Ted Fay (1904–1983) was an American fly fisherman, fly tyer, guide, and fly shop owner known for popularizing the short-line nymphing fishing technique in the United States. Around 1951 he founded the Ted Fay Fly Shop, California’s oldest-running fly fishing store, located in Dunsmuir.
Ted Fay | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1904 Tularosa, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Died | January 25, 1983 (aged 78) Dunsmuir, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Fly fisherman, fly tier, fly shop owner, and fishing guide |
| Known for |
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During his time in Dunsmuir he developed enduring fly patterns such as the Caddis Larvae, the Maggie, and the Cro Fly. He worked to promote local tourism, and is often credited with establishing the Upper Sacramento River as a fly fishing destination. In 1984, Fay was posthumously inducted into the Northern California Fly Fishing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport.
Biography
editTed Fay was born on August 16, 1904 in Tularosa, New Mexico.[1][2] Around 1914, the Fey family embarked on a trip via covered wagon to migrate to Los Angeles. Ted's father then worked as a traveling salesman, frequently taking him on his trips to Northern California. Together they visited Dunsmuir for the first time around 1920.[2]
During the first half of the 1940s, Ted worked as a grocery distributor in Oakland, California, and would regularly drive his grocery truck through Highway 99 to fish the Upper Sacramento River.[1]
Meeting Ted Towendolly
editIt was during this time that Ted Fay met Ted Towendolly, a Wintu man who had been the first fly fishing guide on the Upper Sacramento River.[3] In the 1920s Towendolly developed heavily weighted flies such as the Black Bomber, as well as variations of the Black and Brown Spent Wing, Burlap fly, and Peacock fly.[1][4] He employed these heavy flies using a novel technique that would come to be known as short-line nymphing.[1][5] Towendolly taught Fay how to tie his weighted flies and fish them with his technique, fostering what would become a lifelong friendship.[1][6]
Life in Dunsmuir
editIn the spring of 1951, Fay moved to Dunsmuir together with his wife, Vivienne, and two of their four children, their son Mike and daughter Shirley.[2] They purchased the Lookout Point Motel inside which Fay operated a small fly fishing shop.[7][2]
To supply the store, Fay initially bought flies from Towendolly, but he later tied his own based on Towendolly’s recipes, as well as developing new patterns himself.[4]
To the guests of the motel Fay offered free fishing advice and guiding services. These services proved popular, and the motel quickly became a destination among fly fishermen. Gaining international reputation over time,[8] the motel started drawing in a clientele of famous anglers like Joe Brooks, Jack Horner, Jim Green, Walton Powell, as well as celebrities like William Conrad, Bob Wilson, Pete McCloskey, among others.[2] Vince Claward, president of the Upper Sacramento River Exchange, a watershed stewardship organization operating in Siskiyou County, gifted a set of Ted Fay flies to then-president George W. Bush.[9] Through his advice, guiding services, and weighted flies, Fay popularized Towendolly’s short-line nymphing technique, which came to be known in the '60s and '70s as the Ted Fay method.[1]
While Fay was closest to the Upper Sacramento river and fished it intensely, to the point of earning the nickname of "Sage of the Sacramento", he also fished nearby trout rivers like the Klamath, Salmon, Trinity, and McCloud.[2]
Fay was active in Dunsmuir's community and local affairs, serving as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Fish and Game committee (from December 1954),[10] and later president of the Dunsmuir Chamber of Commerce (from December 1959),[11] as well as being Chairman of the local Rotary Club.[12] Fay also regularly published fishing reports for the Sacramento and McCloud rivers in Californian newspapers such as the San Francisco Examiner, The Sacramento Bee, the Oakland Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. His goal was bolstering local tourism and putting the Upper Sacramento area (and specifically Dunsmuir) on the map as a fly-fishing destination, an effort that proved successful.[13][14]
The Lookout Point Motel lasted until 1971,[2] when the state of California purchased it through eminent domain to make way for the Interstate Highway 5. Fay then relocated the fly fishing store to his home’s garage.[4][8]
On January 25, 1983, Fay died of cancer at the age of 78.[2]
Legacy
editTed Fay method
editWhat came to be known as the Ted Fay method is a fishing technique similar to Czech and Euro nymphing[6] that developed independently in the Upper Sacramento region in the 1920s thanks to Ted Towendolly.[1][15][5] While Fay learned this technique from Towendolly, Fay is widely acknowledged for refining it and popularizing it through his guiding services and fly shop, to the point of becoming synonymous with his name during the '60s and '70s.[1][5]
Ted Fay flies
editFay became famous for the heavily weighted flies he used for short-line nymphing, as the sign hung on the window of the Ted Fay Fly Shop used to suggest: “Weighted Flies by Ted Fay”.[14] While some of the more unique flies he sold at his shop were replicas of flies he learned to tie from Towendolly, Fay also developed a handful of original patterns that have endured in the Upper Sacramento tradition, namely the Caddis Larvae, the Maggie, and the Cro Fly. The latter was first developed by his friend Frank Crosetti who gave Fay permission to copy and sell it. Fay modified it by removing its wings, and named it “Cro Fly” after his friend’s surname.[1][4]
Vivienne Fay, Ted's wife, suggested that Ted could make a "buggy" looking fly out of the scraps of carpet that Ted used to glue to the soles of his waders. Named by Vivienne, the Carpetbagger fly was born. The fly proved effective and became one of Ted's favorites.[2]
During the 70s and 80s, Fay’s flies proved so popular that imitations were being sold at other fly shops.[16] To counter this, Fay started using the Mustad #9 hook, an unusual size that would make his original flies easier to identify. Mustad would eventually discontinue its #9 hook, and Fay was forced to go back to a #8.[4]
Ted Fay Fly Shop
editThe Ted Fay Fly Shop is the longest-running fly fishing store in California,[17] and one of the oldest overall in the Western United States.[14] After Fay’s death, Joe Kimsey, a fly fisherman who worked for Fay as a fly tier and guide at the shop, bought the store from the Fay estate and operated it out of the Garden Motel, later renamed to the current Acorn Inn.[16] In 1997, after a five-way bypass heart surgery, Kimsey sold the business to its current owner, Bob Grace, who continues promoting Fay's flies and techniques. Throughout its history the store moved five times across Dunsmuir, until March 2007 when it relocated to its current location at 5732 Dunsmuir Avenue, following a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Dunsmuir Chamber of Commerce.[14]
Posthumous recognition
editIn 1984, Ted Fay was posthumously honored by the Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers with the induction into the Northern California Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.[18]
A memorial plaque in Dunsmuir City Park, just across the Upper Sacramento River, celebrates Ted Fay as a “master flyfisher [and] Dunsmuir guide” whose “legend will remain forever on these rippling waters”.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Palmer 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Raymond 1988.
- ^ O'Brien, Chip (15 December 2009). California's Best Fly Fishing: Premier Streams and Rivers from Northern California to the Eastern Sierra. Headwater Books. p. 85. ISBN 978-1934753033.
- ^ a b c d e O'Brien 1996.
- ^ a b c "Self-Guided Tour Sign #23 - Fishing". Dunsmuir Recreation & Parks District. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
- ^ a b Whitelaw, Ian (7 April 2015). History of fly fishing in fifty flies. Aurum Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-1617691461.
- ^ "Lookout Point Motel Sold". Dunsmuir News. Vol. 61. 27 April 1951.
- ^ a b Harton, Deborah; McCloud, Ron (26 May 2010). Dunsmuir. Arcadia Publishing. p. 103. ISBN 978-1531653293.
- ^ Madgic, Bob (1 January 2013). The Sacramento: A Transcendent River. River Bend Books. pp. 78–81. ISBN 978-0988271111.
- ^ "Chamber of Commerce Member Drive". Dunsmuir News. 30 December 1954.
- ^ "[Untitled]". Dunsmuir News. Vol. 70, no. 33. 10 December 1959.
- ^ "March of Dimes Nears Goal". Dunsmuir News. Vol. 67. 31 January 1957.
- ^ "City Newspapers Give Dunsmuir Fair Shake". Dunsmuir News. Vol. 72, no. 45. 1 March 1962.
- ^ a b c d Bolender, Earl (14 March 2007). "Dunsmuir Fly Shop Has Long and "Weighted" History". Mount Shasta Herald. Archived from the original on 2015-02-22.
- ^ Leeson, Ted (January 2001). "The Upper Sacramento River". Field & Stream. Vol. 105, no. 9. New York, NY. p. 55. ISSN 8755-8599.
- ^ a b Cox, Rick (2019-04-09). "Remembering Joe Kimsey". Ted Fay Fly Shop. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
- ^ Stienstra, Tom (23 April 2014). "Fly-fisher Fay's influence still impacts Sacramento River". SFGate. Archived from the original on 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
- ^ "Fly Fishing Hall of Fame Inductees Through 2015". Northern California Council, Fly Fishers International (NCCFFI). Retrieved 2025-07-18.
Sources
edit- Raymond, Frank E. (1988). Rivers to remember: A guide to Northern California's great outdoors : historical folklore plus factual information about famous & little known places. Siskiyou Trail Press. pp. 26, 64–66. ISBN 9780962161407.
- Palmer, Eric (2017). "Ted Towendolly and the Origin of Short-Line Nymphing on the Upper Sac: How the Wintu Indians, the 49ers, Ted Fay, and Joe Kimsey Impacted Modern-day Nymphing with a Fly" (PDF). California Fly Fisher. Truckee, CA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-06-19. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
- O'Brien, Chip (1996). "As the Cro Flies: Patterns Born and Bred on the Upper Sac" (PDF). California Fly Fisher. Truckee, CA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-05-20. Retrieved 17 July 2025.