Many will attest that Winnie Dette was one of the most humble pioneers of the fly-fishing community. Her Catskill dry flies are considered some of the best to come out of that New York twentieth-century tradition.

Winifred Ferdon was born just outside of the town of Roscoe, New York. Her grandfather built the historic Riverview Inn along the Beaverkill River, and her parents owned the inn at the time of her birth. The Riverview Inn was a popular place for Catskill anglers to stay during the fishing season. She met a local boy, Walter Dette, in 1927, and they began to date. It was at this time that she tied her first fly and decided to pursue this new passion.

Walter Dette asked famed Catskill tier Reuben “Rube” Cross to teach him how to tie, but when he was turned down, Dette purchased a number of Cross’s flies. The Dettes, along with friend Harry Darbee, carefully dismantled the Cross flies while taking detailed notes so they could re-create the tying techniques. This method of instruction worked for all three, and Winnie excelled.

During the 1928 fishing season, Dette tied enough flies to display them in a cigar case and sell them in her parents’ hotel. It was also the year that she landed her first trout on one of her own flies and married Walter. The next year the Dettes moved back into the Riverview Inn and printed their first fly catalog. They sold 200 dozen flies in 1929 and just one year later had sold 500 dozen.

As the effects of the Depression and then World War II were felt in small towns that served fishing tourists, more and more of the flies were produced by Dette herself. Her husband worked in New York City during the week, and Dette worked full time at a local bank, raised their two children, maintained the household, and tied flies at night to keep up with orders and keep the business intact.

In 1955, Dette’s daughter, Mary Dette Clark, expressed an interest in learning the art of fly tying. For many years the W. C. Dette Dry Flies enterprise consisted of Winnie, Walt, and Mary. After the death of her parents, Clark continued the family tradition of Catskill dry flies and moved the fly shop two houses down the road to her own home. Clark’s grandson, Joe Fox, is the next Dette family member to uphold this important tradition.

Winnie Dette could have boasted about her clientele, which included writer Preston Jennings and artist Jack Atherton, but she did not; she could have boasted that she kept the family business alive during tough economic times, but she did not. She will be remembered both for her fly tying and her humility. In recognition of her contributions to the fly-fishing heritage, Dette has been inducted into the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum’s Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.

This photo was taken just a few years after Dette began her fly-tying career.