by David Klausmeyer
Over the past few of years, when communicating with this magazine’s readers and contributing authors, one name kept popping up in conversations: Tim Flagler. Everyone admires his work.
Tim has taken the fly-tying and fishing world by storm, and he seems to be everywhere: demonstrating fly tying at shows across the United States, teaching fly-tying classes, giving educational fly-fishing presentations, and leading groups of anglers to some of the very best fishing around the world.
Last year, for example, he spent a couple of weeks knocking around Patagonia with groups of fellow fly fishers, and also led anglers to some of Northwest Montana’s best rivers, the Kootenai and Yaak. (The man racks up a lot of frequent flyer miles!) If all that isn’t enough, Tim guides year-round on his favorite home waters in Central New Jersey—at least when he actually is home.
When Tim finally settles down in his combination fly-tying room/photo studio/office, he finds time to peck out great articles for this magazine. And, of course, he creates truly outstanding instructional videos.
Oh, those videos! Tim has produced dozens of great fly-tying and fly-fishing educational videos. In fact, he has turned his variety of videography into a bit of a science using multiple cameras and other original ideas. Best of all, he makes this content available to us for free. (If you want to see how a master works, check out Tim’s video My Tying Bench on his YouTube channel, practicalpatterns.com. It will blow your mind!)
To my way of thinking, the Fly Tyer of the Year is more than just a great tier. They must also willingly share what they know with fellow tiers by writing books or magazine articles, creating excellent videos, teaching classes, and offering demonstrations at fly-fishing shows and clubs. The Fly Tyer of the Year should inspire and make us eager to return to our own tying benches.
I take your suggestions very seriously when selecting Fly Tyer magazine’s Fly Tyer of the Year. You, in fact, are key to the process. Your valuable input tells me who is making their mark on our craft and leading us into the future. Judging from your emails and letters, I see we are in complete agreement: Tim Flagler is our 2022 Fly Tyer of the Year.
