Mel Krieger passes away

This morning Mel Krieger passed away after several months of illness. He suffered from brain lymphoma.

I met Mel and his wife Fanny at the Fly Fair of 1994. Mel certified my examination for my FFF fly casting instructor certificate. What a personality he was and his way of sharing his joy for fly casting was really contagious.

Everyone who passed the exam Mel handed over this little polished brown colored pebble. This little pebble he said was for good lucks. Recently I watched his video about Patagonia. This video is a documentary about and around Mel's passion for Patagonia for the past 40 years. Half way in this video (around 28:10) you see Mel going to the market in a small town in Patagonia and buying these brown polished pebbles for his friends.

Update May 22, 2022:

Here's the part where in the video you see Mel going to the market in a small town in Patagonia and buying these brown polished pebbles ('talisman') for his friends.…

Update April 2015:
Guess what? The whole DVD can be watched on Youtube!
Here it is (again!). Not sure whether the video will be taken off eventually because of copyright. So either watch it or better yet, download the movie!


Update 21 Sep 2019:
Here's a nice video by Todd Moen (of CatchMagazine) on the fishing for sea run browns at the Rio Grande river in Tierra del Fuego. Mel probably knows this river well.