How you got into this?

[LedHed]

Never fished freshwater until I moved stateside from the Azores, was into spearfishing and diving. Started freshwater fishing and wrapping rods in the early 80s and when my favorite UL jig (Turner’s micros) went from .75 to $1 – decided I could do that and started making my own.
Back in those days there wasn’t the internet so a lot of the stuff I do is self taught. Did a lot of reading about flyfishing and practiced more tying. Couldn’t find the lead heads that I wanted so had to make them also. Now I have a mold collection that is over 700 molds…. Make a lot of saltwater jigs and pour swimbaits as well. There wasn’t much info on painting jigs either – didn’t find powder paint until early 2000.
About five years ago started flyfishing and really enjoy it – still won’t replace ultra lite fishing with jigs. Went to La Arenas, Baja Sur last October and caught 10 different species of saltwater fish on the fly (check out tailhunter-international.com). The year before that was in the Sierras catching Browns, Rainbows, and Sacramento Perch. Also river fish in Costa Rica (check out PezRey.com) – a real close friend has a ranch in Quepos. For now – have a pontoon on Lake Perris for the big Bluegill. Really enjoy fishing all these places, especially up and down Baja, and catching fish on gear and lures that I have custom made.