Matthew Inman (9/22/2007)

First, let me start by saying that Matt’s Friends page is the first I have done solo.  I think  that it turned out rather well.  What do you think, Matt?

Anyway—let me introduce to you Matthew Inman.   Matt resides in southern Georgia and has been John’s friend and now my friend  for quite some time.  He is an accomplished tyer, a very proud family man and the driving force of the Seminars that are available on the FTF.  There will be much more information about the seminars shortly.

Matt was kind enough to supply us with some personal information.  Read his words below:

I began tying while at the University of Georgia in order to supply the trees and fish of North Georgia with acceptable offerings. After moving back to south Georgia upon graduation my fishing and fly-tying shifted toward the local warmwater quarry and nearby saltwater game. I have recently become bitten by the full-dress salmon fly (October 2006) and has benefited greatly from the guidance of Charles Vestal, Dave Carne, Eric Austin, Paul Tidroski, John Mclain and many others on Flytyingforum.com. Upon the first publication of my first fly on this site, John noted “Matt, like many of the new faces appearing here, are in my opinion the "future of Salmon Fly Tying. I'm pleased guys like the Rist Brothers, Jamie Daley and Matt, here in the US will be part of the community for years to come.”  These weighty words have really pushed me to develop my skills and work to get better so that I can hope to one day deserve to be mentioned in the company of these greats and the other young tiers.

Recently, Dave Carne, Charles Vestal, Davie McPhail and myself have launched a series of informational lessons aimed at the beginning salmon dresser.  The idea for the seminars originally came about during a discussion with Dave Gotzmer as we were trying to help the next group of beginners to learn the base skills for dressing these flies.  I enlisted the help of some of my mentors and the program has grown much more and become a much better product that I could have ever imagined it would become.  The program involves two groups, a fully involved group that receives the instructional literature along with all the materials necessary to tie a pair of each of the six flies and a bookworm group that receives the literature only.  I could write on and on about the knowledge these kind gentlemen have shared with me and all of the collective work to make the program a success.  I will simply say thank you to them as I lack the words to express my gratitude.  Anyone interested in the Classic Salmon Seminars can contact me at redsox12@hotmail.com.

I live in Valdosta, Georgia with my wife Andrea, daughter Bailee, son Drew and dog Payton.
Below are thumbnails of flies tied by Matt. Click on each to see a larger picture: