Erin Block joins the Umpqua Feather Merchants team as a royalty tyer with her Crumpler Cricket. Read the press release below.
When you take a look at Erin’s Crumpler Cricket, you can understand why we wanted her tying for us. When you get to know Erin, you know that we got a lot more than we bargained for!
“The Crumpler Cricket evolved out of a crane fly imitation I tied up a few summers ago for the Colorado high country lakes I love to fish. One day, the trout wanted nothing but crane flies and I had none in my box. So as they would have nothing to do with me, I ended up getting a good long look at the bugs; and back home at my vise, was determined to develop something similar to take back to that lake… to redeem myself, in a way.
Gangly legged and scruffy, it wasn’t very pretty, but redemption rarely is. It worked. And I continued playing around with the pattern for the rest of the backcountry season. By late-summer it was looking more like the small, brown field crickets common by mountain streams, and I was having fantastic luck with it – both solo and as part of a dry dropper rig too. Buggy and suggestive, fish don’t really know quite what to make of it and that is why it works – like a good book, it can be many things, to many people – or trout, as the case may be.”
Erin joined our team of distinguished royalty tyers this year, and we are thrilled to have her on board! A librarian at the University of Colorado, Erin moved from Nebraska to Colorado where she discovered fly-fishing, and dove in full force. While she frequently fishes for high mountain trout, she can obviously land whatever is out there.
Erin recently had her first book, “The View From Coal Creek: Reflections on Fly Rods, Canyons, and Bamboo”, published in which she eloquently offers her reflections on fly-fishing in Colorado. Just recently, Erin was featured in Fly Tyer Magazine’s Fly Tyer Profile (pick up the Autumn 2013 issue!).
I’m proud to call Erin a friend and an amazing person. She’s the real deal.