One million flies strong

If you were to ask 85-year-old Stanley Cooper Jr., of Tunkhannock about his employment history, he would likely tell you, “I always say I have never worked a day in my life.”

He added, “I never had a job. When I graduated from high school in 1942, I knew I was going to be drafted. I got a job in a silk mill and I worked there from August of one year to June the following year. And that’s when I went in the service.”

So how has he managed to make a living since he was discharged from the service in 1946? Cooper said, “I haven’t stopped tying flies since 1947 and I say, ‘When it gets to be work, I’m going to retire.’”

Known in our region for his commercial fly tying business that has spanned more than five decades and has been both pleasurable and successful for this professional tyer, Cooper has tied well more than onemillion flies.

One might ask, in Cooper’s life, what came first? Was it his love for fly fishing or fly tying?

“I got involved in fishing when I was young but I didn’t get involved in fly tying until I came out of the service in 1946,” he said. “I spent three and a half years in the service. My dad was starting in this business (fly tying) and he said, ‘Do you want to start it with me?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’”

His late father, Stanley Cooper Sr., taught him everything he knows about the art of fly tying.

“When I came out of the service in 1946, he (my father) was at a sports show in Philadelphia. A writer from the Philadelphia Bulletin interviewed him and he asked him, ‘What three flies would you recommend for opening season?’ He told him (the reporter), and he included that in the story. We were down there for a week and when we got home, we were up to here (pointing to his forehead) in orders. They were easy flies and that’s how I got started.”

In the early 1950s, their business spawned an interest from two sporting goods chains. The father-and-son fly tying team connected with Abercrombie & Fitch of New York, known for strictly fishing and hunting, and Orvis, a high-end retail and mail-order business for fly fishing and other sports-related equipment.

“They (Orvis) took every fly we tied to keep up with the company’s inventory of approximately 80,000 flies,” said Cooper. “They took up all of our time and we did that for years. Orvis usually gave us their order in October for the coming year.”

Cooper currently ties for a few stores in the Poconos, one in Connecticut, one in the State College area and for his many loyal local customers. Although he admits to slowing down production a bit as he gets older, Cooper is hardly a slacker. In November, he sends 75 letters to his customers so he can fill their Christmas orders.

These days, he’ll tie seven dozen flies in comparison to the 10 to 12 dozen he tied on a daily basis. To make a living, “you’ve got to tie at least 10 to 12 dozen per day. Years ago, we tied a fly that was called Jassid, a very, very easy fly to tie. I tied 20 dozen of those a day.”

Cooper maintains an inventory of fly tying supplies in his basement work area, including everything from the hooks, more common feathers, fur and thread to the coveted and more exotic feathers that he imports. One drawer alone couldn’t accommodate the approximately 22,000 fly tying hooks he has on hand.

The ultimate goal of the fly tier is to fashion flies after bugs and know which bugs are hatching. “Match the hatch” is the adage used in fly tying and fly fishing and, in order to be successful as a fly fisherman, one must know what’s going to hatch.

“Flies like the Hendrickson come out or hatch every year,” said Cooper. “They are so predictable that you could almost set your watch when the day will come. Sometime around April 28 or 29, it starts to hatch at approximately 1 p.m. and lasts for two hours a day. That hatch will continue for about a weekand it’s done. You carry that fly in April and after that, you don’t use it. We know what’s hatching so we’ll ‘match the hatch’ and we’ll catch fish.”

Also an avid fly fisherman, Cooper is active with the Luzerne County Stanley Cooper Sr., Chapter of Trout Unlimited which is named after his father and whose mission is “preservation of the streams and conservation.” He also assists in teaching classes presented by Trout Unlimited.

If you’d like to learn to tie flies, Cooper recommends taking a class that could cost $25 to $30 per lesson.

Cooper said, “There are few guys that still teach fly tying. After about eight lessons, you could tie flies that would catch fish - guaranteed that your flies are fishable.