A New Era
I used to take fly tying way too seriously. When I wasn’t tying flies, I was probably sitting in front of the computer at my fly tying bench; reading about flies; talking about flies on message boards; or, looking for new materials to tie flies with. I lived fly tying, and the only reason I fly fished ~100 trips per year was to use what I was tying.
First, I got the hang of everyday fishing patterns; then I started spinning deerhair; then it was time to try realistics and full dressed salmon flies. With the utmost modesty, it was all coming naturally to me. Not because I had a fly tying gene buried somewhere in my genome, it was cause I spent an absurd amount of time tying flies. The lunch pail I took to work everyday converted into a fly tying bench.
There was a message board just for full dressed salmon and steelhead flies. People would post pictures of their flies, and ask others to critique them. Really, most were just asking for constructive criticism as a chance to show off, but that’s a topic for a different day.
One day, a guy posted a picture of a fly he had just tied. It was beautiful, but the tag was too long, the ribbing wasn’t evenly spaced, the wing was too high and a little long, and the head was lumpy. Like I said, the fly was beautiful- 9/10 people wouldn’t hesitate to stick it in a frame and hang it above their tying bench. But there I was, concentrating on it’s flaws.
To put it mildly, I was disgusted with myself.
That was just under 3 years ago. I haven’t tied much since. Only the bare minimum to get me by- and usually not even that. I haven’t tied a single fly for the sole purpose of sharing it with fellow fly tyers, instead, they’ve all been to share with fish. Sure, I’ve excitedly shared a new pattern with my friends while fishing, but that’s different. It’s the way it should be.
Something has been tugging at my heartstrings the past few weeks. It’s a feeling I’ve felt a few times over the past few years, but now it’s pulling harder. It’s the part of me that is ready to move to the next phase, the one where I move back towards the center line between the two extremes.
Fly Tying Forum’s annual Fly Tyer of the Year Contest is coming up, and I plan on kicking some ass.
