Tyson Attempts Fly Tying
Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that asking me if I have any hobbies can turn into an all day conversation. I undoubtedly have dabbled in way more hobbies than any sane human being should, that being said, spreading myself that thin doesn’t lend itself to mastering any of them. I hope that fly tying will be the exception, to me it seems a useful skill and almost a form of relaxation and meditation… at least I assume it would be relaxing once its no longer frustrating.
Since I finished university I have been paying back my student loans steadily, diligently… and unfortunately. As encouragement I am rewarding myself at certain increments. The most recent was treating myself to a fly tying kit to help pass some of the down time at work. For approx $100 I bought a box of life long addiction, also known as a starter kit. It contains: all the basic equipment, a tying manual, a fly fishing tips book and some tying materials.
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| Everything I need to get started |
I first read both books cover to cover and then made a plan to tie my first fly. As suggested by the book I opted to try tying a nymph.
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| Well I tried and that’s what counts! |
It wasn’t pretty and it definitely did not look like the picture, but I was informed that when it comes to flies, especially nymphs, fish are pretty comfortable with flies that are a little rough around the edges. I was relieved to learn this. I then tried again.
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| Looks a little better if I do say so myself |
Tying my first flies I realized my kit was not quite complete. I had nothing to use to apply the necessary glue to the heads of the flies.
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| Points for creativity and ingenuity? |
Having “mastered” that nymph pattern it was time to move on to the woolly bugger.
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| It looks sick and/or hungry |
I tried again a few times until I realized I was using the wrong materials. Two shortcomings of this kit are that none of the materials are labelled so sometimes it comes to some internet searching and a best guess, secondly the materials are all in rather strange colours so it makes for some interesting patterns.
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| Maybe it will work on a nice pike |
Once I had gotten my material sorted out my woolly buggers started to look a little bit better. I posted some photos to instagram and someone asked if I could make them into earrings for them. So at the very least they’re pretty right? Well I am yet to let being bad at something stop me from doing it, so I’ll keep working on it and anything especially good or bad I’ll put up on my Instagram. I still can’t seem to figure out dry flies…
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| Everything I have tied so far |
This week I got an Instagram account going, come check it out for more pictures more frequently. Just look for “TysonGoesOutside”
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