The Complete Fly Fisherman – August-September 2019

A

nxious diligence is a term that

Shaun Futter uses to describe

his approach to his craft. He

says it is about being terrified

because you don’t know what you are

doing. He explains that he is driven by

pushing himself into a corner and then

finding a way out of that corner. Shaun

is describing his tendency to search out a

challenge in design or form for a fly box,

or for a net, and then diligently working

his way to a solution to that challenge.

He enjoys setting a seemingly impossible

task and then working through trials and

failures, the nature of which would have

most of us throw in the towel and go look

for something easier to do.

But “diligent” and “patient” are words

that come to mind as one looks around

Shaun’s workshop. He has two pieces of

wood that he cut a year ago and which

live in a rack among dozens of other bits

of wood that he owns and remembers as

if they are his children. He holds up the

pieces in question and shows me the

grain and explains how this piece of

timber sprung apart when he was cutting

it, and how he is leaving it now to see if

it might twist or bend, or settle down. He

won’t be tempted to start planning it for

final use. He has an idea for that piece

but it is a long-term idea, and he is in

no rush to get to the end point of that

project. Shaun bought power tools that

allow him to make his products almost

solely with electric machinery. A machine

for every process and step. And now he

completes the process using these tools

20 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF

SHAUN

FUTTER

PERFECTIONIST.

TINKERER.

On assignment, ANDREW FOWLER visits Shaun Futter’s workshop to find out more about the man

behind some of the most exquisite custom fly boxes and nets our country has seen to date.

PROFILE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW FOWLER,

SHAUN FUTTER & TVEN HEYER