Millpond Fly Shop – 1972-1989
Remembering Howard McKinney
I got a text from my cousin Wayne today with some tough news — our good friend and fellow Millpond Fly Shop alum Howard McKinney passed away after a long fight with cancer.
Most people in the fly-fishing world know Howard as the co-founder of Fishabout, the travel company he started with Kay Mitsuyoshi back in 1989. As a travel consultant, he built dream trips to Christmas Island, the Great Barrier Reef, Belize, Guatemala, the Amazon, and across Central America — always chasing saltwater species with the same joy and curiosity he brought to every corner of life.
But before Fishabout, before the passports and the tarpon, Howard was the purest kind of fishing bum. He worked at Mel Cotton’s in San Jose until Len Bearden, the owner of the brand-new Millpond Fly Shop in Los Gatos, asked me to recruit some new blood before I left for college. That’s when Howard walked through our door — and started a journey that would help thousands of anglers check lifelong dreams off their bucket lists.
I still remember convincing him to leave Mel Cotton’s and join us at the Millpond, back when it was one of the first truly high-end fly shops anywhere. From 1971 to 1974, we had the time of our lives running that place — just the two of us most days, talking about far-off rivers, experimenting with patterns, and wondering if anyone would ever pay good money for a graphite rod. A profitble fly shop turns inventory over 3 times a year. Howard and I would make wagers on moving the most unpopular equipment and supplies betting on who could sell the most stuff.
Howard was only four years older than me and had his eye on Janee, who ran Bears in the Woods next door. I covered for him more than once while he was over there “checking inventory.” Eventually, he married Janee, and together they built a wonderful life traveling the world. She passed a few years ago, and I like to think they’re together again now — probably somewhere warm, casting at bonefish between the tides or on one of Janee’s favorite Safaris.
Len hired me in 1972, probably because I was already a 14-year-old fly-tying prodigy for Andy Puyans. I bought my materials from Bruce Smith’s father, who ran a garage business called Hackle and Herl — a place that smelled like feathers, lacquer, and ambition. Bruce (Len’s brother-in-law) and I were the only two on payroll until 1973. Before the shop even opened, Len handed me a hammer and said, “If you can tie flies, you can swing nails.” That was my introduction to retail carpentry — part-time builder, part-time clerk, full-time sucker for long hours.
It was the best child-labor gig imaginable: five bucks an hour, discounted gear, and the ability to highgrade all the premium tying materials I could find. Len even let me sell my custom flies on commission and keep the profits. Looking back now, as a business owner myself, I realize he was quietly helping me save for college. Len and Sandra Bearden treated me like family — and I still feel that connection today.
When the Millpond opened in Los Gatos, I ended up opening and closing the store 80 percent of the time — which, as I learned, was 100 percent too much responsibility for a teenager. Then Bruce had an affair with the hairdresser next door and asked me to cover for him. I didn’t. Len found out Bruce was cheating on his sister, and suddenly I was stuck in a Shakespearean fly-shop tragedy, trying to keep everyone from killing each other.
Bruce got fired. I survived.
By 1975, I was getting ready for college, and Len told me to hire replacements — so I brought in my cousin Wayne and Howard McKinney from Mel Cotton’s. Soon after came Kay and Dave Inks, and Bill Butts, courtesy of Dave Whitlock. Later, as the shop moved, names like Bob von Raesfeld and Glen Chen joined the story.
In 1974, I was technically Howard’s boss — a hilarious idea in hindsight. Len suspected Howard of skimming, so he made me shadow him, which only led to Howard corrupting me. Before long, we were sneaking behind the shop to smoke a little weed and talk about fish while he plotted how to charm Janee next door.
Amid all that chaos, I somehow managed to teach fly-tying and fly casting classes, lead Bay Area anglers to the Henry’s Fork for selective trout, and publish my first articles in Angler Magazine. As a kid in the premier West Coast Fly shop in America, I rubbed elbows with some of the greatest flyfishermen of all time – Lefty Kreh, Dave Whitlock, Doug Swisher, Carl Richards, Ernest Schwiebert to name a few. Plus Howard and I had front row seats watching the evolution of the West Coast Fly Fishing elite. Our lives were changed.
Howard’s life — and mine — took different paths after those Millpond days. My cousin Wayne worked with him as a travel consultant for Fishabout, and I’d book an occasional trip through them just to stay connected. Every time I saw Howard after that, though, he still wore that same mischievous grin — the one that said, “We pulled off something special back then, didn’t we?”
We did, Howard. We really did. Tight lines, my friend.
There aren’t many of us left from that original crew — but man, what a crew it was.
Here’s tae us! There’s gey few like us–and they’re a’ damned or deid!
Hogmanay toast, trad. attr. Gordon Highlanders
