About 37 years ago Dave was taking a fly tying class at our fly shop.

He showed me some Shad flies he had just tied.

We needed someone to tie our special versions of the Shad fly.

I asked Dave if he would tie them for the shop?

I think he was in shock........but said yes.

That stated his long career in commercial fly tying.

He tied for the Dunsmuir Fly Shop (Bill Tate), Eureka Fly Shop, Kiene's Fly Shop, Trinity Fly Shop, The Fly Shop, Feather Craft (St Louis) , American River Fly Shop and various one off's to individual friends etc....

Here is his retirement email he sent to me:

"Hi Bill,

I am having to hang it up as a commercial tyer. The hands and back will no longer allow me to production tie. It is all your fault that I tied about 700k flies since 1985. All I did was show you an example of a shad fly and you said you would buy them.

Anyway, Thank you for the start you gave me. The rest is now history

Dave

Dave Hudson Home of HUDSON'S FLY FACTORY hudsonflyfac@sbcglobal.net"