CLOSE-UP : Lord of the Flies

When his father died, 10-year-old Bill Blackstone sought solace by going fishing on the Santa Clara River. It was there that he met Charlie Funk, who, with a quick lesson in tying flies, hatched the career of one of the world’s best fly-tyers. For the next decade, the boy “pestered this man, this new father figure” about the finer points of winding feathers, furs and hackle around hooks.

Now 61 and living in Orange, Blacksone’s flies sell for as much as $300. The retired mechanical contractor makes more than 275 stunningly realistic fake bugs a year and donates most of them to the Federation of Fly Fishers. The group auctions them and donates the money to various river conservation groups.

These days, his flies aren’t just effective, they’re ecological. He recycles manila folders, produce bags, wool yarn, vinyl and other materials to fashion lifelike dragonflies, crane flies, katydids, grasshoppers and his signature fly, the $300 black stonefly. “I started using synthetics in disgust at how expensive materials were,” Blackstone says. “It stopped my heart. I decided I could, gosh, almost use the trash on the floor. I’m building beetles using artificial fingernails,” he adds.

“He’s the best in the world,” says Pete Parker, a director of the annual International Sportsmen’s Exhibition. Blackstone’s greatest compliment, says Parker, comes “when people reach for a fly swatter.”