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Fly Tying
DarrellP

Who is your best tying pupil

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We all write about who taught us to tie. Who have you taught that is outstanding? My son in law, who is an artist, sat down after watching me, and tied a really nice wet fly on his first try. Then on his second, he tied another. Wow.

He has the hand eye coordination required to put it together and seems intuitive about portion and proportion control. He is from Hong Kong and has never fished in his life. We are going to fix that. His wife has a very pretty cast and I hope he will pick that up too.

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My son. He doesn't tie any more but when he was 10-12'ish he did. He's 34 now and lives in Simi Valley California where he has a family and a life. I live in central Kansas and most common folk around here are not familiar with fly tying. He went to a craft fair with his aunt and set up a booth selling his flies and tying at his booth. I guess they had to widen the walkway, shuffle other booths around his booth for all the people that were clogging the walk way due to stopping to watch him tie the flies. Awesome! He was so proud of himself. THE SHOW STOPPER! Sold a lot of flies too, which amazed me, for again "living in central Kansas". Another proud moment for me as his dad. To this day I remember how excited he was when he got home and told me. I love that story. I miss him.

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I was an English teacher. I taught many young people how to write an essay. I am a musician and have taught many banjo students how to play the 5-string banjo. But, I have never taught anyone how to tie flies and I am a fly tier and fly fisherman. That's probably a good thing as I am basically self taught and I have several unorthodox techniques that are probably bad habits. For example, I never use a dubbing loop but yet many of my flies are pretty well dubbed; I never use a whip finish tool yet the tread has never come loose on any of my flies; I rarely use hackle pliers yet I do wrap hackle on some flies; and I probably leave out steps that should not be left out. But, all in all, I have a great time tying and I do catch fish.

Joe

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I don't really teach that often when my club has a tying event or we have a booth at the NJ Fly Tying Symposium or Fly Fishing show I'll show people how to tie flies and give them a sample in case they want tie it in the future. My niece is interested but they just moved to Vermont and she has a 1 year old, is working from home and her and her husband are designing the house they plan to build. I've been pushing her to sign up here, so she might show up on the board one of these days. I did give her vise and some materials to play with. Right now I don't think she has the time.

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I've taught 1000's of people how to work on motorcycles and outboards, over the last 22 years. And I couldn't say there was ONE student who stood out from the crowd. Lots of great students in a particular class ... too many to pick one.

 

I've never "taught" fly tying ... nor anything else about fishing. I've spent many hours taking people fishing (both fly and conventional) and "teaching" them how to do it, but again, no one who stands out.

 

I DID teach Roland Martin how to win a tournament on Lake Tohopekaliga. He didn't listen well to my instruction, and didn't win. So, I have that going for me.

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When I was with United Fly Tyers in Boston, I always taught at the beginners tables. I don't recall any one person who was a standout pupil, but I will say that I picked up many tricks and methods just by tying with other people - no matter what their skill level was. I did find it facinating to see the range of ages tying their very first fly at the Marlboro fly fishing show. I have had children from 4 years old up to people in their 90's...all had a great time!!

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10 years of tying and I still consider myself a student. However I did teach a few of my grandchildren some basic tying but I would hardly call them students. My goal was to let them experience catching a fish using something they created and just maybe open a new world of fishing possibilities for them. Sadly you can't take your vice and bench with you when you check out so I'm hopeful one or more of them will get bit by the bug.

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Those who can do. Those who can't teach. JUST KIDDING!!!........... while I consider myself a patient sort, I don't have the patience to teach anybody anything. I am much more patient being on the receiving end of teaching. Favorite pupils are otherwise known to me as the teachers pet and I hate a suck up.

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my grandson tony who is almost 9 is a mop fly specialist, mike chell has tied with me and is pretty good too. catches on pretty quick

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I'll assume everyone has seen the movie, "Braveheart"? In it, Murron gives Wallace a flower at his Father's funeral, and years later he returns to marry her? He's been carrying it the whole time.

 

I watched this young girl watch Rich's grandson Tony, as he tied one of his mop flies for her and her family. She had that look in her eyes. 15 or 20 years from now, she'll show up in Tony's life, still holding onto that fly and they'll live happily ever after !!!

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I've taught a few, my son just picked it up off myself and stepson, he is just a natural at it. He ties incredible BWO dry flies, we sat at the dining room table one winter day and he just started wrapping those things out. Then in the spring that May up in Maine he proceeded to catch LL salmon with those flies in a certain spot non of us could get a cast too because he wanted to hog the one position you could get a decent drift from lol !

 

A couple of years back I mentioned in the forum here I was teaching my left handed grandson to tie. He learned about 4 or 5 patterns from me in due time. I gotta say it was really weird for me being right handed to come up with ways to demonstrate methods that weren't in reverse from a left handed position. I'm not sure who learned more, Andrew or myself ! But he has caught at least one fish on one of those flies since then and it was a bucktail that I had told him not many people use in Maine and when he goes up there with his dad be sure to try that one out. So we're building family history here I guess, 20 or 30 some odd years later.

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