Mark Conway - Brookside Flies

You are here: Fly Designers > Mark Conway

Fly Designer: Mark Conway

Growing up a stones throw from the Yakima River in Washington State, my earliest memories of fly fishing came through my Boy Scout Master, Mr. Stier, who grew up fly fishing in Wyoming. He said,"You aren't fishing unless you are fly fishing." That has stuck in my mind ever since. Fly tying came natural as my desire for better imitations of fish lures increased. Steelhead fly patterns were my favorite creation until being challenged by enticement of different salmon species. One of my first original fly patterns came to me back in 1987 with a series of streamer patterns that attracted both Steelhead and Coho. These patterns taught me to imitate whatever the species of anadromous fish had been feeding on most recently in the ocean before their migration in fresh water. I realized salmon strike out of feeding habit rather than hunger. My biggest challenge was finding patterns Sockeye salmon would strike. The NOCM came to me, which seemed like a cloud of plankton that sockeye might strike. I've been successfully using it on all my guided trips since 1989 as an exclusive sockeye fresh water fly. I later moved to Alaska in 1994 and started my Alaska guide service. We specialize in remote fly in and secluded streams on the Kenai Peninsula, fly fishing most of the season for sockeye salmon and rainbow trout from June through September with my streamer fly patterns.