Popular show enters new phase with addition of Sells
PULLMAN — Carolyn Sells sits confidently next to Leroy Hyatt, sharing a laugh with the veteran fly tier. When the cameras roll, Sells welcomes the viewers and introduces the menu of flies the pair will tie.
Hyatt begins wrapping thread around a hook as he ties a copper John. Sells watches and provides commentary.
“This is going to be a flashy little guy,” she says, noting the nymph would make a good dropper, one of her favorite fly-fishing techniques.
In the control room, Warren Wright smiles. The producer of “Fly Tying: The Angler’s Art” is visibly pleased with Sells’ performance.
“They are really great together,” he says. “They have a little banter going back and forth.”
That banter is gold. He said it gives the show personality.
Wright, Hyatt and the fly-fishing community lost a giant personality last summer when the show’s former co-host, Dave Engerbretson, died from complications of diabetes.
Hyatt, a well-known fly tier from Lewiston, and Engerbretson were co-hosts of the show for four seasons and appeared in 52 episodes.
After mourning the loss of the master tier, caster and fly-fishing writer and educator, Wright began looking for a new tier to sit next to Hyatt on the popular public television show produced at KWSU in Pullman.
“We came to the conclusion it would be nice to have a woman tier on the series, along with Leroy,” he said. “The growth in the industry is probably coming from the women that are getting involved in fly fishing. We want to show them all aspects of the sport are open to them and that there are a lot of good women tiers out there.”
They found and recruited the 53-year-old Sells, who works for a pharmaceutical contractor in Spokane and is a member of the Spokane Fly Fishers. She has been a fly fisher for 35 years and tier for 25. She calls herself a recreational tier.
“I’m not nearly has good as he is,” she said of Hyatt.
Hyatt said she is a good tier and at ease when the cameras are rolling.
“She fishes a lot,” he said.
Sells said her favorite waters are the rivers of Montana and north Idaho.
“I love Montana — who doesn’t?” she said. “I love fishing the Missouri and the Clark Fork and the Big Hole and the Blackfoot and Kootenai. I love Kelly Creek in Idaho, the Clearwater in Idaho. I’m getting into steelhead fishing and trying to figure that one out.”
During a break in the show, Hyatt and Sells continue the banter.
The pair taped 13 shows in a three-day period. Wright and his crew spent the next month editing. The series begins this fall on public television stations across the country and DVDs of the series can be purchased.