Loren Williams - Member, Fly Fishing Team USA 2008

Loren Williams was born and raised near the Pocono region of northeast Pennsylvania. At around 8 years of age he began to dabble at the vise using his father’s Thompson and Herters tools. Trout fishing was a mainstay during his childhood, and the native brook trout of the mountains of Pennsylvania proved to be the kindling for a lifelong passion of coldwater fishing. His love of the sporting life eventually led him to a BS degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Penn State. While attending school in central Pennsylvania, Loren was able to ascend the fly-fishing and fly-tying learning curve at an accelerated rate. The various blue-ribbon limestone streams around campus proved to classrooms unto themselves. “I learned how to fish nymphs when I was there. I mean really fish nymphs. When you learn how to nymph-fish you begin to learn about the fish themselves. Your fishing and tying skills are also forced to develop. It is then that you begin to truly value the sport of fly-fishing for what it is. You are trying to become so much a part of the trout’s world that even you forget you don’t really belong there. It’s exciting and fulfilling.”

Many years, and a few careers later, Loren now resides in Upstate New York with his wife and two children where he operates an salmon and steelhead guide service and continues to tie flies commercially. As a licensed professional fly-fishing guide, Loren has successfully achieved a childhood dream of becoming a professional sportsman. Loren is in the wonderful position of having a loving and supportive wife, who also happens to be following a gifted call to ministry. Her career path in the pastoral ministry has allowed Loren the freedom to pursue his dream career and at the same time remain an involved and devoted husband and father. “It’s a blessing to be able to pursue your dream without carrying the burden of sole financial responsibilities to your family. I am a very lucky man.”

“My selection as the Official Tier for Fly Fishing Team USA represents the benchmark achievement in my tying career. I am grateful for the opportunity that Team USA has provided me and I appreciate the manner in which the selection process was organized. How wonderful to be able to represent your country by wrapping fur and feathers around a hook! I am well aware of the caliber of tiers in this country and that makes my selection all that much more cherished.“

Loren has been tying flies for nearly three decades and has been tying professionally for nearly half of those. “My tying was polished by Joe Ackourey of Luzerne, PA in the early 1990’s. Joe took my roughened abilities and organized them into a set of skills that I would have otherwise never realized.” Loren also reflects strong influences of the great fly-tying legends of the Catskill regions of New York, and the Cumberland Valley and Happy Valley regions of Pennsylvania. “In my opinion the folks like George Harvey, Ernest Schwiebert, and Charlie Fox clearly showed how fly tying is to compliment angling skills, not compensate for a lack of them. While I appreciate a well-dressed fly as much as anyone, I will never put my tying abilities above the angling skills of the competitors on Fly Fishing Team USA. My goal is to represent my country by quietly observing and successfully providing the tools these great anglers need in order to succeed. I am proud to be in this position; this is the opportunity of a lifetime for someone like me.”