Life of fly fishing ends for Gerlach

Rex Gerlach, a Spokane native and nationally known fly fisher, writer and angling industry insider, died Oct. 3 in Anaheim, Calif. He was 78.

Gerlach started fly-fishing at age 9 and by age 16 had become a world-class fly-caster. While in high school, Gerlach started what evolved into a successful fly-tying business staffed by five professional tiers and serving more than 100 wholesale accounts, according to the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

After earning a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota, he engaged in a lifetime of outdoor writing and photography simultaneous with corporate stints in broadcasting and fishing-tackle marketing for Diawa Corp. between 1954 and 1985.

Gerlach was a charter member of the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club, founded in 1956. He was the first editor of the club’s popular book, “Flies of the Northwest.”

“He beat me by two seconds in a club contest to tie a good Royal Coachman pattern on a size 28 hook,” said Bob Bates club member from Spokane. “That was the early ’60s,” Bates said, noting that people thought they were nuts to be talking about fishing with flies so small they could barely seen – much less tied – without a magnifying glass.

“Rex sold his first magazine story to Field & Stream in the early ’60s,” said Fenton Roskelley, retired Spokane newspaper outdoor writer and a Gerlach fishing companion. “The story was about steelheading on the Grand Ronde River. It launched his writing career.”

Gerlach moved to Southern California in 1973 and expanded his angling interest to include big-game fishing.