Learning
Fly Tying & Fly Tying Championship
When I took up fly tying 37 years ago, help wasn’t
easy to find. The Halifax library had a collection of fly tying instruction books. A few newspapers had weekly fishing columns.
A couple of my fishing buddies helped me. One of these resourceful lads learned fly tying by taking flies apart, step by step,
then re-assembling them.
How times have changed. Today we have workshops, clubs, instruction videos on DVD
or YouTube, various Internet resources, newspapers and magazines, books (now printed in glorious color) and, as always, fishing
buddies and reverse engineering. Another change is in the availability and quality of materials and equipment. Most of the
tools and materials we used for fly tying in the good ole’ days are called, politely, antiques.
One
thing that hasn’t changed is that we still learn mostly by tying flies on a regular basis – practise, practise,
and more practise. An added benefit is that all the practice is relaxing, satisfying and productive – it fills many
fly boxes.
Competition seems to be something we are all born with, to varying degrees. As
with other competitive sports and activities, we have fly tying tournaments. Recently I received this email from an old friend:
“Hi Slim,
Here's your big chance! River Magic's
2010 Fly Tying Championship!
The link is: http://rivermagic.ca/id157.html
Also, for a winter diversion, River Magic's
2010 Flytying Workshops on Tube Flies & Classic Salmon Flies.
The link is: http://rivermagic.ca/id86.html
Tight Threads,
Bill Carpan,
www.rivermagic.ca”
Here’s one of the Official Flies that we can tie to enter the championship:
Cosseboom
Thread:
Red
Hook:
Salmon fly hook, size 2 or 4
Tip:
Small or fine oval silver tinsel
Tail:
Green Antron, yarn or floss
Rib:
Medium oval silver tinsel
Body:
Green Antron, yarn or floss
Wing:
Grey squirrel or coyote
Hackle:
Yellow hackle, collar style, folded backward
Head:
Red Thread finished with glossy head cement
Please stay on the line …
