Hello everyone, let me introduce myself, I am Jan de Haas and I come from the Netherlands, married and have 2 children, a boy and a girl and 3 great-grandchildren.
About 30 years ago, I was introduced to fly fishing while on holiday in Denmark.
Back home, I immediately bought a set and started fishing in the polders of the Netherlands and on small streams in Belgium and Germany.
I also started tying my own flies for fishing for pike, perch and asp, but at a low level. After a few years of being busy with work and family I started fly tying again to fill the fly boxes and I also started paying more attention to small details and the proportions.
This, along with daily practice, has helped me achieve a high level of consistency in my tying. This is reflected in the flies I tie for brands like Ahrex, Veniard, Swiss CDC, Textreme, and The Fly Company, to name just a few. I've even been a member of their professional teams.
I fish of course in the Netherlands, Belgium and occasionally on small streams in Germany, but I can also be found regularly on the Danish coast to fish for sea trout. Last year I was invited to fish for trout and Arctic char in Iceland for the first time and that stole my heart, what an experience that was “great”.
Tying at fly fairs is also always a pleasure to exchange experiences with fly tiers from other countries is fantastic, to name a few fly fairs that I have been invited to in recent years are the Irish fly fair, BFFI in England, Danish fly fair, Nordic fly fair in Norway, the EOS show in Verona Italy, Belgium Fly happening and the Dutch fly fair and now for the second time the EWF in Germany.
I feel very honoured to be invited to one of the largest and most beautiful fly fairs on the European mainland and to the 21st EWF. I am certainly looking forward to making old but also new friends and hope to see you at my tying table and have a chat.
Goodbye and maybe see you on April. Kind regards, Jan de Haas.