Fly Tying styles

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Date: December 27, 2002 at 14:47:41
From: ken, [pool-64-223-38-62.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Fly Tying styles

Re: Fly Style

Spring 2001 Archive

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Re: Fly Style

From: Ken
Date: 27 Apr 2001
Time: 16:55:56
Remote Name: 207.180.0.8

Comments

I do not think the broadness of styles in tying and in fly design is due largely to environmental factors at all. Partly, in the sense of form follows function, but there is also tradition and there is always experimentation with new ideas. Ray's fly is a simple bucktail. It is tied with hair from a deer's tail. That way of tying has been around for a very long time. It is an American invention I do not know who tied the first bucktail but it was tied in America a long time ago. Theodore Gordon the father of American dry fly fishing was also a striper fisherman. He tied a fly called the bumble puppy. It was a bucktail in the striper form, and it is identified as the first official striper fly in Bates's book Streamers and Bucktails. It was tied in the 19th century, I don't know exactly when but that info. is in the book. Hackle streamer flies are also an American invention, The Rangley Lakes region in Maine is where they first became popular. Carrie Stevens is the best known creator of them. These two types of baitfish flies are the types of flies I grew up with and they are a part of my foundation in fly tying. I also grew up fishing with flies that were designed for stripers by people like Harold Gibbs ie. the Gibbs Striper Fly, which was and is a good silverside fly. He first tied it in the 50's I believe. New England has a tradition of striper fishing and the flies that are tied by fishermen who have been fishing for stripers since the 50's here in New England reflect that traditional approach. It's that simple. It's not engineering and design to correlate with environmental forces at least I don't think so. I suppose it could be. What I think is that a sculptor can work in metal or wood or plastic or stone and the piece that he creates communicates something that he wants to communicate. His style reflects his way of seeing. The same is true of any creative work. You can break down the work into an engineering diagram with formulas and instructions to replicate but that is not creativity. Its not the materials nor the style it is the person who manifests his vision with whatever he chooses to use to accomplish the work. I have a chapter in my book A Perfect Fish on page 12. called Freedom and Creativity the magic in fly design. It's short but worth reading in relation to your question. Some of us tie flies from our need to bring our ideas into physical form. Flies are ideas. Many fly tyers have ideas and make them and share them with all fisherman. I do the same. We are all different men and we see things in our own unique way. We speak a unique language that expresses our ideas perfectly. I speak a language that expresses my ideas in whatever way I choose. Viva le Difference'.

Last changed: July 04, 2001

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