Bas Verschoor

Philatelic Phlies

It's a great honor to have Bas a s a writer here. For as it will be obvious from his biography below, he is a very respected and active fly tyer on the international scene.
Bas ties flies professionally, although he most certainly cannot make a living from it. He will as he says 'not meet a deadline', and has a few selected costumers scattered over Europe and the rest of the world.
A noticeable trait with many of his flies including those online here, is the use of Czech Jan Siman's dubbing brushes - a fascinating material that makes production flies much faster to tie, but still very good looking.

Biography

Bas has been the Global Director for Europe of the Federation of Fly Fishers - U.S.A., since 1989, and President of the European Federation of Fly Fishers since October 1992. Together with Darwin Atkin from Porterville, California, he founded the Dutch American Association of Fly Tyers, in 1988, and started editing a newsletter for this group of fly tyers. He has served on the Board of the Dutch Federation of Fly Fishers and as a member of the editorial staff of the magazine "The Dutch Fly Fisher". FlyFair-Holland, one of the major fly fishing shows on the European Continent, has made use of his services as Fly Tying Chairman, for nearly a decade.

Bas at the vise

He appeared in Judith Dunham's book "The Art of the Trout Fly" in 1988 and inspired David Nelson to start a series of books entitled: "Patterns of the Masters". Bas also delivered his keynote speech "One world of Fly Fishing", at the 25th Anniversary FFF Conclave in Eugene, Oregon, in August 1990. He made his first appearance as European fly tyer at the Federation's National Conclave in Penn State, Pennsylvania, in 1986. Since then, he has given fly tying demonstrations all over the United States and Europe.
Bas is the recipient of the FFF Ambassador Award (1989), Award of Fly Fishing Excellence (1989), The President's Pin (1990), FFF Man of the Year Award (1992) and the "Charles Jardine Cup" (1992/'93).
He started fishing at the age of 6 together with his father and took up his first fly fishing rod in his late twenties. Known by the nickname "The Flying Dutchman", he has fished all over the world: from unnamed streams in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, via the Catskill waters and the Henry's Fork, to fabled Alaskan rivers such as the Kulik and the Alagnak.
Having completed his schooling in The Netherlands, he spent several years in Paris, France, working for the NATO Headquarters. He successfully finished his studies at the "Universite de la Sorbonne" in Paris, and holds a bachelor's degree in the French language, literature and art history. Bas made his career in international mining and marketing, a job which took him travelling to all four corners of the globe.
In 1988, he decided to take an early retirement from his job and change his life to an "all play and no work" situation. His hobbies include music, both classical and jazz, photography, culinary pleasures, maintaining international contacts with fly fishers and fly tyers from all over the world, framing flies as "art objects", organizing and participating in national and international fly fishing shows and fly tying events, such as FlyFair-Holland, the Fly Rod & Reel Show, the International Fly Fisher's Symposium, the International Sportsmens Exposition, the "Hebeisen Fliegenfischerschule" and the annual International Conclave of the Federation of Fly Fishers.