The Innovative Fly Tyer December 2011

Different people tie flies for different reasons. Basically, it comes down to four primary reasons: economy, creativity, quality or competitive edge . The reason or reasons you choose to tie will determine the level of commitment, the time you spend, and the money you will invest in your equipment and supplies. Your reason for tying might change over time, and so your commitment and investment may change as well. The important thing is to know why you tie, and to follow the call. Don’t do what everyone else does, unless it’s what you want to do too.

Economy: I remember when I started tying flies. I had decided to take up fly fishing, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I decided to tie my own flies. I got the cheapest vise I could find, a basic bobbin, and some cheap manicure scissors, plus a bottle of head cement. I scavenged all the odd hooks out of my tackle box, got a spool of sewing thread from my mom, and started looking for stuff to tie on a hook. Before long, my dog was missing some whiskers and some patches of hair, the dog brush was cleaned of fluff, and my pockets were constantly holding odd feathers I found laying on the ground somewhere. I tied repulsive flies which I christened with grand sounding names, and was delighted to catch lots of little fish with them. My favorite fly, the Sasha King, (Sasha was the dog) looked more or less like a clump of belly button lint on a hook with some hairs sticking out of one side. For some reason, brook trout and cutthroat trout really seemed to like it. Either that, or I accidently hooked a lot of them in the mouth.

Creativity: Once I had been tying for a while, I found that I really enjoyed experimenting with different patterns, and my early drive for economy led me to always keep an eye open for materials that might lend themselves to tying. I began to let my creativity shape my flies, and some of them were extremely effective. Along the way, I managed to accidently rediscover old design principles that had their origins in nineteenth to early twentieth century fly design. It was only years later that I began to realize what had made some of these early designs effective. Patterns that happened to resemble a caddis emerger could draw savage strikes from big rainbow trout, though some patterns that looked pretty good to me never caught anything but trees. The thing that drives creative tyers is the realization that every great fly pattern originally sprang from the imagination of someone who loved to create something new, in the hopes that they could catch a fish with it.

Quality: I remember a day on the Merrimack River in New Hampshire with an experimental crayfish pattern fresh from my vise. The fly was somewhat delicate, but really presented well in the water when I test stripped it at the edge of the bank before stepping out to the edge of a sandbar where some big smallmouth haunted a deep pool. On my first cast, a smallmouth of nearly five pounds slammed the fly hard, and after about a ten minute fight I managed to retrieve the fly, and release the fish back into the river. Unfortunately, the fly was hopelessly mangled, and no amount of twisting and pushing would mold that fly back into any shape that would draw another strike. I shared my story with an older more experienced tyer, who drolly pointed out that it was foolish to invest all that time in building a difficult pattern, but not taking an extra minute or two to build it to last. Since then I have found that most well-tied flies can endure tussles with 50 to 60 fish before becoming too tattered to fish. Quality has become the new economy.

Competitive Edge: Years ago, I visited a particular mountain stream every few days, and I noticed that grasshoppers that hit the water were quickly devoured, while the hopper patterns I had rarely drew the attention of even the lowest IQ trout in the stream. There was one dark deep pool in which I was quite sure I’d seen something large moving, but which never yielded any hint of a fish when my fly approached. I caught some hoppers, studied their proportions and coloration, and then tossed them one by one onto the stream, observing how they landed on the water, wings and legs splayed wide, unlike the dead looking patterns I had been presenting. I went home, tied up one test fly, and returned to that deep dark pool. After carefully approaching, I nervously lobbed the fly over the dark water, and a dark golden cutthroat shaped like a football rocketed out of the deep and snatched the fly from the surface. It was the biggest trout I had ever seen at that time, weighing over four pounds, and took me easily to my backing, before I finally brought it to the net. I could not have bought that fly at the shop. Today, I rely on some patterns that no one sells, and often tie specifically to match what I see on the water.

Conclusion: Understanding what motivates you to tie will help guide your journey through fly tying. Ultimately I tie primarily because I enjoy the time I spend at the vise. I enjoy fishing the patterns I tie. I enjoy giving flies to my friends and seeing them catch fish on them. I have found that I enjoy tying flies nearly as much as I enjoy fishing them. And I have found that I am not alone. Most tyers I have met heartily share the same sentiments. I hope you do too.

Tight lines! David <><

The Minister is a fly I designed years ago, though I little realized at the time that the design was not really new. It is nearly identical to numerous old wet fly patterns, though I have never found its perfect match in any book of flies. For many years it was my go-to fly, and I always had at least a half dozen of them in my small day box that I could carry in the front pocket of my jeans if I was just tossing from shore. My largest fish count in a single day was 240 trout, mostly brookies and tiger trout which I caught and released on a tributary to a large New England lake in the late autumn with the snow dropping around me. I shared the stream with two blue herons and with two otters, who unlike me were not releasing their catch. The only flies I used were size 14 Minister wet flies, and those trout pretty much demolished six flies by the end of the day.

The Minister is tied on a size 10 to 18 nymph hook, and has a body of tan floss with gold oval tinsel. A sparse throat of mallard flank and a slightly fuller wing of mallard flank finish the fly, and the head is whip finished and cemented. Thread is black, brown or tan. Wood duck dyed mallard flank on a darker tan body can be substituted as well.