Bloomberg Businessweek USA - 12.08.2019

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DESIGN Bloomberg Pursuits August 12, 2019

Henry Hoffman started fishing 70 years

ago, at age 15, and began tying his own

flies about five years after that. By 1962

he was earning $1.15 for every dozen flies

he sold.

Eventually he discovered a different

way to turn a profit: raise chickens whose

feathers would serve as high-quality

hackle for other fishermen’s flies. “I kept

breeding continuously,” the fly-tying Hall

of Famer says. “It genetically improved

them to the point that instead of getting

$3 a bird, which wasn’t enough to cover

their feed, I was getting $40 or $50.”

He became known for his “grizzly”

hackle, feathers from a black-and-

white-striped descendant of the barred

Plymouth Rock rooster, which is one

of the few breeds to develop in North

America. By 1970, sporting goods retailer

Orvis was lauding his superior feathers

in its newsletter and calling them “super-

grade grizzly.” He sold the business in

1989 to premium breeder Tom Whiting.

Since then, Hoffman has focused more

on the art of fly tying—he was named

Oregon Fly Tyer of the Year by Fly Fishers

International in 2000, and in 2008 he won

the Buz Buszek Memorial Fly Tying Award,

which has been called the “Heisman

Trophy of fly fishing.”

Now 85, Hoffman lives in Warrenton,

Ore. (population 5,500), where this Green

Highlander Hairwing pattern hangs in

his dining room. It’s become a popu-

lar one to display because of the color

combinations—Hoffman uses 13 kinds of

material in his version—but it originally

earned its rep as a surefire way to land

salmon on the East Coast. “Back when

there were wild salmon on the East Coast,”

he says. <BW> �James Gaddy

BACKGROUND The pattern

of the Green Highlander Hairwing

first originated in Scotland,

Hoffman says, where it wasn’t

popular. Its fortunes changed in

North America, where it became

famous for its success in catching

salmon on the East Coast and

steelhead out west.

The foremost expert in the art of tying flies

goes deep on his version of the Green Highlander Hairwing

Photograph by Grant Cornett

GOODS Among the more exotic

hackle that Hoffman uses is the

golden pheasant in the tail of the

fly and jungle cock, which can cost

as much as $1 per feather. Green

chickabou comes from one of his

breeds that mimics the feathers

of the marabou, an African stork

that’s become a protected animal.

Soft breast

feathers of a

rooster have

been dyed yellow

Hoffman’s famous

grizzly hackle,

dyed orange

The jungle cock

pattern of rooster

feathers is now

illegal to import

from India

LORD OF THE FLY