Who comes to mind when you think of fly tying celebs?

[Troutstalker55B]

Can't believe the late Gary LaFontaine was not mentioned, the man thought so far outside the box, that the box did not even exist. The amount of research that Gary put into his patterns was incredible, like scuba diving and watching the reaction from trout while his colleagues drifted different flies over them. I own all his books and refer to them on a monthly basis when creating a different twist to a pattern, or a new evolving prototype. All fly anglers should have Gary's books in their library, some of his stories are so well written and very humorous. He was the man... - J.

[gene goss]

Jay Fair was the biggies influence for me, he took fly tying to the next level, with his Technic of dyeing marabou feathers and materials for that certain color that he wanted in his fly.....i'm not sure about his tying skills, but Jay would like to design a fly for that certain color or action.......the wiggle tail was my favorite.

[loose_shoes]

Agreed. Was going to mention Jay Fair. An true innovator of deep and subtle simplicity in color dying and stillwater fly design.

Another fly tyer to watch is Mas Okui of Hot Creek fame. Small specialized flies that are fine-tuned for a specific piece of water. Every element of each fly is there for a reason and there is not one thread wrap that is superfluous.