Re: The coming year -fly tying tradition Dec 30, 2002

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Date: April 09, 2003 at 07:57:24
From: ken, [pool-64-223-40-65.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: The coming year -fly tying tradition Dec 30, 2002

Fly tying tradition
I thought that I would give a little background in fly tying history and why documenting earlier tiers work is so important on this board. It has to do with chaos and confusion and honoring and referring to those who have worked hard and shared what they have done and added to the art.
In writing and in painting there are many pieces of work by many people that are important and cannot be copied without referring to their origin and authorship by name. It is against the copyright laws to do so. The reason for those laws is so that intellectual property is protected, as is any property that anyone owns is protected. In fly tying this has been done also and in the larger world of fly tying, not just salt-water fly tying, this referencing to originators and their influences is the standard procedure that everyone who has integrity honors. When someone creates a new fly they always refer to the origins of the idea or concept and add what they have done to the history that is already known and documented. When someone violates this order they are held to account and are discredited publicly. There are people who write books based on this order and publish fly patterns and their origins and work very hard to document their history and evolution.
Salt water fly tiers have had a marketplace attitude towards documenting their flies and have used a different sensibility, that of trying of claim ignorance as the justification for claiming credit and ignoring the obvious influence from the past in
their “New,” flies.
The marketplace is not a part of fly tying tradition but is an outside force that does not change the historical lineage of flies in fly tying.
Claiming "Ignore-ance," is not justification for claiming another’s work as ones own work. Documenting that work or referencing that work and showing the influences of it and the departure from it while honoring its existance, is what has always been necessary for a tyer to do if he or she wants to claim the credit as being the originator of a new fly or a new technique. This is the way that it is and it is the way that it will always be.
Many salt water tiers will over time be stung openly in print by this modern lack of regard for the time honored traditions of the larger world of fly tying. The true originators of many flies that are now being perceived as being originated by known people will have their claims discredited and the true unknown people who did originate and shared their flies with others will be given credit for their own work.
This is happening now. There are people who are documenting flies and separating the people who popularized them from the people who originally created them and giving the history of the flies as it has actually happened.
Joe Brooks did not create the blonde series flies although his name is a part of the name of the fly.
He was the writer who popularized them. This is documented by Colonel Bates in his book Streamer Flies and Bucktails. The Muddler minnow was created by an Indian Guide not by Don Gappan.
There is a real desire among fly tiers to have this right order documentation happen to protect the efforts that unknown people have put into tying flies and developing them. Many people have seen their salt water flies be claimed and marketed by others who were business oriented and their efforts in creating and perfecting these flies has been disregarded. There has been a lack of accountability for taking what is someone else’s for the fame and money in this relative new world of salt water fly tying. The purpose of documenting a fly’s origins is not to diminish the innovator but to enhance and protect the integrity of his work in the same way that others who came before are protected. A reference to the influences that went into creating a fly do not diminish the tier but give that tier a documented entrance to the history of fly tying as a contributor to its growth.
The market is not the final word on taking someone’s work and claiming ownership of it in order to make money. The history of the fly and its evolution as it will be viewed through documental fact is the final word. Your effort will be seen in time as either honorable or just another false claim and your name and reputation as an honorable man will be either stand or fall.
Salt water fly tying is coming of age and it is a time of reckoning and a time of responsibility and accountability and as the scripture says ‘Many who are first will be last.” Document your flies and give credit where it is due or even to where it may be due. There is no loss to oneself in respecting the work of others. Only those who are immature and self centered to a fault or perhaps those who are too lazy and choose to plead ignorance as a justification for their lack of effort and/or actual fly tying thieves or people who will do anything to make a buck or be famous are upset at/by having to give credit to other people who deserve credit.
The time of claim jumping with impunity is past. Salt Water fly tying is too mature and has too much documentable history for the kind of energy of "Only what I do is important," any longer.
There is another old saying that goes like this "He who wants to lead must learn to follow."
Fly-Tying tradition has deep deep roots and it is a strong tree that has weathered every passing storm and has absorbed all of those storms and has grown stronger for the exposure. It will absorb salt-water fly tying and internalize it as part legitimate part of its history and those who think that they can ignore its power to order and codify the truth as to historical facts and perhaps create a new tree in their own image and likeness will wilt and dry up and be blown away by the lack of depth of their self serving wisdom. If you want to be noticed as a contributor to the lore and history of fly tying tradition and have people know your name and what you contributed to it, then simply respect others and their influences on your development as a tier and reference their work.
At least do it on this board and on this site.

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