1986-2026 Happy Anniversary FFP!

I want to take today and wish you a happy new year! Maybe 2025 was a breeze, and maybe it came with some struggles, in either case, welcome to 2026. We made it together, mostly through a love of fly fishing. Fly fishing is what connects my world to about 80% of the people I know, who I care for and who are my friends.

1986 was the year my mentor Harry Teel, (I often tell people he was more than than a mentor, he was like a 3rd grandpa to me) with his amazing wife Dee, their son Brad, and his nephew Greg Snider (the Orvis rep back then) founded The Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters after Harry retired from CH2M Hill in Corvallis.

The building the shop is in was one of 2 that the Teel’s bought when Dee moved over to Sisters before Harry retired, and she began a Sears Catalog Store here.

Harry retired and moved over to Sisters full time and quickly became bored!

With a dream and a good idea, they sold the Sears store to Byron Blake and moved him in the building next door and opened FFP in the better of the 2 buildings with the intention of selling quality gear and providing great service. Harry and Dee were very good at both.

I met the Teel’s as a high school student, and fly shop worker from Bend.

I made it a point to go to FFP nearly every time I was headed to the Metolius. A hello, a hand shake, a small purchase of dubbing or a pack of fly tying hooks was a small way to show support, and to connect with people who have changed my life forever.

Already, by this time 2 of my great fishing buddies were Dean Smith and Chester Allen (along with my best friend Matt Klee) and it was the good words of Chester and D-n0 that made the difference between me working for UPS or steering my ship towards Sisters. I know they both advocated for the nerdy kid.

One warm autumn afternoon at the Fly Box I was at work and the phone rang for me. On the line was Harry, with a special invention to join him and Dee at the Trout Unlimited Banquet in Sunriver.

I’ll be there I said!

2 months later I was the full time manager, and a year later they set me up to own The Fly Fisher’s Place.

It wasn’t easy. In fact I did very poorly the first year.

They helped me back.

I remember going to meet the shop CPA for the first time and seeing Mr Campbell lean back in his big chair, and look down his nose at me with his arms crossed and saying “Jeffery, you don’t know shit, but that’s okay because you have time to learn”. I’m still convinced that I don’t know shit, but hey, I’m a slow learner.

It’s been a journey. Mostly a damn good one.

Some really important people have come to my life from FFP.

Of course the 2 guys that I have already mentioned, plus my friend Clell Gibson who helped Harry on guide trips in the 80’s and has always been my friend since we ate lunch together nearly every day at the Fly Box. My friends Ron Kaye (salesman of the year) and Phil Keller who I might say are the 2 people who I would call my most loyal friends I’ve ever had. Colonel Bill Merrill who helped my purchase when a partnership that was supposed to happen suddenly couldn’t go forward.

So many customers who have sat in my boat and absorbed the bad jokes and the decent fishing.

And the good people who have worked at the shop! Literally I can only think of 2 or 3 that I have regrets.
Exceptional People like Steve Erickson and Troy Leedy who have guiding here for decades.
We have consistently had a loyal and fun staff, all with skills and stories worth knowing. The team prevails now and in the past with some really special people to remember.

For the 40th anniversary I had an idea to take the Jackalope, an iconic western folk image and tweak it to make a one of a kind Troutalope.

Pretty soon a grand tale about Harry catching the only known Troutalope on an Eastern Oregon stream will emerge from the pen of my talented writer friend Chester. He will tell the story few people ever knew, following Harry’s surprise catch on a desolate stream somewhere east of Burns. And Harry was no Hopper-Dropper guy I’ll assure you of that! He was dry or die out there.

Harry introduced me to Argentina in 1992, which is where I am now. I took a walk the other day to look at the historic and famous Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires where we once stayed. It’s under complete renovations now, but the gift he gave me to bring me here as a young, impressionable young man has obviously been important. All the memories are etched into my soul.

This Troutalope logo was sketched out on a napkin by me in July when I was in San Martin de Los Andes. It was important to me to see something magical, really different, and a nod to a long western history.

I’m honored to be a part of a history at my little trout shop in the mountains of Oregon.

Fly fishing and the shop are my life and it is why so many of you are a huge part of why we made it to 40 years.

Having bought the store in 1991 makes me the longest running fly shop owner in the Pacific Northwest now. I’m proud of this accomplishment for a guy who doesn’t know shit. I’m learning. Thanks for being a part of my education.

May 2026 bring you a lot of joy and good fishing.