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. |
