GROWING UP ON THE BANKS of the Stillaguamish River in Washington state I learned to fly fish at eight, and taught myself to tie flies by ten. After college I spent a few years in Idaho and Alaska, fishing both thoroughly prior to moving back to my home state.
I began working at The Avid Angler Fly Fishing Outfitters in 2005 where I was fortunate to work with and learn from extremely talented fly tyers such as Nathan Keen, Mark Shimazu, Andrew Grillos, Stephen Jackson and Stephen’s father Alec. I was lucky to say I sold many tying materials over the years to the late Harry Lemire in the shop and picked his brain as often as I could as well.
Through the shop I taught advanced tying classes, fly casting and spey casting, as well as guided for the shop through 2016. I was also a member of Hatch Outdoors, Scientific Anglers and R.L. Winston pro staff for many of those years. In 2016 I was honoured to have a few of my patterns accepted by Umpqua Feather Merchants, and I became officially an Umpqua Signature Fly Designer. From 2013 on I spent the majority of my guiding time on Puget Sound salt water beaches, chasing searun cutthroat and salmon off the beaches. My inspiration for my flies used for the beaches come from Kenney Abrahms‘ flatwing patterns he originally developed for stripers on the east coast, and you’ll see me tie many innovative forms of his old patterns.
I currently continue to guide on my weekends and work full time for Far Bank Enterprises as the Technical Consumer Specialist and spend my work week answering rod, reel and line technical questions for Sage, Rio and Reddington.
You can connect with me via Facebook or follow me on Instagram.
Brita Fordice
Lagartun PRO-Staff
email me
