Peter Simonson
Peter Simonson has been fly tying for 25 years, He enjoys tying historic streamers from the Rangeley region of Maine. Of special interest are the unnamed and other lesser-known fly patterns of Carrie G. Stevens, the well-known Maine streamer tyer of the early 20 th century.
Peter began fly tying in about 1998, initially just creating flies needed for fishing. He became fascinated by the beauty of Carrie Stevens style streamers in about 2006, no doubt influenced by the publication of Carrie G. Stevens Maker of
Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies by Graydon and Leslie Hilyard, and Forgotten Flies by Paul Schmookler and Ingrid Sils. Peter developed his streamer tying skill studying under Mike Martinek, among others, and credits several old- school social media sites with providing him a rich interactive learning environment for tying streamers and classic Atlantic Salmon flies. By 2013, Peter began his quest to identify the unnamed and unusual streamer patterns of Carrie Stevens. Peter’s website www.petersimonsonflydresser.com contains a pattern library of about 180 unnamed, unknown, and unusual streamer patterns of Carrie G. Stevens, each accompanied by his rendition of the pattern.
Peter has tied at the International Fly Tying Symposium and The Fly Fishing Show for over ten years, at the 2023 Sowbug Roundup, and the 2024 Northwest Fly Tyer and Fly Fishing Expo, as well as at smaller shows and at museum events. In addition to his web site, his work appears in Fly Tyer magazine (Autumn 2022), in WeAreFlyFishing online magazine (Christmas 2022), and in several books and other websites.
Peter is a retired signal processing systems engineer, and when he’s not tying, he enjoys fly-fishing, kayaking, and hiking. A favourite is fishing for brook trout and big land-locked salmon from pocket water and deep pools in the upper Connecticut River of New Hampshire and from the Rangeley region of Maine. Peter has two grown sons, and lives with his wife Lynne in New Hampshire, where they have been pouring money into a small farmhouse for nearly 40 years.