I started fishing in 1970, at the age of four. I remember my mother taking me to the stream and watching over me from the small bridge that connected our country house to the main road, while I tried to catch the unfortunate bleak of the Botena. This period of exploration and learning about the stream environment continued throughout my high school years, during which I began practicing spinning with light spinners, especially the Martin “Vespa” in 3 and 4 grams.

I started fly fishing after attending a course in the winter between 1984 and 1985 at the historic C.I.P.M. club in Florence. In 1996 I began to take an interest in collecting fly-fishing tackle and then, inevitably, in building bamboo rods.

In 2003 I created www.classiccane.com, a website dedicated to fly fishing and collecting, with special attention given to fly fishing with wooden rods.

Since 1985 I have been tying the flies I fish with: mainly dry flies, but also small soft-hackles to be fished “in sight” in the surface film. My tying style is inspired by simplicity, effectiveness, and durability: I am very annoyed by those flies that must be replaced after a single catch, perhaps just when the fish are rising…

I have fished in many places (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, France, Egypt, Cuba, the United States, Patagonia, Sweden, etc.), but in recent years I have fished almost exclusively the Nera in Umbria, the Unec in Slovenia, the Gacka in Croatia, Swedish rivers and lakes, and of course the streams of the Tuscan Apennines.

I love dry-fly fishing, where the visual component is essential: the fish’s rise and the subsequent take are the culmination of a process that begins at home, at the vise.

Simone Falchini

Impruneta, Monday, March 16, 2026.