Joe from Germany

[JoeLePaul 0]

Good evening folks,

 

Having recently registered, I just wanted to introduce myself prior to engaging in any discussion

 

I’m from Germany and 26 years old. My interest in fishing was fueled by my dad who took me fishing in the holidays all the time since I can remember. However, my fly-tying career did not start before I was 14 years old after I saw the book “Handbook Fly-Tying” from Dawes in a fishing shop. I took this book up and was hooked. However, the book provided poor instruction for a beginner and at that point of time no other german-translated fly-tying books existed here on the market. Therefore, I have learned most of my skills as an autodidact – I tried stuff and when it worked, I remembered it for the next time. I have started with the cheapest materials such as Indian hackle (my parents would never have spent 70 $ for a Metz, which I still found beautiful to look at inside of the local shop. Over the time, I have found my interest in collecting materials as well since the book always enticed me with the tons of different materials one needed in order to tie “all” flies. During the same time, I’ve been in quite some places around the world, keeping my eyes open for fly tying stuff – while being in Canada, USA and even South Africa. The latter developed to the absolute heaven for fly fishing – Dullstroom. I bought tons of stuff for very little money there. Even if I didn’t need the material yet, I was collecting it just for having it in case I needed it in the future. I was also most interested in rare materials, things almost no one had or used. A recent example would be Angora Rabbit Yarn which I have found only after several years of looking (no, I didn’t have internet at that point of time). At age 15, I was “mass-producing” (40 a month) and selling my flies 50 cent each to the same fishing shop I got the materials from. Being in puberty, however, I dropped this hobby after one more year. After graduating from school, I further pursued my interest in biology and recently completed my master thesis in biology with behavioural ecology (animal behavior, further specialized on fish behaviour) as a specialty. Now, while pursuing my PhD thesis in the same field, I have taken up my interest in fishing and tying flies again – using the same materials as before. I kept the stuff safely, away from light and pests and am happy to see every of the materials I’ve bought in my life.

 

Since the recent fad seems to be showing one’s “first works”, I will gladly doing so. Furthermore, I will be showing some of my works that I finished before stopping that hobby altogether (approximately from age 16).

 

I hope we will be able to have some nice discussions

 

Joe