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| Timmy Doyle & I in 1981 on St. Regis Lake, NY |
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| Dad & I in 1985 with NY state record size Splake! |
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| Steelies and sunshine :O) |
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Wiley's Flies started in 2003, shortly after Vince Wilcox's second open heart surgery. The first congenital defect was addressed in 1977, a Tetrology of Fallot repair. Almost 25 years lapsed without Vince having any major difficulties, in fact he was able to far exceed any doctors expectations, with no physical limitations. Vince was able to race Adirondack Guide Boats, run track, play football, baseball, basketball, and hockey growing up. More importantly he tagged along with his father Steve (a.k.a Wally), an Adirondack Guide and fly tier, any time he left the house to fish and hunt. Having five generations of your family born and raised in the Adirondack Mountain town of Saranac Lake dating back to the founders has its advantages. Knowing when and where to find the best hunting and fishing, and how to go about it when they got there. Much of his time growing up was spent traveling the vast water routes available in the Adirondack Park hunting and fishing with his father and friends; whether it was spin fishing, ice fishing, or fly fishing right up until entering sophomore year in high school. It was around this time he discovered there where other things to chase then just fish & Pheasant tails, distracted by those other things right through college he then moved to Ft. Collins, CO in 1995 and immediately realized how much he missed being on the water and became obessed with doing just that. Over the next 12+ years he logged over 1,500 days on the water along the Colorado Front Range with the rod in his hand and thousands of hours of experience on the water and prefecting his flies at the vise. He was also able to hike four of Colorado's 14ers, which are peaks over 14,000' in elevation, and back packed from Colorado all the way to the southern edge of the Yukon territory exploring national parks like Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Yellowstone, Banff and Jasper, fishing along the way. In December of 2001 he required another open heart surgery and his life changed in many ways. So often major health issues can cause you to evaluate your life and what is really important to you and to Vince It seemed like a logical step to take, follow his heart (no pun intended) and begin Wiley's Flies. After a few seasons working at and helping run a couple of different fly shops in Loveland and Ft. Collins, CO he returned to the Adirondacks in February 2007 to open a new Wiley's Flies storefront in the shadows of the towering white pines in beautiful Rainbow Lake.
Vince Wilcox’s has been a Signature tier for Idylwilde Flies since 2004 and has had over 30 patterns tied and sold commercially around North America. His flies have also been featured in books such as Dave Klausmeyer’s 501Favorite Fly Tying Tips and The Master’s Fly Box, Todd Hosman’s Colorado Trout Flies, Randall Kauffman’s Fly Patterns and Ben Roman’s Montana’s Best Fly Fishing. In addition to these books Vince’s flies have also been featured in a host of publications and he has written for Eastern Fly Fishing, Southwest Fly Fishing, Fly Fisherman, and American Angler and is a contributing writer for Fly Tyer magazine. His first in a series of books from Lyons Press “Vince Wilcox’s Naturally Artificial Signature Flies” will be released in April 2012. Ross Purnell of Fly Fisherman magazine writes “Vince Wilcox is the most creative and unorthodox tier of his generation”, look for it in Barnes & Noble, Amazon and premium fly shops everywhere. As a production fly tier he has tied hundreds of thousands of flies and when he’s not busy writing, running his on-line store and tying flies, he is guiding in Colorado, Wyoming and primarily on his northern Adirondack streams. One of the most diverse outfitters in the Adirondacks, Wiley’s Flies offers float and wade trips for trout, salmon, bass, pike and musky as well as lake and pond trips out of his fly shop in Rainbow Lake, New York.
E-Mail: vince@wileysflies.com
God bless,
Vince Wilcox
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