Joe Howell (Idleyld Park) is a fly tyer, retired fishing guide, and fisherman. He grew up on the Umpqua River and has tied flies since the late-1950s. He ran the Blue Heron fly shop for 30 years and has a vast knowledge about the North Umpqua River as well as steelhead and the flies used to catch them.
Bio
Joe Howell (Idleyld Park) is a fly tyer, retired fishing guide, and fisherman. He grew up on the Umpqua River and has tied flies since the late-1950s. He ran a fly shop for 30 years and has a vast knowledge about the North Umpqua River as well as steelhead and the flies used to catch them. For Howell, fishing and fly-tying are one and the same. He is drawn to the solitude and briskness of early morning fishing "which brings the possible sighting of bald eagles, otters, and other wildlife. Even though there’s a highway nearby, the sound of white water drowns out ambient noise.”
When Howell was a boy, his dad who drove a logging truck, would drop him off at a certain point on the river and tell him to meet him there several hours later. He would walk the river and fish, learning by watching the old timers he occasionally saw. One in particular showed him how to cast, and he was hooked. Howell’s parents got him a fly-tying kit for his eleventh birthday. He started making money tying and selling flies to his dad’s friends. Within six months, he’d made enough to buy his first fly rod, a cheap fiberglass rod, for $12.95. By the time he was seventeen, he’d saved enough to buy a better, Fenwick fly rod for $45.
After graduating high school, Joe Howell spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, got married, and tried to make a living tying flies. Although he was tying 300 dozen flies a month, it wasn’t enough income. He worked at a couple of sporting goods stores for about five years and then drove an Umpqua Dairy truck for over a decade. During that time, he opened the Blue Heron Fly Shop and provided clients his services as a fishing guide on the North Umpqua River. People came to the shop from Germany, France, Argentina, and elsewhere, though most were from the US. According to Howell, “a good guide is a personal one-on-one coach; he teaches you how to do it.” A good guide knows where to put his clients according to their skill level.
Howell describes the Umpqua as “one of the greatest steelhead rivers” and prefers fishing for steelhead over any other type of fish. What makes steelhead fun, he explains, is their spectacular fighting ability—the fish, on average range from 5-6 lbs. but can excede15 lbs. He uses effective but simple-to-tie flies from readily available materials. In his opinion, “a standard steelhead hairwing,” style of fly is generally the most productive to use. He particularly admires the flies that Cal Bird of San Francisco, and Polly [E.H.] Rosborough created. He considers them mentors and has some of their flies in the antique fly collection he started as a boy. Howell remarked that although he likes to experiment and come up with different patterns and colors. He often says that “any fly works well as long as it’s black" because dark colors silhouette better, and fish can see them under most light/water conditions.” He uses a variety of patterns and colors as needed.
Although he no longer guides, Joe Howell continues to fish and tie flies for his own pleasure. He’s had one book written about him (Jay W. Nicholas, The Honest Flies of Joe Howell). He’s written a comprehensive book himself, tentatively titled The North Umpqua River, a Fly Fishing Guide's Perspective, and expects publication in 2023/24.
