Hairwing Flies

Silver Rogue
Tied by Pete Hiatt*

Recipe

    Tail: Red.

    Body: Peacock herl butt with orange yarn body .

    Wing: Polar Bear w/Jungle cock.

    Hackle: Dark Badger.

*About Pete Hiatt

I came from Portland, Oregon and started fishing 18 months later. I got my first steelhead at the age of 5 which was the start of my downfall. I went to high school in Newport with all the salmon and steelhead fishing that area provided.

I got two Engineering degrees at OSU in Corvallis and mainly fished the Alsea and Crooked River. There were no engineering jobs in the NW at that time so I settled in Ventura, California at the Pacific Missile Test Center, Pt. Mugu. I was a DOD engineer and the NAVY's expert in the propulsion systems of the TOMAHAWK and HARPOON cruise missiles. I was also the Senior Engineer for experimental ground ordnance testing at the base.

Now decent fishing is hard to find in Southern California and when I saw some fellows digging a ditch from the ocean to the mouth of the Ventura River, it raised my curiosity. The river is dry for most of the year, but the winter rains form a bit of a lake betwixt it and the ocean until it breaks through the built up sand dune. As I found out, there was an unknown (to most) steelhead run that a few locals took advantage of. Sure enough, there were steelhead coming up the newly dug slot. That was heaven for many years until I finally returned to Oregon.

I settled in the middle of the best American hunting/fishing country outside of Alaska here in Central Oregon. I have a fancy wood business for gunstocks and do some marketing for a local resort. I also raise Egyptian Arabian horses.

My fly fishing life began when an alleged friend swiped my uncle's boat before I could one day and came back to shore with a chest full of cutthroats caught on fly. Then my uncle showed up and instead of chastising him, we had him guide us with a couple of extra fly rods he had handy (I have learned never to turn down an oarsman). That was the start of my downfall into fly fishing. Flies available from the local shop fell apart too easily so I started tying my own. I put myself through college engineering tying and guiding on coastal rivers.

An early retirement found me easy prey to more of the same affliction, although my hero and mentor, Joe of Joe's Worms & Juicy Grubs & Special Protein Drink keeps me fishing various methods.

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