Bruce James Waugh
Bruce James Waugh tying a streamer fly May 3, 2007
Bruce James Waugh was born in Sussex, New Brunswick on June 30, 1965 and is the
son of Shirley (nee MacArthur) and Harry Simons Waugh.
Being the son of a travelling Baptist Minister resulted in a fair bit of moving
around. Bruce lived in Kentville and Little River, Nova Scotia for a while then
in 1972 his family moved to Hartland, New Brunswick. Hartland is where Bruce got
introduced to fishing and fly tying.
Raymond Seeley and Jerry Newman, a Deacon for one of the churches, had a camp on
a branch of the Main Southwest Miramichi River near Juniper. They used to take
Bruce to the camp, and it was there he learned to fish for salmon and trout. It
was also in Hartland where he saw his first fly tyer, an elderly gentleman named
Frank Rickard. Back then Bruce was just a 12-year old kid and he didn't quite
understand what all the fly tying fuss was about, but seeing the old guy tie
flies was interesting and memorable.
In 1979 the Waugh family moved to Doaktown. This was the year that Bruce got a
real introduction to the art of fly tying. It all came about very innocently
when his father took him to the W.W. Doak Fly Shop, situated in the heart of the
village. Bruce has no idea why his father went there, nor can he remember if he
purchased anything, but the one thing he will always remember is the array of
colours displayed in the hundreds of perfectly crafted salmon and trout flies on
display. The experience had such an impact on him that he returned to the shop
many times after that and to just watch the owner, Jerry Doak, tie the varied
fly patterns in an identical format, one after the other. Bruce admits that it
was at this time he became "hooked" on fly tying. Little did he know back then
that twenty-five years later fly tying would be his profession and a way of
life.
How did he get started? Less than a year later, in the fall of 1980, Jerry Doak
gave a fly tying instruction course. The first one through the door to register
was Bruce. After the course he purchased some tying equipment and began tying.
He continued his visits to Doak's Fly Shop and this afforded him the opportunity
to gather a lot more in- depth information and knowledge about tying flies and
fly patterns from his mentor, Jerry Doak.
With his dedication and talent he quickly became proficient at tying flies.
Jerry Doak took a liking to Bruce Waugh because he appreciated his honesty and
recognized his fly tying talent. Jerry was looking for someone dependable and
trustworthy and Bruce had what Jerry was looking for, and thus he hired him as a
sales clerk and full time fly tyer.
Fly tying has always been strictly a business for Bruce. He took it serious
right from the very beginning. His mentor instilled this attitude in him and he
quickly learned that fly tying wasn't just an art, but was a respectable way to
earn an income. The fly tying profession has been very good to Bruce and his
family. His hard work and dedication to the art provides him with a decent
income and it greatly contributed to paying his way through college.
As a professional fly tyer, Bruce avoids experimenting with fly patterns. He
follows a very strict precedent, established over the years by the originators
of successfully proven patterns, which anglers use today. He believes that to
break the tradition will affect fly tying and angling by adding confusion and
frustration for the angler. Many of the known patterns that worked well in the
past continue to do so today; why change it? The angler knows what he's looking
for. Many other fishermen over the years have told them. Its Bruce's job to
provide the angler with the known pattern, tied as closely as he can possibly
make it to its exact specification. He refused to tie a lone fly based solely on
just another angler's conception of what a fish will take. To do so would be
experimenting, and making the distinction between experimenting with a fly, or
with the fish would be impossible to do.
Angling is every bit as important to Bruce as what fly tying is. If angling were
stopped in New Brunswick it would drastically affect the economy and the
livelihood of many people. Bruce depends on fly tying and angling and like most
of the anglers in New Brunswick he is very concerned about the future of it. His
opinions are varied, but he is strong in his belief that the results of studies
by the biologists are being ignored by the people appointed to make the proper
decisions regarding the preservation of the Atlantic salmon. He believes there
are too many uninformed people making critical decisions about a resource they
know little about. Some are content to rely on token gestures and a lot of
hypocrisy. Bruce finds it unacceptable and very disturbing when you find out
that conservation groups lobby to preserve the salmon here are later discovered
killing salmon in Quebec. A step in the right direction to solving some of the
problems would be for people to support river management teams
Bruce's favourite pool is the Doctor's Island Pool in Blackville on his
favourite river the Southwest Miramichi.
His favourite hair wing fly is the green butt "Black Bear" and his favourite
fully dressed salmon fly is the "Green Highlander".
In 1992 Bruce Waugh moved to the Village of Blackville where he presently
resides with his wife, son and daughter.
Bruce continues tying flies for W.W. Doak tackle shop, which is nestled in the
heart o the Miramichi River valley. www.wwdoak.com
(Tyer's Flies Appearing Soon)
