As I continue to learn about fly tying, I realize how the process parallels other things I have learned in the past. I grew up playing ice hockey (goalie) in Minnesota, and as you develop your style, you tend to emulate your play after players you look up to. For me it was a teammate one year ahead of me who is playing professional hockey still and Patrick Roy. By copying their style, I developed a platform of skills and techniques that would eventually allow me to grow into my own style. The same pattern of events occurred when I learned to play guitar. I had some artist I liked and I tried to learn their songs. After a while, I began to write my own using the strumming patterns and chords I had picked up.
With regard to fly tying, I've been watching Youtube videos and searching other fly fishing blogs. One blog I really like is http://www.winonaflyfactory.com/. I really enjoy WFF's tying, photography, insights, and presentation of his posts. For instance, a great thought he had in a previous post was that, in order to get a better understanding of how your fly will look in the water after you tie it, throw it on some tippet in a glass of water. He astutely stated how easy it is to overlook that part. We are so focused on how it looks as we tie it, but dubbing looks quite different when wet.
Anyway, today I used WFF as my tying guide. He has been working on his caddis pupa presentation and tying. So much so that it inspired me to tie a few. I made three attempts. Two with bead heads, one without. One was using a skinnier (0.5mm diameter) clear tubing/thread for wrapping. This gave it more of a grub appearance.
Well, enjoy the snapshot. I used a cork from a wine bottle to hold the flies and this worked nicely. Have a happy holiday weekend!
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