The other day I wrote about Paul Monaghan, a fly tyer from the UK, who has several fly tying tutorials online. One thing Paul does is he always gives a nod to other tyers who he learned certain techniques from. In one video he credits Jason Taylor, one of our United States guys. As you know I'm a fan of JT, not a creeper, just a fan. I have seen him in person and sat in on his demonstrations online, last year he did a Master's Of the Fly demo for the American Saltwater Guides Association.
So after work I fired up my fly tying room computer and searched for his Hollow Fleye demo, HERE. My inital goal was to decifer and tie a Jim Matson fly but I don't have the correct tubing he uses, so I put that on the back burner for now. So I went forward and did what I thought I should do. I soon realized I may have two left hands as the finifshed products, I tried two, just don't seem to be correct, and I'll bypass giving JT credit, because these are not what he had in mind. What I realized
is the way to get good at this game is tie, practice, tie, practice and tie some more. That's why Jim had 1,000 flies in his basement. It's a process. Some things I learned....number one, don't run out of thread. I did and then had to search high and low for more fine mono to tie with. Thank goodness The Fly Fishing Show is jkust over a week away. Next, less is more, but sometimes
less is not enough. Look at the screenshot of the fly that JT had tied with lots of ostrich plume in there, far more than I tied in. And then there is the elusive correct taper, that's just practice. A mix of straight and reverse ties with ostrich and bucktail is what his flies call for. And then lastly, a fly isn't a fly right out of the vice. Things need to be tamed down and trained with some water, and a little swimming in real water, doesn't hurt, not that you should depend on that. And then eyes, he likes using jungle cock, but my shitty flies don't call for such an expensive ornament, yet. So today I'll look and see how much good and long my plumes are and I'll give it another go.
While searching, not stalking, for a JT tutorial I found that he will be at Tightlines Fly Fishing in Parsippany for a long day of tying on March 4th, 2023. The day is broken up into two parts. A fly tying class from 9-12, which has a $40 entrance fee, followed by a demo and presentation which is
