Dave Brandt

Dave Brandt (1944-2020) was born in Oneonta, NY. He was a tool and die designer at Amphenol Corp Bendix Connector Division in nearby Sidney until its closing in 1983. His designs resulted in many patents for the Company.

Dave had a life-long love of fly fishing, tying, and conservation that was greatly influenced by Harry and Elsie Darbee. Dave never did anything halfway and would delve deep into the history of anything that caught his attention be it fly fishing, tying and its materials, conservation, or billiards.

His casting so impressed Joan and Lee Wulff that in 1987 he was invited to be an instructor at their world-famous Fly-Fishing School, where he remained a fixture until his passing more than 30 years later.

Dave’s accomplishments and awards were many: He invented the “Tied and True” hackle gauge, created several new flies such as his BG Dunn, taught classes, made tying DVDs, drew technical illustrations for friends books and wrote a dozen articles under the pseudonym "Brooks Gordon”. In 2004 he became only the 3rd American to be honored with the prestigious Canadian IWL ‘Jack Sutton’ award. Trout Unlimited Chapter 210 officially became the ‘Dave Brandt’ Chapter in 2007, and in 2017 Dave was inducted into CFFCM’s ‘Catskill Legends’.

For more than 30 years Dave, an acknowledged master of Catskill style flies, presented his expertise at most of the major fly-fishing shows, in the States, Canada, and Europe. Onlookers were fascinated with the magic he performed tying wood duck wings on his flawless dries. And in 2018 Dave had a major roll in the movie “Land of Little Rivers,” a fitting finale to a life well spent.