Hello. My name is Bill Bowers, and I am new to Reel-Time, having had my Internet connection only a few months now. I'm 41 next month, and work as a supervisor of medical transcriptionists at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York.
I know envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but I confess I envy some of you who've introduced yourselves and live a short walk from salt water. I live outside the tiny village of Fly Creek, about 250 miles from the nearest seacoast. I live with my lovely wife Eileen (she doesn't fish, but supports my habit; bless her) and two cats on a former horse farm on a dirt road way out in the country. I've lived here nine years, having grown up in eastern Mass. Moved out here to marry Eileen. Fortunately, we have family and good friends back east, and we get out there as often as possible to visit and so I can fish the Cape and the South Shore. I'll be hitting the North River in a few weeks for the first time this year.
My Dad started me fishing when I was four, for bluegills with worms under a bobber, and I've been hooked since. Fishing is the greatest of many gifts he has given me. Another is a love of reading.
My first fishing book was Just Fishing by Ray Bergman (still a great one, though it was first published in 1932), starting when I was about 11. The librarians in my hometown library in eastern Mass. used to jokingly call it Bill's book, because I was practically the only one who ever borrowed it, and I borrowed it dozens of times over the years. Just Fishing was my introduction to fly fishing (though it covers all methods apart from nets and explosives). But I never actually picked up a fly rod until I moved out to New York.
I am blessed to live very close by a beautiful, underfished stream teeming with brown trout and smallmouth bass. After one season, I decided a fly rod was the way to go, bought an Orvis 5-weight, and have fished almost exclusively with flies for the last seven seasons. Five years ago, I bought an Orvis 8-weight and started fly fishing for stripers in Mass. Casting a saltwater fly rod is a challenge for me. I have to keep working at it, but the rewards justify the effort. My biggest fly rod stripers so far are several 30" fish, but I keep trying, and even the schoolies are great to catch on flies, especially the ones you tie yourself.
I started tying as a way to save money (Ha ha) and now am an enthusiast. I tie too many to ever fish them all, so I give lots away to friends and strangers, empty the boxes and make room for more.
I am also an avid collector of fly fishing books, with a library somewhere north of 300 volumes. If anyone out there has fly fishing books for sale, or possibly to swap, or just wants to talk about same, please e-mail me; I'd be happy to hear from you.
A few years ago, I started doing freelance editing of fishing book manuscripts. My first editing project was authored by a fellow who later became a Reel-Time correspondent. Small world. I have edited the manuscripts of several well-known fly fishing titles you may have read. I've done just one manuscript so far this year, but the book has not yet been published.
I am fortunate to have an opportunity to fish Block Island for the first time this September. And in early October, we'll make another firt-time attempt: false albacore out of Niantic, CT. Any info to help prepare for these would be most welcome.
I like the Reel-Time website because it's a great way to get news and information and communicate with like-minded fishermen and women. I hope it will also be a way to meet more fishing friends. Please e-mail me if you are interested in fly tying, collecting, publishing, or editing angling books, or if you'd like to hook up for a trip (fresh or saltwater) sometime.
Thanks for reading! Keep those lines in the water.
Bill Bowers