This Green Highlander Hairwing has 13 pieces and $5 worth of material, takes two hours to make, and will never touch the water.
Photographer: Grant Cornett for Bloomberg Businessweek
The Art of Tying Fishing Flies Can Get Very, Very Complicated
A fly-fishing Hall of Famer goes deep on his version of the historic Green Highlander Hairwing.
Henry Hoffman started fishing 70 years ago, at age 15, and began tying his own flies about five years after that. By 1962 he was earning $1.15 for every dozen flies he sold.
Eventually he discovered a different way to turn a profit: raise chickens whose feathers would serve as high-quality hackle for other fishermen’s flies. “I kept breeding continuously,” the fly-tying Hall of Famer says. “It genetically improved them to the point that instead of getting $3 a bird, which wasn’t enough to cover their feed, I was getting $40 or $50.”