Fur, Feathers and Fluff - A Personal History

How I Caught The Bug(s)

I started trying to tie fishing flies when I was barely a teenager. We had taken a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park one year, and my dad caught the fly fishing bug, if you'll excuse the pun. We bought some flies from a fly shop in or near the park, I can't remember which. Dad even caught a few trout that trip. I spent more time climbing rocks and trying not to fall in the icy blue water, but I was fascinated by the bits of fuzz and feathers that dad was fishing with. For me, fishing lures had always been jigs, worms, torpedo-shaped wooden lures full of sharp treble hooks and metal spoons. The idea that you could catch fish — decent sized fish — on such a flimsy piece of nothing, was peculiar to me.

Humble Beginnings

My first fly-tying vice was a tap wrench mounted haphazardly onto an electrician's third-hand. Lookng back on it now, I realise that I wasn't far from a professional rotary vice. If I'd put a little more thought into it, and if my dad hadn't insisted that I put his tap drill and third hand back together, I could have been turning out some decent flies years earlier. Of course, this was before the Internet allowed one to research anything at will. My only information came from an article in Encyclopaedia Brittanica and the few books I could find in the library. At the time, fly fishing and tying wasn't exactly a hot sport in the Southeast, so information was scarce. My materials were sewing thread, dental floss, red and yellow hackles pulled from the back end of some old deep-sea fishing lures and the few decent feathers I could gather from my mom's chicken coop.

The few flies that I tied were a mess. I didn't know any hitches to use, so I tied everything on the hook with any knot that would hold. I did figure out how to tie hackles, so my flies all had bright yellow and red hackles that were out of proportion to the hooks. The hooks were simple wire bait hooks, the same hooks we used when fishing for bream with wigglers. I didn't have a bobbin. I wrapped the thread onto the hook with my bare fingers.

Orvis to the Rescue

Step forward a few years, to 1999. While vacationing in Dillard, Georgia, my wife and I stepped into a small sporting goods store that was having a going-out-of-business sale. I fould an Orvis basic fly tying kit for half price, which was about $25 back then. It came with a guide to tying flies, a vice (Superior 1A Vise by Griffin), a bobbin, a bodkin/threader tool, hackle pliers and a Thompson's whip finish tool. It also included a random selection of poor- to fair-quality materials like hooks, hackles, dubbing, chenille, threads, tinsels and lead wire.

The only problem was that the guide book was full of fly patterns that required a range of materials not in the kit. The The whip finish tool made no sense at all to me, and the book didn't explain its use. I tied a couple of Woolly Buggers, the classic "starter fly" and then I lost interest. I carefully packed away all of the materials and forgot about them.

A Fly-Tying Revival

In October of 2007, I visited the Cabela's outdoor store in St. Louis, Missouri. While wandering around the store, I came across the fly tying materials and struck up a conversation with the salesperson who handled the fly fishing area. He recommended a book and DVD set by Jack Dennis. He also gave me a great piece of advise, and though it makes a lot of sense, it's hard to stick by it: buy only the materials to tie the one fly you are currently tying.

This is hard for me. Even in those many years between buying my first kit and picking up the Jack Dennis book, I'd been constantly collecting fly tying materials. I caught sales at local fly shops, bagged up bits and pieces of shiny or feathery things that I thought might make good flies. When we visited Destin and Sandestin, Florida in February of 2008, I lost all control at the Bass Pro Shops and Orvis stores. I bought a couple of things I needed: some decent saltwater hooks, a new set of scissors and some pattern books. I also bought a bunch of materials that just looked like they'd be fun to tie with.

Back from vacation, I visited the local fly shop, Fairhope Fly Shop at the Church Mouse, and signed up for a basic freshwater fly tying class. I also bought a new vice, with all the bells and whistles, to replace the entry-level vice I'd bought eight years earlier. My fly repertoire has increased to about twelve nice patterns, some for salt water, some for fresh water and some for all of the above. I'm getting faster with my tying, and my flies are looking better and better. Just comparing the flies I tied months ago to what I'm tying now, I can see a dramatic difference.

What does the future hold? I think I'd like to take a class to learn how to tie a few more saltwater flies. I'd also like to learn to tie some poppers and bass bugs. I want to learn how to "spin" deer hair and learn how to tie Polish-style woven flies. The options are limitless. Now that I have a few flies down pat, I can learn to tie most any pattern.

I've truly caught the fly tying bug.