Remembering Mo Bradley—Kamloops, BC’s legendary dean of fly fishing

The last time I fished with Mo Bradley, a fly-fishing master who inspired generations of anglers in the Kamloops region of B.C., it was late fall and we could feel winter coming. We broke through a crust of ice on the shoreline and rowed our small boats out onto the dark waters of Leighton Lake. Before tying on a fly, Mo leaned over the gunwale and dipped his hands in the cold water, washing them clean of any scent.

Mo had an inquisitive, scientific mind and studied trout behaviour with an almost religious fervour, filling his basement with aquariums so he could examine the life cycles of dragonflies, leeches, mayflies and other creatures trout devour. He encouraged fly tyers to imitate the distinct stages of insect metamorphosis and, in the 1960s and ’70s, helped spark a wave of fly-tying innovation in B.C.

For decades, Mo hosted local radio and TV shows in Kamloops, teaching thousands about the joys of fly fishing and fly tying. On weekends, he sat behind the sporting goods counter at Surplus Herby’s, where he tied flies and gave free advice to anyone who asked. Mo was often top rod on any lake he fished, and it wasn’t unusual for other anglers to follow him around, watching his every move. He said he felt blessed to have escaped the dangerous coal mines of England’s Midlands, where he worked as a teenager before emigrating to Canada in his twenties.

On our last fishing trip, Mo peered into the water, then gave me a chironomid pattern he’d tied the night before. It perfectly matched the hatch he’d anticipated, and we soon landed a dozen big Kamloops trout. Then it started to snow. “She’ll freeze this weekend,” he said sadly. “Another season done.” A few weeks later, Mo called to say he was going blind, but in the darkness, he could still imagine a trout jumping, his line going tight across the water. He kept tying flies until just before he died, in February, at age 87.

Vancouver journalist Mark Hume chronicled Mo Bradley’s angling expertise in his 2019 book, Trout School: Lessons From A Fly-Fishing Master.