Inventors

[P.Dieter 0]

Cool to think that even for a moment I thought similarly to Gary!

 

Thanks for the info.

[Guest]

This is a great thread. Just love reading it.

 

Funny though. Personally, I feel that fly tying is constantly evolving as new materials and styles of hooks emerge. So I think patterns more "evolve" then are created from scratch. Though, some truly original ones do seem to pop up every now and then. BUT, this leads to the next point I'd like to make. WHO gets credit for it?

 

Al setup my way of thinking actually, I'll just expand on it a bit. Just imagine how many tyers there are in the world tying with similar materials. Now just guestimate how many of them DO NOT go on the internet. I know about 15 local guys who don't subscribe to magazine nor surf the net. They tie to fish, and that's all they do. They evolve their patterns the way they see fit. Now, exponentially, how many tyers in the world DO NOT access the net, or even magazines? I bet there are quite a few. There is a good chance that someone may have already invented "your fly", but it's just not out to the public, or listed on a board like this. You could get credit for "said fly", but in all reality there could be someone already tying one similar. Too many minds to think that your pattern is truly unique. Remember, hard to say you've spoken to every tyer.

 

Here was my example. I tied a fly for years that I had never seen before. Of course, it was a standard hairwing for steelhead, but the color combos were unseen by fellow steelheaders and in any books I had seen. This included Trey Combs book and a few others. Then one day, I bought an old book from the late 40's/early 50's. Was thumbing through when on one of the color slates, there was my fly. Tied EXACTLY like mine, same color and everything. Just amazed me. Yet, the "Rogue" was submitted by a NW flytyer to this book back in the 1940's. Dashed my dreams of creating my own fly (I was about 18 at the time, and had been tying this fly for about 7 or so years). There is always a chance that your fly may have been field tested well before you even had the design in your head. Just that it's never been put out there for everyone to see.

 

In the end, it doesn't matter. Just go out there an tie. If it works for you, great. But it's to easy to copy and change, so why bother? Nice to be able to say "I created this fly", but in the end it's all ego driven. Key is, does it catch fish?