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Featured Fly Tyer - Matt Germino

Featured Fly Tyer - Matt Germino

We are kicking off 2022 with our next featured Fly Tyer: Matt Germino aka @deeperwaters84

We chatted a bit with Matt to find out more about his love for fly tying and how it all started.

"The fly that means the most to me is the Royal Coachman.  This fly holds a special place for me because it's the first fly I ever caught a fish on. Always an avid fisherman, I had a friend continue to tell me to try fly fishing. I avoided it forever but ended up buying a super inexpensive combo set to give it a shot. Thanksgiving day 2013 I went out to my favorite spot. I had ZERO clue what I was doing and I just randomly tied on a Royal Coachman. I ended up pulling out an eager 6 inch brown trout, and fell in love.

For this Coachman, I substituted calf tail for the wings simply out of personal preference."
With that catch, Matt's love of fly fishing was born, and his passion for tying followed soon after.  "The same friend who got me into fly fishing told me I should start tying. I bought a very inexpensive vise and some materials and tried to tie a pheasant tail nymph for my first fly. It took me almost an hour and a half and everything kept coming undone and I just gave up. I started focusing on just tying bucktail on trebles for the spinners I was making at the time. A couple months later I started tying again and it just clicked. It became a creative outlet for me and something that is still constantly pushing me to get better.
I love both fishing and fly tying equally, although I find the season of life I'm in gives me way more time to tie than fish. My two youngest kids have started taking an interest in fishing and also tying, so it's fun to share both of those passions with them."

Matt shares an all too familiar sentiment when it comes to coffee, "There are not many things I feel I can do without having coffee first. When given the time, I really enjoy using a french press or my Aeropress."

Matt also let us know about a few of the organizations he supports.  "There are so many great ones out there. I'm also an avid hunter and love to support the Keystone Elk Country Alliance. I started this year as a mentor within The Mayfly Project near my home, which is a fantastic organization with a powerful outreach goal. While finances don't always make it easy to donate monetarily, I'm always willing to donate loaded fly boxes that can help raise money for some of these wonderful organizations."

Thank you for sharing your passion and your flies!  Tight Lines, Matt!
As the weather settles into the cold and we turn into our indoor spaces, we know a warm cup of coffee is a good friend to have at your bench.  We raise our mug to all the tyers out there!
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