Business starts from a Boy Scout fly kit.

[RememberSchiff 3663]

Alvin Theriault was 11 when he tied his first fishing fly. “The material came from a Boy Scout kit,” he told me recently. “I tied several colorful feathers onto a hook, cast it into Fish River, a short walk from my Fort Kent home, and caught a nice trout. From that moment, I was hooked on tying flies because it was more fun than digging worms.” More lucrative too. By the time he was 15, Theriault, the oldest of 11 kids, was selling flies to Aroostook County anglers for a buck apiece.

Now 64, Theriault and his wife, Connie, have been making and selling flies for 44 years, plucking the materials — feathers, hair, and fur — from the animals they raise on their farm in Stacyville, 10 miles east of Baxter State Park. With more than 50,000 flies, the couple’s unassuming store is Maine’s largest supplier of flies and fly-tying equipment. “That’s a dizzying number of flies,” admits Alvin, a retired Maine game warden, “so I posted a sign in the store: ‘You only need two flies: Maple Syrup Nymph and Black Ghost Marabou.’”

More info and great Downeast photos at source:

https://downeast.com/theriault-flies/