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Why tie?

Why tie flies?

Here are a few reasons that come to mind.

• “I’d like to hook fish on flies that I tie.”
• “I want to save money by tying my own.”
• “It looks like it would be relaxing.”
• “The thought of doing something with my hands intrigues me.”
• “The art.”
• “Finding an outlet for my creative juices.”
• “Tying flies looks like fun!”
• “I want to make fakes that look like what I see on the water.”

Why tie flies, indeed.

In my own case, I started tying flies before I started fly fishing. A poor, newlywed college student I didn’t see how I could buy flies to go fishing, but I knew I wanted to learn. While mowing a lawn for a professor I met one of her neighbors who informed me that he knew how to tie flies. As it turned out, Larry’s son owned a fly shop in Boulder, Colorado at the time - 1980 - and later told me his dad was arguably the worse fly tier he’d ever known. And it might have been true! His flies were awful, but his passion, compassion and sense of humor were dandy. Larry gave me a few hooks and some materials, his on, Wally, at the prodding of his dad, gave me a cheap vise and a few weeks later, when my dad visited Shan and I, he bought me a Metz grizzly cape, a Thompson model A vise and a couple of boxes of hooks. Who would have known it would turn into tying many thousands of flies, three fly shops, fly fishing many waters and teaching hundreds of others to tie flies? Not me, that’s for sure.

The concept of tying flies in order to fool fish with flies of our own making is, in the end, perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of tying. Even though tying can be relaxing - it usually takes my mind off of the tyranny of the immediate or helps me to focus on the issues at hand, depending on what my system needs at that particular time - and it is creative, artistic, intriguing and lots of fun! By adding skill and technical aptitude the tier can observe live insects and other fish food on or in the water, and see how fish respond to their meals, then take this information back to the tying table and concoct patterns to try. We add to what we know, based on fly fishing tradition, to make something that is unique for us, even though there is nothing new under the sun.

Learning to tie any fly - like learning to play the piano, or to garden - is a process that takes time and energy that will need to be commensurate with the results one wants. In order to learn anything, patience and perseverance are required.

The fly on this page is a Jock Scott. I tied it in early 2010 and posted it on the forum. Many people responded with kindness, tips, criticism and so on. That’s what the forum is about, after all. Before tying this particular fly I’d read several current and historic books on fly tying, specifically on tying Salmon Flies. Now, folks tie them for the art of the thing, but back in the day, as some folks like to say in this day, anglers tied or bought salmon flies to kill fish. Many patterns are described as Killers, Will Kill on this river at that time, and so on. Names for flies include The Butcher, The Priest and so on, indicating death for the prey. Today, in many places, this attitude continues, while in other places it has changed. I’ve only fished for Atlantic Salmon two times - I should say, I’ve had the privilege to fly fish for Atlantic Salmon two times: once in Scotland, and once in Quebec.

In Scotland, the fellows I met who were either British or Scottish, killed the fish they landed. There was no question for it. (I have a friend in England who fishes the Eden, which flows westward. He says he doesn’t even take a picture of a salmon he lands, preferring to keep it in the water and revive and release it as quickly as possible. Another friend, in Denmark, says he kills the first salmon of the season, which has to be reported to the authorities, and that when the annual number of fish have been killed catch-and-release regulations kick in. And one, and only one, salmon can be killed by any one angler, too!) When I fished in Quebec, the guides made it clear that all fish caught would be released immediately - they let us take a picture, though - and that if we landed two fish in one day we were done fishing for that day. The limit of fish landed was two, and both had to be released. That was it. (As it turned out, this was only an issue on one day, and the one in camp who experienced the issue was me! There were twelve anglers in the camp, six salmon were landed during a week of fishing and I landed three of the six. This didn’t really seem fair, but that’s how it worked out. On one day I landed two of the fish, so spent the rest of that day walking the bank of the river, napping, reading and pondering, which is part and parcel of fly fishing fun no matter where I am!)

Recently - I’m writing this in May of 2010 - I’ve been reading Fly Tying For Salmon: The whole art of tying salmon-flies with details of the principal dressings, by Eric Taverner. In the book, Mr. Taverner talks about his relationship with another author, whose book I’ve also read, by the name of Dr. T. E. Pryce-Tannatt, as well as books that he read and fly tiers whom he knew. I like reading these books because it gives perspective, allowing me to discover that many others have shared a similar passion for tying, fishing, sharing, teaching and so on. This particular book was published in 1942, which puts perspective on the fact that in the midst of the most horrid war in the history of Britain, a man was writing a book about tying salmon flies. Are fly fisher’s optimists, or what?

When I reached page 73 in Mr. Taverner’s book, I found the section on Dressing a Built-Wing Pattern and noticed the first fly was the Jock Scott.

“The Jock Scott is, for salmon-flies, of considerable antiquity; it is said to have been invented in 1845 during a voyage to Norway by Jock Scott, a fisherman in the service of Lord John Scott..”

There followed this note, which I want to share with you. Please enjoy reading this and nurture a perspective of fly tying and fishing that has been with us for many years. Enjoy! (The quote begins on page 73 and continues on until complete.)

 

a. A DIGRESSION CONCERNING ART AND FAITH

 

Most of the examples of this fly which are to be seen in the shops are dressed with a compound tag consisting of two or three coils of silver thread and of floss-silk. If the fly is to have a workmanlike and artistic appearance, it is most important that the thread and the floss of the tag and also that the tag and the fly, as a whole, should be in correct ratios to one another. I advise the beginner in fly-dressing to follow the Greek method and buy, or get the loan of, some flies dressed by a master of the art, study them intently and allow an impression of their proportions to be formed on his mind, until the instinct is created, whereby he will know exactly the point at which every part of the fly ought to begin and finish. Such were the patterns dressed by the late E. M. Crosfield, models of slimness, strength and clean design, which engender in the fisherman’s mind faith and confidence to carry him half-way to success before he wets a fly... Give a man a fly his artistic perception says is well dressed and it is long odds on him succeeding where another has failed. He believes in his pattern and in the way it has been dubbed; every cast he makes he performs and fishes out intelligently, because he has constructed for himself a mental picture of the behaviour and aspect of his fly when the latter is swimming beneath the surface. He patiently fishes out the cast instead of hurrying it in his eagerness to try another; he makes the most of the water he is fishing at the moment and, in short, he is, at that time, a better fisherman than the other man, because of his faith in the fly. The fisherman who habitually uses flies that strengthen his faith and appeal to his imagination, until he can almost see beneath the surface of the river, is generally a better fisherman than his neighbour. Will he, then, catch more fish? Possibly he will, but I am sure he will make a better use of his opportunities; and there will be many days on which he alone will be able to discover the opportunities.

 

 

Art. And Faith. They go well together. Perhaps in a time when much of society and the world are so entrapped in pursuing more stuff while begging for security in order to keep it, the art of tying a fly and the exercise of faith that it will work will serve as a salve for soreness, greed, anger and fear.

Patrick McManus says that you can always tell the lousy angler because he is an excellent philosopher...

Philosophy, anyone?

Jock Scott

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