40 Rivers To Freedom

Hook: Daiichi Alec Jackson Spey Hook
Tag: Flat Silver Tinsel
Rib: Flat Silver Tinsel
Body: Rear half- Black Floss, Front half- Red Seal
Body Hackle: Whiting Spey Hackle
Throat: Herron Sub
Sides: Jungle Cock
Wing: Turkey- Kingfisher Blue/Scarlet Red/Kingfisher Blue

I don’t really tie “fancy” flies anymore.  I’ve come close to wanting to a few times during the past couple years, but never actually got to that point where I wanted it enough to actually do it.  If I’m honest with myself, I guess I could say that it started as more of a rebellion against tying full dressed or realistic type flies.  That, and I sort of felt like I was becoming more of a tyer than a fisherman.  And if I had to choose between fishing or tying, I’d choose fishing every time.

Now I like to take those advanced techniques I learned and apply them towards my everyday fishing flies.  I also find pleasure is using high end materials, meant for flies suitable for framing, and using them for stuff like woolly buggers.  One of my favorite nymph patterns is a Hare’s Ear with a Kori Bustard abdomen.

I despise the term Master Fly Tyer.  I wonder who made up such a term?  Was it someone describing a fellow tyer’s skill level to someone else, or was it someone describing themselves?  Either way, how can you not roll your eyes at such a title?  Fly tying is not carpentry.  It’s trapping feathers on a hook with a piece of thread.  That said, some tyers seem to get “it” more than others. Then there are those that get one particular technique, or style, and don’t realize they can apply those same principles to other techniques or styles.

Hooks: 2 #2 4XL Streamer Hooks
Underbody: Small Vernille
Abdomen: Swiss Straw
Wings: Swiss Straw
Rear Legs: Stem Wire, Thread, Swiss Straw
Front Legs: Stem Wire, Thread, Swiss Straw, Hackle, Mallard Flank
Antennae: Mallard Flank
Head: Foam
Eyes: Paint

I have a hunch that the best tyers also had the best teachers, and vise versa.  I think that this is one area where the internet has possibly done more harm than good.  Now, anyone with a computer and a modem can give advice on stuff they have no business giving advice on.

I’ve got a research paper coming up for one of my classes.  One of the things you have to do before you submit your thesis and all that stuff, is a short worksheet showing you know how to use the college library’s research databases.  The last part of the worksheet deals with using general websites as sources in your paper.  One of the key questions you’re supposed to ask yourself about a website when deciding if its a reliable source of information is, “What qualifies the author to write about what he is writing about?”

It’s a good question.

Yet for some reason, most people don’t ask it when they get fly tying or fly fishing advice from websites or message boards.  This is why there are a lot of mediocre fly fisherman and tyers out there.

I lucked into some great advice when I first started tying.  Instead of a guy who didn’t know what he was talking about trying to answer my questions.  I got a guy who knew his shit.  Instead of starting out by correcting my proportions, he had me focus on thread control.  Although I impatiently went along with it, now I’m thankful for that advice.  After all, what fly tying material is more important than thread?  Once you know how your thread behaves, you can do anything you want with it.

I always love it when I’m reading a forum and there’s that guy with 20,000 posts giving people advice on how to catch fish.  You can view the site’s online list at 7am, Midnight, 2pm, or any other time; and he’s online- 7 days a week, 365 days per year.  Yet people eat this guy’s posts up like they were the gospel.You don’t become a good fisherman on the internet, you become an armchair expert.

Geesh, all that blathering and I just planned on posting a dee fly pic with a recipe today.

Your Weekend Homework

Stay off the internet, and go fish this weekend.  I don’t care if it’s raining and all your local trickles are blown out, or if you’ve only got a couple hours of free time, or if it’s for a species you know nothing about.  Just go fishing and learn something you don’t know right now.