Jan Hale was born into a Wisconsin fishing family. She grew to like fishing, although she hated putting worms on hooks. Angling in the Midwest generally meant sitting in a boat and waiting for a fish to take the bait. When one did, Jan, in her words, “went a little crazy.”
She also began painting with oils and sold her first painting at age 11.
In 1983, she moved to Southern California to work at Hughes Aircraft as a components engineering specialist in satellite production. There she met an engineer named Bill Hale. They married in November 1993 and resided in the town of Lakewood.
Although employed full-time, Jan still painted, and she sold her exquisitely detailed images of landscapes and wildlife and her portraits. Bill began fly fishing, and his interest aroused Jan’s. Given Jan’s creative talents, he cleverly wondered if she might be interested in tying flies. The idea clicked. Within weeks, she enrolled in a fly-tying class. She started tying Woolly Buggers and other simple patterns. And then, “once I began catching fish with my own flies, I became obsessed with tying.”
In 2000, she and Bill retired and moved to Redding and its nearby fly-fishing waters. They joined the Shasta Trinity Fly Fishers, and over the years, Jan has become one of the club’s most energetic fly tyers and demonstrators.
How does Jan feel about being a female tyer in a male-dominated activity? She says it’s not at all an issue, adding, “I think the reason for more male fly tyers is that they typically fish more and therefore have more incentive to tie flies. For women, fly fishing and hence fly tying are less apt to be priorities in their lives.”
Jan especially loves tying the classic salmon patterns, as well as her own creations. She produces eye-catching, brilliantly colored flies composed of bird feathers from distant places, such as those of the blue-and-gold macaw from South America and Central America, the jungle cock from Asia, and the kori bustard from Asia and Africa. Capes with such feathers can cost hundreds of dollars. She reports that the flies that she ties for display are a little “overdressed” and too flimsy to fish with, in contrast to ones she ties for actual use. For the former, she mattes and frames some of them to exhibit at shows and other venues. They represent a blending of her many artistic talents with her devotion to fly fishing and fly tying.
