LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY — It was all about museums last weekend, as on Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28, the county’s bastions of history and local lore opened their doors during Sullivan County Museum Weekend.

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum (CFFCM) took center stage for all things “fishy” on Saturday, July 27. Inside the museum, Phil Street, a relative newcomer in the world of fly tying, demonstrated to visitors the art and craft of creating trout flies. Downstairs in the “Workshop,” noted flytyer John Apgar gave folks an introduction to building classic bamboo fly rods.

Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted with a framed message titled “The Story of Fly Fishing in the Catskills.” It describes the area as “the wellspring of fly fishing in America,” and notes such luminaries in the sport as Theodore Gordon (1854-1915). “The state of wonder that Gordon and other writers, artists, and naturalists found in this place would inspire generations of anglers,” it reads.

“I got into fishing when I was a kid, [age] 12 or so,” recalled Street. “My granddad was a big fly fisherman, back in the southwest of England. He fished every night, and taught me the basics of tying one or two flies.”

In the wake of a career in technology and finance on the other side of the pond, Street and his wife discovered the Catskill region and later purchased a home in the Manor. There he joined the CFFCM and Catskill Fly Tyers Guild (CFTG) and “reignited his passion” for the history of Catskill fly fishing and learned how to create classic Catskill dry flies. 

“I’ve always had an interest in fly fishing and fly tying,” explained Street, crediting Seth Cavaretta of Dette Flies in Livingston Manor for “helping me get started” in learning how to tie flies during a class on tying classic traditional dry flies.

After joining the CFFCM and CFTG, he was tutored by the likes of Dave Catizone and Tom Mason, both considered masters of the craft.

“I met a lot of great people, and started tying about eight months ago, and got really interested in tying the Catskill-style dry flies,” said Street. In the future, he’s planning on branching out in the art of tying by learning how to fashion wet flies.

By way of explaining to this sports scribbler the difference between dry flies and wet flies, Street said that “dry flies imitate the insect on top of the water, while wet flies imitate the emerging insects.” To create a dry fly, the tyer makes “the wings stand upright,” and while fashioning a wet fly, they endeavor to make the replicated insect’s wings “lay back across the shanks of the body.”

Along with an array of feathers of all types and other fly-tying materials on display during his fly-tying demonstration, were a couple of books by Reuben R. Cross. These were small vintage tomes regarded as classics in the art of tying: “Tying American Trout Lures: How to Make Your Own Dry Flies/Wet Flies, Nymphs and Bucktails” and “Fur, Feathers and Steel: Fish Hooks and Other Material Used in Making Trout Flies.”

“Early on, I tried to emulate his style of tying, getting the flies to look like his,” said Street. “Typically, everything has been done before, in many cases over a hundred years ago… Modern flies are really recreations; people have been doing this a long, long time… There’s lots more reading to do, studying the history of fly tying.”

The Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum is located at 1031 Old Rte. 17. For information, call 845/439-4810, visit www.cffcm.com or follow the center on Instagram@catskillflyfishingmuseum.

For information about the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild, which was founded in 1993 to “promote, preserve and embrace the Catskill fly-tying heritage,” visit www.catskillfly

tyersguild.org, or check out the Gazette, the guild’s monthly newsletter.