The E. Hille Story

Nice article!!

I remember getting Hille catalogs back in the day and seeing "Grit" mentioned brought back fond memories of reading comic books as a kid.

Attached below is the May 1950 PA Angler Magazine article about Ernie Hille titled, "America - Land of Opportunity" referenced in Kevin McJunkin's article.:
 

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Thanks for the kind words and the welcome, although I have been following the site and made a few posts over the last few years.

I would love to hear about your E. Hille experiences!

- Kevin
 
Fascinating. I had no idea VA Hospitals provided fly tying kits as therapy during WW2.
 
That was a fantastic read - thanks for sharing. I have an E.Hille rod - my first rod i ever owned.
 
Nice prose. Very good story. I had always wondered what happened to the store. It seemed to me that the store was there one day, then gone the next day.
 
Great story, thanks for sharing. I was very young in the 70's, and had just started fly fishing and fly tying (about 10 yo). Growing up in Muncy, it was only about 10-12 mile trip to Hille's, where I could pick items up, when my parents made the trek and I could stop in. Still have some Hille's supplies in my stash, especially "honey bug" material.
 
An old-timer friend pointed out that the Harrisburg Fly Fisher's Traveling Rod was actually made and donated by Bill O'Connor rather than Ernie Hille. The tradition started in 1984, well past Ernie's passing in 1977. Charlie Fox was the first recipient. Please let me know if there are any other errors in the story.
 
The only place to get real honey bug chenille. Honey bugs have been good for me.
 
Kevin_McJunkin said:
For your reading pleasure, here is a story that I wrote for Mountain Home magazine, with assistance from Bob Baker, about the history of E. Hille, The Angler's Supply House.

open.substack.com

Hooked on a Dream

Ernie Hille, Williamsport's tackle shop legend.
open.substack.com open.substack.com
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Great Article! Loved it! I also have the same Handy Pak net hanging in my office. I Live in Shamokin and people are shocked when they learn that they were made here in Shamokin. I was born in 1957 when this net was made. I am now 68 and it has a place of honor in my office.
 
As a former history teacher and a fly fisherman this was a wonderful read. Thanks, for sharing it!
 
Thanks for this!
Very well researched and written! Good stuff!

I do miss stopping in. Got a lot of leader materials from there. The fully stretched mono for good stiff leader butts and upper sections was always great.
Actually, have a Lamiflex 6 weight (L66FOE) glass blank rod from Hille's.
It's a one-piece rod.
Don't know what to do with it. I'm not going to build.
Pretty sure it belonged to Paul Antolosky.
IDK Would it make a good donation to TU?
Any suggestions message me. Thanks.
 
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When I was at Penn State at State College in the mid-to-late 1960’s, I drove to Hille’s several times to buy fly tying supplies. The layout of their place was what I remember most about it. As I recall, it was more like walking into a post office than what today’s fly shops are like.

I don’t remember much, if anything, being on open display. If you wanted to see their dyed blue dun necks, for example, you had to locate the individual drawer that they were kept in much as you’d have to find your own mail box at the post office. I believe a lot of their inventory was kept in a back room somewhere, and someone would go back there to get what I wanted to buy and bring it out to you.

I bought quite a lot of my fly tying supplies from Hille’s in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, and still had a lot of it until I finally got rid of most or all it by selling, or giving away, the last of what I had on the Swap forum here during the past year or two.
 
gentleshepherd said:
Great Article! Loved it! I also have the same Handy Pak net hanging in my office. I Live in Shamokin and people are shocked when they learn that they were made here in Shamokin. I was born in 1957 when this net was made. I am now 68 and it has a place of honor in my office.
Click to expand...

Before they were discontinued in favor of the teak handled version, I was lucky enough to get one of the "old-look" vintage nets from the new owners of Handy Pak in Ashland. This net is a dead ringer for the originals featuring a varnished wood handle with a yellow keystone Handy Pak logo decal and a leather sheath.

It's not as old or as cool as your original, but it has a place of honor in a spare bedroom. I also have one of the teak nets that I use when fishing.
 
Coincidentally, yesterday while perusing a spreadsheet I use to log website passwords, I came across my password for E. Hille that obviously hadn't been used in quite awhile.

Sadly, I deleted it...
 
Bamboozle said:
Before they were discontinued in favor of the teak handled version, I was lucky enough to get one of the "old-look" vintage nets from the new owners of Handy Pak in Ashland. This net is a dead ringer for the originals featuring a varnished wood handle with a yellow keystone Handy Pak logo decal and a leather sheath.

It's not as old or as cool as your original, but it has a place of honor in a spare bedroom. I also have one of the teak nets that I use when fishing.
Click to expand...
Sweet, mine is hanging out of the mouth of a large Brown Trout that I caught about 15 years ago in the Wiconisco!
 

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