My love of fishing started the very first time my dad took me to a trout stream in Pennsylvania when I could barely fit into a set of hip boots. We spent countless hours fishing all over the country together. I started tying flies as soon as I was old enough to get paid for chores. Every penny went to purchasing tying material. My cousin Darren and I were out on the river together every weekend and tying flies with any spare time we had. Back then there weren't YouTube tutorials at our finger tips, tying wasn't as big. We'd spend hours every week taking apart flies from our local shop trying to figure out all the materials needed and all the steps to replicate the finished product. After a while we had mastered all the dries and nymphs. Dad would take me to the river, we'd flip over rocks and I'd tell him which bugs to go with and pass him a handful of my flies. He wouldn't fish with anything else. Flash forward 30 years and I'm still just as passionate about my time at the bench, but much has changed. I now enjoy teaching others how to tie step-by-step. Every Wednesday I release a new video on YouTube. If you have any request, I'm always up for suggestions. After fishing all over the country I had my heart set on moving to Montana. Shortly after I made the move I met Cristy. Me, dad, and Uncle Bob were enjoying a couple weeks together chasing browns during the fall and dad spotted her. We ended up spending the entire day fishing together and the rest is history, it was meant to be. Since then I spend just about every weekend on the river fishing with her and our three Lab pups. It became a tradition to take two weeks off every fall to fish with family, and those are hands down the best two weeks of the year! After a couple of years of tying with my YouTube channel Cristy and I could no longer ignore requests for my flies and we decided to start Varner's Streamers. When I'm not on the river or at work you can find me at the bench. I enjoy tying almost more than fishing, I hope you enjoy the flies!
-Josh