Former rock star living in eastern Idaho is reeling in anglers across America
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IDAHO FALLS
How a former rock musician from New Jersey became a fly fishing guru in eastern Idaho
IDAHO FALLS – A 3,800-square-foot building at 12492 North 5th East off Lewisville Highway has been an iconic landmark for drivers since the 1940s.
For decades, it was Hud’s Market. Jim Slattery, a former rock musician, bought the space in 2016 and opened what is now Jim’s Fly Co. House of Hackle and Emporium in 2023. It’s a fly fishing shop that offers hackle supplied by Whiting Farms, one of the pre-eminent hackle growers in the world.
“We are the largest dealer of Whiting hackle in the world,” Slattery tells EastIdahoNews.com.
The 66-year-old shop owner says anglers from all over the country visit the store to peruse the hackle selection.
His other inventory includes flies, rods, reels, clothes and other gear. One of the dry flies sold in the store is Slattery’s creation. It’s called The Stimulator, which he says is a more realistic-looking, “anatomically correct” fly. It’s named after a rock band his friend was involved in years ago. Slattery made the fly for us, which you can watch in the video above.
Slattery is a lifelong fly fisherman, and the shop is a natural extension of that interest. For the last 19 years, he and his wife, Wendie, have operated Campfire Lodge Resort along the Madison River in West Yellowstone, Montana.
“This place (what is now House of Hackle) was brought to my attention by my real estate guy. I was looking for something for a friend. My friend couldn’t use it for what he wanted to do, so I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s get the place, and we’ll use it as our warehouse.’ That’s really how it started,” Slattery says.
From stage lights to stream flies
Slattery’s love of fishing stems back to his youth in East Orange, New Jersey. He says “there was a lot of stuff going on” with his family at that time, and he found refuge in fishing.
“There was a plot of land that used to be part of a farm that was there,” Slattery recalls. “I would go in there and play. You’d scrape up the dead leaves, and there were these squiggly worms, and I put them in a can hoping that somebody would take me fishing.”
Slattery says his other passion is music, and he often made up songs as a kid while he was playing.
Later on, he moved to New York City, where he played in a rock band called Violators. Although the group had numerous encounters with fame — including an offer to play on “Saturday Night Live,” which never panned out — Slattery says they never made it to the big time. Part of that was due to some of the band members’ life choices.
“Some of the guys in my band thought they could emulate Keith Richards’ lifestyle,” Slattery says.
Richards is the founder of the Rolling Stones who battled a drug addiction for decades, and was arrested multiple times.
Slattery recalls one occasion when a talent scout from a record label came to their dressing room after a show and the band “was in full Keith Richard’s mode.”
“I had to wake up the lead guitarist to broker this deal,” says Slattery. “He (the guitarist) ran out and found him and asked, ‘What do you think? Do you like our music?'”
After responding that he liked the band’s sound and aesthetic, Slattery says the talent scout leaned in and asked one pointed question.
“Are you going to be alive in two weeks?” the man asked, according to Slattery. The guitarist shouted an expletive at him and told the talent scout, “We’ll find somebody else (to sign a record deal with).”
During this time, Slattery created “The Stimulator” fly, an idea that was later stolen from him.
Slattery says a man who didn’t like the price said he’d get someone else to tie it for him. When Slattery asked him not to do that, he used the band’s illegal drug use as leverage.
“I will call the Narcotics Division on your band if you don’t let me tie this fly,” Slattery recalls the man saying.
Slattery says he’s finally gotten some recognition for “The Stimulator” decades later.
At some point, Slattery gave up on the glitz and glamour of show business and traded it for a quiet life out West.
His ties to Idaho begin with his Aunt Sophie, who married a soldier from Spokane, Washington, after World War II. They settled down in Rathdrum near Coeur d’Alene, and Slattery says he visited her often as a kid.
In 2005, Slattery says he was working as a contractor for XM Satellite Radio when the company was merging with Sirius. He wanted a different lifestyle, and he and Wendie made a trip to northern Idaho and Montana.
“We were looking for a resort, something that would allow us to make some money, not work so hard and do our own thing,” he says.
The next summer, Slattery says he made a last-minute trip to West Yellowstone, Montana, to do some fishing and “fell in love with the place.”
The couple bought Campfire Lodge the next year. They later found a place to live in Idaho Falls during the off-season, and it’s the house they live in to this day.
“There’s been a lot of trials and tribulations with (the lodge), but we’ve done OK,” says Slattery.
Building upon a legacy
Early on in his music career, Slattery says the Ramones, the punk rock band behind hits like “Rockaway Beach,” “Blitzkrieg Bop” and others, threatened to burn his house down if he didn’t write songs for them. He says he was 14 at the time and wasn’t in any position to refuse.
As Slattery reflects on how life has turned out, he says the “stolen valor” with the songwriting and the fly tie is his biggest disappointment.
He’s happy with the life he’s built in eastern Idaho and is proud to build upon the legacy the Hudman family started in 1940 when they opened the store that now houses his shop.
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