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Perhaps a bit of luck.
In Terry Helleckson's book "Fish Flies", he discusses the Haystack fly. In it, he quotes Fran Betters in his own words: "The Haystack begins back in the late forties when I was a lad. I lived with my mother and dad in a home about a hundred yards from the Ausable and spent much of my time there fishing. The first fly that I ever saw that reminded me of a "haystack" was probably in forty-seven or forty-eight. It was just a big gob of deer hair, tied onto a #6 or #8 hook. The fly had no body, only deer hair tied upright and slightly forward, somewhat akin to a muddler, for the hackle. It was tied by Eddie Lawrence, a hunter, trapper and fisherman of some renown in the Adirondacks. Eddie was also a good friend of my father and they often fished together with a few other fly fishing enthusiasts. This group included Ray Bergman, "Red" Wilbur, Lou Kirtzknocker, and Bill Rawle, members of the original Green Drake club that made their drinking headquarters at the Sportsman's Inn in Wilmington......"
He then goes on to say that subsequently, he began tying flies for sale out of his parents' home while in high school. It was during that period that he says he tied his first "Ausable Haystack fly".
So, The impetus for his "Ausable Haystack" apparently came from his having seen and fished the deer hair fly Eddie Lawrence tied years earlier...................