (2006). Even my failures─ such as making a brittle hook─ taught me much. Making is a way of knowing. And explicating early tying directions was both frustrating and fulfilling. For seven years, I was pleasantly lost in old angling books, lost in the pages of the past. I walked the streams with early anglers and shared their thoughts. Those ancient masters truly became my teachers. The "Introduction" to Craft describes it: "Living within those faded, foxed pages was, in itself, a remarkable delight, and reconstructing the past was pleasurable. Those ancient anglers became thoughtful companions. They willingly, with words and images, shared their world."
While fishing in Spain, Luis Antunez of Madrid and I discussed marketing his Spanish "twisted leaders" in the US. I suggested that the pejorative term "twisted" should be replaced. After consideration, I recommended the more suitable term, furled. All such leaders are now labeled furled leaders. Later I introduced the term in my writing and published directions for spinning furled leaders. When done properly with silk, nothing matches their delicate presentation. All I needed now was a better means for attaching the tippet to the furled leader.
The answer came from Edgar Pitzenbauer of Bavaria. Edgar and I had fished Slovenia together for several years. He had created a unique leader system─ a small silver ring attached to a length of Amnesia™ monofilament─ for the large Unica grayling. I merely connected the Pitzenbauer ring to the end of my furled leaders. It was a casual pairing that has now become commercially common. Edgar was a remarkable angler and my days with him, some of my best. In a small cave on the bank of the Unica, we dined. I can still taste the cool wine, the fresh Slovenian bread and cheese. And, regrettably, Edgar's atrociously fatty sausages. Nevertheless, for me, they were sun-lit days of wine and grayling.
I have designed various angling items including the double-bent Anvil Signature Fly Tying Scissors, the Double and Single hook Dubbing Whirl, the Spin-Bob, the Splitter and other fly tying tools. I have also designed a wading jacket for Keepwear (UK) and have contributed to fishing clothing and vest designs in the USA. Furthermore, I have designed hooks for two leading hook manufacturers─ the Partridge Hook CS21 (midge hook) and the Daiichi Hooks 1220 and 1222 (dry fly hook). For those tyers who wished to record their patterns with drawing, I created the Flye Tyers Template.
At present, I am a Contributing Editor to Fly Rod & Reel magazine. Previous to this I was the magazine's Fly-Tying Editor. I have also been a past editorial advisor for The Flyfisher magazine (FFF), a past field editor for Fly Only (Germany), and past contributing editor ("From the Other Bank") for Fly-Fishing & Fly Tying (UK), and a Northwest Consultant for the Whitlock-Vibert Box for trout propagation. For over 40 years I have taught various fly-fishing classes including amongst others, fly tying, fly casting and angling entomology. My fly patterns and prose appear in The Art of the Trout Fly (Chronicle Books, 1988); my trout species photographs appear in Trout and Salmon of the World (Wellfleet Press, 1990).
As a life member of the Federation of Fly Fishers, I have presented programs at regional and national conclaves. These American presentations soon led abroad to the spectacular English Game Fairs (1983, 1987 and 1989). For the Partridge Hook Company (UK), I presented fly tying at the Chatsworth Angling Fair, and the Broadlands Angling and Country Fair (1992) as well as the Holland Fly Fair (1992). For the Lennart Berquist Company I tied in Sweden and Norway (1993 and 1995). I also tied at the Finnish Fly Tying Conclave in Tempere and at the Finnish Fisheries Agency (1999). Sharing methods always improved my tying and created friends in foreign lands.
As peripatetic piscators, Taff Price of England and I have also presented tying and slide programs for the Piscatorial Society of Cape Town, the Natal Fly Fishers and other clubs during a month-long tour of South Africa under the auspices of the Federation of Southern African Fly Fishers (2000). Furthermore, we have presented angling recommendations to the Tolmin Angling Club (then Yugoslavia, now Slovenia). We also convinced Dr. Jan Wilt (then owner of the Royal Peacock Lodge in the Amazon) that his customers should use fly-rods and barbless hooks only on the Agua Boa river.
Fortunately, my teaching career allowed time for world travel. My wife Sandra, a teacher too, would often travel with me. I was fortunate to fish some of the world's famous waters and meet many notable anglers and fly tyers. I met passionate anglers who were instant friends. Though we spoke different languages, we all spoke fly fishing. Many were generous, and graciously shared their world. My annual travels to England began my world travels, and I would return many times to other countries. Ron Wilton (friend and river keeper on the Itchen) and I fished together in the Amazon. And it would require a book to detail the travels that Taff and Madeleine Price and I have experienced. Some destinations became a habit. For over a decade we traveled to Slovenia to meet friends and fish. Here flowed the Unica, the Sava Bohinka and the Soca. With Taff, I fished the upper Zambezi (Zambia), the Reit, the Modder, the Spekboom (South Africa) and the Agua Boa and Rio Branco (Amazon). I have fished some of the famous beats in England. In fact, I had a decade-long rod share on the Rivers Test and Anton (Fullerton Beats, UK). I have waded the broad waters of the American West and Canada, the peaty waters of Scotland and Ireland, the swirling waters of Sweden, Norway and Finland. There was sport in Chile, Lithuania, Austria, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Croatia, Christmas Island (Kiribati), Mozambique, New Zealand and other countries. I have fly-fished in over twenty different countries. In 2009 the Spanish TV station Casa y Pesca filmed my fishing the famous Léon waters of Spain. I even searched for the first waters of fly fishing. In 1998, Dr. Bozidar Voljc of Slovenia and I traveled to Greek Macedonia in search of fly-fishing's first river. In De Natura Animalium, Claudius Aelianus (170-230 AD), working from hearsay, described the first river (the Astraeus), the angler's first insect (the Hipporus) and the first fly recipe. The Macedonians took "speckled fish" with six-foot rods and matching horsehair line. Despite several possibilities, the river location continues to be a pile of perhaps.
I am the first American certified in casting and fly tying by APGAI (Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors, now AAPGAI and GAIA, UK). I am also a certified Federation of Fly Fishers casting instructor (USA). On a personal note, our son Michael, who has a university degree in biology, is a fly-casting instructor and dedicated angler. He has taught fly-fishing and guided in the American West as well as in Alaska and England. My wife, my son and I teach fly casting. Our daughter, Michelle and husband Gust gave us three bright and inquisitive grandchildren, one of whom may continue the family tradition of fishing with a fly.
At present (May, 2011) I am doing ink drawings and text for a Spanish fly fishing book to be published by Sekotia of Madrid, scheduled for publication in 2013.
In April of 2011, I was inducted into the Washington State Fly Tying Hall of Fame by the Washington Chapter of the Federation of Fly Fishers. And in 2012, I received the prestigious The Roderick Haig-Brown Award for my books and articles from the International Federation of Fly Fishers. This award, not given every year, is for “the high literary quality” and “the ethics and traditions of fly-fishing” in writing.
Fly fishing has been a large part of my life and family. In Ælfric's Colloquium, the Anglo-Saxon teacher asks, Hwylcne crӕft canst þu? "What craft (profession) do you know?" Although written about 1000 years ago, my answer would be the same given by the student. Iċ eom fiscere. "I am a fisherman." Yet all fisher-folk know the frailty of the past and the present. "The old writers and the old books trap some of the past. Nevertheless, the past fades, and nature is fragile and fugitive. . . . Like nature itself, fly fishing can only survive if we cherish the weeds and the wilderness." (The Fly-Fisher's Craft)