After 20 years in retirement, Livingston fly tyer Anna Patterson was back at the tying bench in June to create a Royal Trude. She found her eyesight at 83 wasn’t quite as good as it was at 63, but easily remembered the techniques to assemble the complicated fly. The reason she returned to the bench was to tie the pattern for a book that’s being researched on other women just like her, those who used to assemble flies for small shops across the country. More amazing, though, is Anna’s personal story of immigration to the United States following a youth spent in World War II Germany.

To learn more about this incredible woman, check out my story at MontanaUntamed.com. http://montanauntamed.com/fishing/article_6a283490-40b7-5804-826f-e4110262d8db.html

(Written by Brett French – Outdoors Editor for the Billings Gazette/Montana Untamed)