When I first started fly-fishing in the 1990s, the sport was just on the rise, but nowhere near what it is today. There were still classic fly-fishing figures around, and by classic you know the type. Guys that had fished for decades, smoked a pipe, wore the top hat with flies in it, fished traditional flies and told stories without having to show you the fish they caught on their phone or camera. Over the first ten years I was involved in the sport that changed quickly. And today, if you are “in the industry”, you have an instagram, a Facebook page, a webpage, and basically post fish porn daily to hit a quota, along with hastags of all the brands you rep in exchange for getting free stuff and cheap credibility. There are very few, if any original characters anymore within this sport. And for me, that is why I appreciated Dennis Skarka so much. He was very much a classic figure within our sport, and refused to change while our sport did, even if it meant less money in the world and business of modern fly-fishing.
As most know, Dennis was the owner of Catskill Flies in Roscoe New York. His shop, again to emphasize a theme here, was and is very classic. If you had time to kill you could buy coffee across the street and walk in there just to talk fishing, and Dennis wouldn’t care. And many people did. I always suspected that the conversations between fisherman and the personalities he came across were why Dennis owned and ran the shop in the first place. It was an outlet for him, as he was the quintessential fly fisherman that proclaimed to be anti-social , yet loved the fly shop banter and a good story. Another reason I say that the camaraderie was his motivation in running the shop is because it was clear as a customer that making money was not his priority. You never felt pressured to buy anything in the store, and Dennis would even go as far as to tell me on occasion that I didn’t need something I was about to buy in his own store, which is slightly hilarious. But because a distinct group of eclectic anglers loved what Dennis embodied as an old school Catskill fly-fisherman and shop owner, his following always did buy something to ensure a place like Catskill Flies remained around.
Personally, my first experience meeting Dennis was when I had only been fly fishing a couple years and had just gotten schooled by some fish on the Beaverkill eating caddis emergers in mid May. At the time, caddis meant an elk-hair caddis and that was what I threw without success. After the skunk, I went into Catskill Flies and explained our observations to Dennis about how the fish were rising with “their tails” and Dennis explained that the fish were likely on caddis emergers. He was tying flies at the time, so rather than just walk us over to the fly bin, he actually tied one up in front of us, explaining why each step and aspect of the fly design mattered. We then bought a dozen or so other flies, all caddis emergers, and caught the same fish we couldn’t the day before. As a young angler starting out, those are the types of breakthrough moments you remember. From that point on, I always made it a point to stop in Catskill flies when in town, particularly when the fishing was tough since Dennis always would pull a fly out of nowhere that did the trick. He had a knack for tying flies that were sparsely tied to fool finicky fish, but just visible enough that you could see them.
Because this is a sport where clicks form, those that snubbed Catskill Flies because it wasn’t a “Delaware River Shop”, or staffed with a fish bro guide crew to buddy up with, failed to realize that Dennis Skarka didn’t just tie, but invented some of the best technical trout patterns found anywhere. His DS emerger is the best Hendrickson pattern I’ve ever fished, and many times I won’t fish another Hendrickson pattern the entire two-four weeks the hatch goes on for. His cripple pattern is the second pattern I use if I’m forced to cut the DS emerger off. And when it came to fishing, Dennis always had an off the beaten path idea too. Whether it be some of the wild brookie ponds in the area, or a tributary to hike on a day you were feeling adventurous, Dennis always had an idea that you wouldn’t have thought of if he didn’t tell you. And I learned a lot from him.
Of course, I’d be lying if I told you that I just went in there for flies and directions. Dennis was a personality, and loved to bust balls while telling stories along the way. Again, I think some customers took it the wrong way because a lot of people can’t take a joke and want to be courted as a paying customer, but there were plenty of less sensitive people that appreciated him too as he was pure comedy in-between offering knowledgeable tidbits that you could not find at other shops. Many times, I went into the shop trying to get in and out of there with what I wanted, and ended up staying an hour, exchanging stories and dying laughing.
Thinking on it now, the thing that stands out in my mind is it is very hard to replace a guy like Dennis now that he is gone. And the reality is we won’t because the sport isn’t going in that direction, it’s going away from it. And while I know Dennis was not the type of guy that liked publicity in any sense of the word (hence the vague “DS emerger”), I do think that he would smile knowing he will be thought of always in my mind and others that knew him as a Catskill legend. I’ll miss the flies, the talks, and his company. Rest in peace my friend.