I DISCOVERED THE JOY of fishing at age 10 while growing up in Europe. But it wasn’t until 1985, after living in British Columbia for a couple of years, that I found my true passion… fly fishing …and ever since I’ve dedicated my life to broadening my knowledge in this sport.
For years I continued to fish both gear and fly… in 1996 I retired my gear fishing tackle and became a full time fly fisher. My first experiences with fly fishing was chasing coho at our local beaches. As I became more and more obsessed with the sport and the fishery, I found myself spending a lot of time in the library reading books on ocean entomology. I could not find any flies that resembled the food sources in our waters. This forced me to take up fly tying, and I would make up different patterns and test them until I was satisfied with the results. After the beach fishing season was over and the salmon entered the river in the fall, I switched over to tying flies for our local rivers. The love of fly fishing for steelhead soon followed in the winter time and I tied a lot of steelhead patterns.
In 2005 I discovered the art of tying classic Atlantic salmon and spey flies. As an artist I loved the challenge this art form required. To this day I respect the time and patience it takes to tie a classic pattern, and continue to read and learn from others as much as I possibly can.
As my patterns became more popular over the years I created the web site in 2008… FrenzyFlies.com …to make it easier for the fly fisher to refer to a fly they fished and wanted to order more. My number one rule… no fly is sold under the assumption that it might work, it is only available to the public when it is a proven pattern. Check out the Gallery on my web site and see all the happy clients I guided into fish with my own patterns… the memories are the best part of my job.
FrenzyFlies specializes in innovative flies tied by myself. The flies that matter to local waters are fully field-tested personally before being made available for sale. Also, the art of tying spey and classic flies earned me a spot in BC Outdoors Magazine in 2008 September – October and November – December issues for the article ‘Classic Flies in BC’ by Art Lingren.
I currently work at Pacific Angler Fly & Tackle Shop in Vancouver. You can find me in the store selling gear, helping customers with their question, and teaching fly fishing and fly tying courses; otherwise I am either tying at home to provide the customers with my flies or guiding on our local waters. You will find my flies at Pacific Angler.
I love to share my knowledge by teaching fly tying classes in the Lower Mainland. You can follow FrenzyFlies on Facebook or visit the FrenzyFlies web site to find out more about myself and my flies.
I look forward to hearing from you…
Andre Stepanian
Partridge PRO-Team
Lagartun PRO-Staff
FrenzyFlies
email me
