Selene Dumaine was born in 1970 and lived in several states throughout her childhood, including California and Maine. In 1992, during her last year of college, she watched the movie A River Runs Through It and was inspired, like thousands, to fly fish. It was in a small fly shop the following year that Dumaine noticed a photograph of the famous Maine fly tier Carrie Stevens alongside a Stevens Gray Ghost streamer fly. She was intrigued and decided to pursue fly tying.

In 1994, Dumaine received her first fly-tying kit as a Christmas gift, the Universal Vise Kit: The Professor. She spent time learning how to tie flies and eventually began to specialize in the tying of streamers; one of her mentors was Warren Duncan. Over the next several years, Dumaine guided in Maine during the summer months, taught music, and started a tying business. At the peak of this first business venture, she tied four dozen flies each day, producing more than 10,000 per year. In 1998, she won first place in the Northeast Fly Tying Competition in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

Dumaine was in and out of the fly-tying business from 2007 until recently. She attempted a second fly-tying business in 2008 but found that the country’s economy was too fragile to support a small business. Feeling renewed in 2011 and ready to continue her passion for fly tying, Dumaine is starting a new fly shop in Brunswick, Maine, with the intention of opening sometime this year.

Some of Selene Dumaine’s original fly patterns include the Sure Bet, the Orono Ghost, the Jordan 80, and the Hexamongous, but her reputation as someone who can successfully recreate a Stevens streamer fly continues to be one of her greatest compliments.

Note: this text was written in 2011.