Salmonfly.Net History

Salmonfly.Net was originated in January of 1998 by webmaster Steve Burke while he was required by his job to spend a year in El Paso, Texas. Steve, a long-time  trout fly fisherman, had just recently moved to Washington State, where he had been introduced to and had become hooked on fly fishing for salmon and steelhead. Having nowhere in the desert to fish in Texas, the next closest thing was tying flies and displaying them on the internet.

The original, rudimentary pages were and eclectic mix of traditional flies, scanned with a flatbed scanner. The flies themselves were often poorly tied concoctions done by the webmaster with limited materials and limited knowledge of the art (for salmon and steelhead) at the time and the scanner did not do much to enhance them. It was not until the first contributor to the site, Clark Lucas, came along with his unique Speys and Dees, that Salmonfly.Net started taking on a different flavor. More and more contributors followed from all over the world and the fly database grew. Meanwhile, the webmaster gained more knowledge and experience in the art of tying the flies if not the fishing of them. This old version of the site is not the earliest version. That one has long been overwritten. It is still one of the earlier ones, though. In later versions, Salmonfly.Net began running a Pacific Salmon, Steelhead, Atlantic Salmon "Fly of the Week" and a "Picture of the Month" as seen here. You may notice in the menu bar on the left, that the main menu floating over the menu bar has a background that clashes. That is because the bar was an upgrade and the menu background had not yet been changed. Many of the old fly pages still have this problem, but they are gradually being upgraded. This is one of the disadvantages of having static pages, literally hundreds of them, with all the flies. It is time consuming to make format changes. Over time they will all be changed, probably I might add, just in time for another upgrade.

In later years, as Salmonfly.Net got more and  more contributions in the form of articles, especially from noted northwest guide Dennis Dickson, so out of necessity, it took on an ezine format like that seen here. That lasted for a few years. Now, tired of trying to make deadlines and have materials collected from contributors in time to put out an issue, the webmaster has decided to allow Salmonfly.Net to go into maintenance mode. It will always be a source of information for fly tyers and will continue to display new flies, articles, information and events, but without any commitment to a time slot. The fly selection will continue to grow, but the webmaster will allow himself more time for family and fishing.

So for those that have been regular contributors over the years, thank you very much and by all means keep sending your fantastic flies, photos, and articles. You are and always have been what Salmonfly.Net is all about. For those that wish to be a new contributor, don't hesitate. Just use the Salmonfly.Net Submission Request Form to tell me what you would like to submit. The webmaster will be more than happy to add new material and will, over time continue to work on improving and upgrading the old pages.