A fly angler reaches a point in their life where they need to tie his or her own flies for a great number of reasons. It certainly is not about saving money, because once the addiction or "sickness" sets in you find yourself with so many different materials and hooks that it all adds up to some coin. Sure, one can simply do it by only tying a few different patterns, but again your brain starts buzzing with ideas for new patterns or copying that "hot" fly your buddy had when he kicked your ass at Lake Davis last spring. Many tying junkies simply do it to show the fish what they interpret in their own mind what an artificial should look like. With feathers, fur, foam, and other natural and synthetic materials we try to copy the great creators own creations, and fooling our finned friends into thinking it's the real thing. For myself it is an art that I find so fascinating that it consumes my every thought while living and breathing on this big blue marble. I am sick. So sick that when I get a package in the mail I look at the packaging materials and think what pattern I could use this for instead of the merchandise itself. Sicko!
As winter draws in and the sun arcs lower in the sky, I find myself energized by the light of the tying vice. This is the time to tie. I love nothing more than cranking out patterns and looking out the window as the clouds release huge amounts of swirling snow bouncing of my bedroom window. It is during these times I think about next years trips and the flies that will join me on those adventures. Then the fever follows you on those adventures as you must tie "on site" to be exact with that days hatch, and it never ends. The whole realm of tying is like slow dancing with my sweetheart, it moves me....and I never want it to end. H1N1 has got nothing on this sickness. It can last a lifetime with no cure in sight, and that's just fine with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment