RIO X JONNY KING
RIO X JONNY KING
New York City native Jonny King is obsessed with fly fishing and fly tying, and has been since he was 11 years old. As a kid, he never even saw someone cast a fly rod, but after graduating from nightcrawlers and bobbers, Jonny learned how to cast and tie flies by studying magazine articles and books by Poul Jorgensen, Swisher and Richards, Gary LaFontaine, and others. He started as a trout fisherman in small streams in the North East, but then discovered stripers in the late 1980s, and has chased most fresh and saltwater species throughout the US, Canada, South America, Mexico, the tropics and elsewhere. Even after targeting all those exotic species, the trout of the Upper Delaware and stripers in the North East remain closest to his heart. As a tyer, Jonny is a hatch-matcher, whether for Blue Winged Olives on the Delaware or Missouri, or bunker and sand eels in New York Harbor. Jonny has written many tying and fishing articles through the years for publications like Fly Fisherman and Fly Fishing In Saltwaters. He also contributed a chapter in Bob Popovics’ groundbreaking Fleye Design, a true bible for saltwater tyers. His flies have been featured in many books and magazine articles by Henry Cowen, Rick Takahashi, Dave Klausmeyer, Drew Chicone and others. Jonny regularly does tying demos at annual fishing shows and fly shops. When not standing in a river or on a beach, Jonny is an intellectual property lawyer and a professional jazz pianist and composer, who has recorded many albums and toured all over the world.