My friend Alan Broner and I met at the New Jersey show last fall. He says the letters on the hat stands for "New York Phly Dressers". He is new to salmon flies and is as enthusiastic as they get. Alan and I speak on the phone on a regular basis. His quest is only beginning but he has made a good start as you will see. I asked Alan to supply some bio information. It's as follows:

"When I was 6, my father took me out on a ?party boat? from Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, and I won the pool with a huge (doormat) fluke. I?ve been an avid fisherman ever since. In my teen years I spent my summers in north eastern Vermont fishing for food. I developed a ?disdain? for flyfisherman, as I never saw them catch a thing. After all, if we didn?t catch something, we went hungry.

It wasn?t until my midlife crisis, that I took a lesson in fly casting while up in New Hampshire. It was almost as if I was born to hold a fly rod. (Well, on that day only). I somehow was bitten with this new approach to fishing and since then, I almost exclusively fly fish.

However, being a full time professor, teaching 11 months out of the year, I had few precious chances to fish. When I retired from teaching, I made a vow to use my spare time to engage in tying my own flies. On Jan 4, 2004 I tied my very first fly, my favorite, a Royal Wulf. I hadn?t even had my first tying lesson until March of that year when I already took an interest in full dress salmon flies. I toyed with the idea, but as an amateur I was intimidated by the more sophisticated books on the subject.

While attending the Tying Symposium in Somerset NJ in Nov 2004 I had the good fortune to meet John McLain. As much as I was willing to start, he was holding me back, until I did my research. His advice, to study Michael Raddencich?s DVD was the wisest thing he could make me do. That DVD changed my life. I tied my very first salmon fly, a Jock Scott on 11/30 2004.

John has been an incredible mentor, and through him I?ve met some of his dear friends. A day spent with Paul Rossman, has been a critical inspiration to express my artistic side.

Below are thumbnail pictures of Alan's productivity. Click on them to make them larger.



Shown above are a few of the hooks Alan has been re-shaping and he then sends them to Ron Reinhold to have the finish put on.

Below are the flies he has done. The latest being Azure Allure, Lady Scarlotta and Sunset:



Alan was kind enough to take a few pictures of his latest Baron in progress:



Alan is progressing with his contemporary creations. His latest:



June 14 2005 Alan was kind enough to supply the dressing on the Thunderbird above:

"Thunderbird was designed ?on the fly? as there was no clear picture of a final design before starting?.it just happened.

Hook: personally bent, and refinished by Ron Reinhold.
Tip: Fine gold tinsel
Tag: Hot pink silk and xfine silver tinsel
Butt: scarlet macaw body feather
Body: in two sections; rear half in black silk with red mylar bounded with fine silver tinsel butted in mid section with purple dyed guinea fowl; front half in hot pink silk with blue mylar bounded with fine silver tinsel, veiled above and below with red breasted shrike
Wing: Capercaille above and Parakeet tail below
Sides: Scarlet macaw
Cheek: Jungle cock hackle and blue bellied roller
Hackle: Blue dyed goose shoulder
Topping: Lady Amherst crest
Head: Red ostrich"





July 16 2005 Alan has sent his latest fly the Patriot shown above. I feel it's a spectacular fly of original design. I really like his forward body section of Ostrich Herl segments. Alan has asked me to ask you viewers to email him with any coments you may have on this or any of his flies. Contact him directly at: alan.broner@pilosoft.net

September 13 2005 The last fly in the row above is one done by Alan around the same time as the Patriot. It was overlooked until now. Alan hasn't been tying much as he has been working on building a split cane rod. I don't normally post things like this but he whined until I did. He does have a point with his analogy between bamboo and salmon flies in his supplied text following the pictures of the rod.



"While steelheading near Toronto, my guide handed me his bamboo pole to give it a cast or two. It felt "right", and suited my cast perfectly. I then proceeded to hook a 24? steelie, which took about 20 minutes, and 5 fantastic runs, before I finally landed it. I became enamored to the bamboo. I love fishing my 6?6" 4 piece 2 wt graphite rod I built, and thought I?d give it a whizz trying my hand at a bamboo pole. I would say, bamboo rods are an artform that far exceeds graphite. To me, it?s kinda like the difference between tying my trout flies, and moving up to salmon flies. It was quite a learning experience, and I think I did OK for a first effort. I think my next bamboo will be even better."

pic enclosed....Toronto Steelhead

Undersandably Alan is proud of his new found hobby. To see a more step by step information see Alan's posting on the Rod Building Forum click on Alan's Rod

November 16 2005 Alan is back to tying flies again as shown by the two entries below. Both were tied at Paul Rossman's get together in October. More about that later.