I have a confession to make. I loathe fly tying. Some may say that's blasphemy coming from a fly fisherman but I just don't find it that enjoyable. I do it more out of necessity and needing a certain pattern then out of fun. So why would a person who feels this way join a fly swap? I asked myself the same question as I was cussing to myself while trying to wrap rabbit strip around rubber legs. My fly fishing club decided to do a fly swap and luckily only 5 people are showing up. That means I only had to tie five flies. Then I had another dilemma. Would anyone even want my flies? I've had people borrow my flies before but they were usually new fly fisherman who had no idea what I was handing them. I started to get a little sensitive about it. To me fly comments should be similar to when you go over to someones house for dinner. You don't criticize the meal you just eat it or pretend to be sick. So would people just take my fly or use the excuse that they already have plenty like that. This bothered me so much instead of just tying 5 flies I tied about 20. I signed up to do bunny leech type patterns for bass. In the end I tied the leech patterns plus quite a few clousers.
| The great part of tying is seeing your accomplishments. You can't help but be delighted when you open a fly box and see it filled with your creations. It's only trumped by actually catching a fish with one of those flies. I might give tying more thought now. We'll see how this swap goes. |
It's not that I dislike it so much as I can't open my fly boxes in public because, well..they're a mess. But then again I only tie the easy ones when I do.
ReplyDelete@Cofisher, hehe If you notice I only took a picture of one side of the fly box. Even with that you can see miscellaneous flies thrown in. The other side of the fly box has a bunch of ties from when I first started tying and they look like my tying material stash exploded.
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, the real nasty ugly ones will still catch fish. I've been in a few fly swaps and I've received some that were just horrible. I love trying flies, but I just need to tie the pattern I sat down to tie and not some random something or other that grabs my attention.
ReplyDeleteThe first fly I tied looked like someone wiped a booger on a hook and called it good. Still caught a fish or two with it though. I think those flies look really nice and I am sure they will hook up with some of your finned friends. Good LUck and Tight Lines. Hope the swap goes well
ReplyDeleteHad a chicken fall into the water off the coast of Kauai one time and pulled me up a huge shark. Ha-ha!
ReplyDeleteWith the cost of feathers going up for us fly tyers, and with chickens running rampant on Kauai, I highly advise all you fly tying brethren to go on over there and get you some free capes and saddles. The money you'll get from selling these commodities on eBay will more than pay for your vacation.