Umpqua has built an empire in our industry, and it started with an A Frame Cabin on the banks of the North Umpqua River. Based on all accounts, it should not have happened. It was such an improbable story you could have never come up with most of it. Doing things that no one had ever done before, and yet, it happened.

In the process, Umpqua changed the way the fly fishing industry was able to scale and grow through the production and delivery of fly tackle and the highest quality flies, designed by Royalty Tyers. Umpqua is built on a legacy of innovation and has encouraged innovation at pivotal moments.

This is the Umpqua Story told by some of the people who were witness to the events.

Let The Good Times Roll - The 10's

75% of the innovation in fly fishing in the last 25 years has come from Umpqua. Few companies do their own things first, Simms with Gore-Tex is a great example. But Umpqua does something like that almost every year.” – Charlie Craven

Alongside the continuation of introducing great product, Umpqua was committed to the customer with increased service, programs and rep changes all fueled by healthy financials. As the business grew rapidly, it was also a time when there was increased pressure on fly delivery.

“I’ve probably been to more fly factories than anyone living, now that Dennis is gone” says Daniel Eisenmenger. He also spent two years abroad at the Umpqua-owned Thai-A-Fly factory. Having seen so many factories and understanding the operational and service goals that Umpqua had set, the next step was to take lessons learned and enhance efficiencies at all levels for better delivery in our factories.

 “Developing innovative new flies and products is a passion at Umpqua. It’s quite simple really…our company is filled with “Fishy People” and we are surrounded by the “Fishy’st and most talented fly designers in the world” in our Signature Tyer program, innovation is part of our DNA.”- Jeff Fryhover

The original Umpqua line of packs

The success of the UPG boxes opened the doors to other product category extensions. By studying the competition and a wealth of in-house angler input, the Umpqua team went to work on packs. “We were debating on whether we should jump into that category or not. What we realized is that we had strong opinions. We had great intuition on design and what would make a really great fishing bag,” Brent Bauer reflects on the first line of Umpqua Packs, which were an instant success.

Not to sit on laurels, Umpqua began to work with members of the special operations community on the Zero Sweep line of packs.

“This gentleman approaches me in our tradeshow booth and grabs our Overlook 500 and inquires “Who on your design team has a military background?”; little did I know at the time, but I was speaking with a 26-year veteran of the Special Operations Community,” stated Riley Cotter. This marked the beginning of an amazing relationship that would lead to a cutting-edge line of packs that were introduced just three years after the initial pack collection. Working with members of the special operations community brought very specific points of view which helped to shape the core functionality of the offering. As a tribute to their service, a portion of all proceeds from these packs were donated to a military nonprofit.

The middle of the twenty teens were darkened by the passing of long time Umpqua giants Bruce Olson and Dennis Black.

Former long-time Fly guru Bruce Olsen (left) and Umpqua founder Dennis Black (right)

“Bruce Olson calls me out of the blue and asks, ‘What are you doing to market your flies?’. Well, I’m not doing anything. He then replies, ‘That’s interesting because your Rainbow Warrior grew legs and is selling like crazy’,” Lance Egan talks with Bruce Olson with the growing trend towards attractor style nymphs born out of competition. “The fall of 2003 was the first time I did anything with Team USA. We started to learn more about hot spots and attractive elements and that influenced my fly design and submissions to Umpqua in the coming years.”

The introduction of the jig hook was the culmination of having members of Team USA as Signature Tyers and staff in house. Just as Umpqua brought Tiemco to the masses in ‘85, they did the same thing in 2012 with jig and competition hooks and soon thereafter in 2020 developed the problem-solving X Series hooks.

X-Series hooks

The Umpqua legacy of innovation continues on in the same spirit.

From the unlikely origin story to the boom and the golden age of the sport, with a long list of names -- each of which, could justify their own chapter -- to the complete reengineering of a company that was able to rise up and take the modest dream of an angler to places that were and are unimaginable. It is a story that is worth sharing because epics like this don’t come around often. The modern history of fly fishing is told through the flies and most of those flies are in the pages of the past 50 Umpqua catalogs.

The story only offers just a small glimpse into the Umpqua tale. Which is still being written as Umpqua continues to innovate in the same spirit. As Charlie Craven would say, “One of the cool things about fishing with John Barr was that it was like getting a sneak peek preview of the new Coke that was coming out to the world.”

That quote leaves me thinking about the next bends in the river and what Umpqua has in store for next 50 years of fly fishing.

Thank you to everyone who shared their stories and their patterns to make this, Umpqua’s 50th anniversary all possible. We are grateful for your friendships and commitment to innovation alongside all of us.