Chuck Stranahan is known among his professional peers as one of the most talented fly tyers of this era – a recognition the angling public is now coming to share.
A long-time professional fly tyer and guide, he is also a writer, instructor, and speaker at fly-fishing clubs and sportsmen’s shows.
He began fly tying at eight, and was tying flies commercially at age twelve. He fly-tied his way through college as an Orvis commercial fly tyer and through a ten-year career in education, before opening a full-time fly shop in 1979.
He learned the fly tying craft from masters such as Cal Bird, Polly Rosborough, Darwin Atkins, and Andre Puyans. His style blends their techniques with his own innovations. His fly patterns are becoming standards throughout the West, and are featured in books by Jack Dennis, Gary LaFontaine, Greg Thomas, John Holt, and Randall Kaufmann.
He learned flycasting and fly rod design and manufacture from some of the masters who shaped the sport, beginning as a college student in San Francisco on the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club ponds. Over the years he fished with many of these same mentors, honing his own skills as an angler.
He is a program regular at regional and national Fly Fishing Federation Conclaves. He has been active in FFF activities since the late ‘70’s, and has been recognized for his conservation efforts as a recipient of California Trout’s Streamkeeper award.