Oregon’s Daily Astorian newspaper has a great profile on hackle guru Henry Hoffman, who turned his family’s egg business into a fly-tying institution that he sold in the late 1980s.
Hoffman is equal part fly-fisherman, entrepreneur and mad scientist and was the first person to raise chickens for the sole purpose of producing fly-tying feathers.
As reporter Cassandra Profita notes:
Hoffman, 73, is a meticulous fly fisherman who spent decades studying the science of fly-tying and breeding chickens to produce superior fly feathers.
The grueling effort, which required extensive research into the world of poultry and large expenditures on feed, drove off his first two wives and left him unable to pay child support by 1973.
He also benefited from fortuitous timing. Hoffman bought his first roosters in 1965 and nine years later the fly fishing industry took off.
After selling his business, Hoffman turned his attention to studying fly designs (he has the trademark on Chickabou flies) and he seems as avid today as he was raising chickens at the dawn of the modern fly-tying world in the late 1970s.
Posted by gjhaze 
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