JEAN-PAUL LIPTON: I met him incidentally, stumbling upon his website while searching for unique carp fishing methods. He openly portrayed irreverence, branded in “High Gravity”, but you were occasionally handed glimpses of his happy family. He was doing his carping with two-handers, a first as far as I could tell. Sprinkled amidst the party: tons of flies, seemingly simple patterns, dubbed with homebrew concoctions that would have looked just as good on a ‘70s era disco set. I bought a handful, and immediately caught fish on them. Not long after JPL showed up on my doorstep – the retailers’ show was in town. All he wanted to do was fish. He schooled me on my home water, so every time his head turned I raided his prototype boxes. My decision was a smart one.

—Michael Gracie - Flyfishing Something (although we're not quite sure what)