Roger G. Pearson
Roger Pearson has a lifelong relationship many people envy—with fish. If Roger was not fishing, he was eating fish, dreaming of fish, planning fishing trips or tying flies with which to catch fish. He claims, “If schoolwork had focused on fishing, my mother would have ben much happier with my grades.”
In order to catch fish, one has to have the lure of the moment. Conditions must match the bait and the fish. Clear, swiftly moving water on a sunny day requires one type of fly to catch trout, whereas convincing a bass to bite in still, muddy water requires another. There is not a better way to meet changing conditions than to have the skill to customize one’s fishing lure in order to bring in the catch of the day. The best way to learn bait/fish/environment correlations is to observe. “I spent most of my childhood outdoors, specifically on a lake. I would watch the fish hit on certain insects. And I would tie flies that mimicked the shape, color combinations and movement of those insects.”
“My dad loved fishing and hunting and was a taxidermist, so I learned a lot from him. And there were always supplies available with bits of fur and feathers of animals he preserved. Fly-tying is about more than color and shape, you also have to know how your materials vibrate in the water. You want to match that vibration to the insect you are trying to recreate.”
Roger Pearson has nearly seventy years of experience tying flies. His fly tying motto is: “My flies are guaranteed to catch fish, or get hung up trying.”
