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Fly Tying

MCtrlSys

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About MCtrlSys

  • Rank
    Bait Fisherman

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  • Favorite Species
    Rainbow Trout
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  1. Hey guys, I am not new to the hobby but I have been out of it for some time. I originally grew up in the gateway to Yosemite, Atwater, CA. My childhood wasn't the best so I ended up in a continuation school for my high school years and that was where I ran into this wonderful thing called Fly Tying strangely enough. One of my teachers, when I was 17 was an avid hunter and fisherman. The school itself was made for people who couldn't hack it in normal High School which I was one of those kids. Not because I had any sort of learning disability but because I was a smart kid who had been put into remedial classes. I have Asperger's Syndrome so they just thought I was acting out. The truth was that I was bored to tears with the low level of things they were teaching and it was all I could do to keep from sleeping through the whole thing. Anyway I finished 4 years of high school in 1 but along the way I met Mr. Halsted. The man who I still consider to be the best teacher I ever had. He convinced the administrators of the school and the district to let him teach fly tying as an elective course. I didn't understand why until much later but it was one of the best ideas I heard. In a school of the type of children that it catered to, fly tying was a real pacifying influence. A Zen hobby as it were. I stumbled on the class the first day it came out and instantaneously started to obsess on it. It was just technical enough to satisfy my Asperger's Hyper-Focus and mellow enough to be like a functional type of Meditation. Hell, I even studied Entomology for my first year of College. I didn't complete that and eventually became certified in Diesel Technology instead but only because I hate core classes and find them to be utterly useless. A degree in Entomology required too many core requisites for my tastes while Diesel Technology required none. While I didn't choose it to be my main focus it did however become a life changer for me. I grew up with a fondness for the wild and eventually moved to Libby, Montana for 10 years. While I couldn't stay because of an industrial incident involving the mining of Vermiculite in Libby which killed the Town I still plan to move back the first moment it becomes possible. You couldn't find a better place to fish for Salmon and Trout than the Kootenai River which runs right through the heart of the town. The sound of Kootenai Falls and the smell of Pine and Cedar permeate everything in Libby. It is like heaven. What I guess I am trying to say is that Fly Tying changed my life for the better and made it livable. I stopped tying for about 10 years due to the intensity of my work after I moved out of Libby. I became a computer specialist which I believe now to be a mistake. Too stressy and the companies involved are often lacking things like ethics. I have enough neurosis without having to add more. The thing now is that I really ended up kind of emotionally damaged due to the work and normal people's reactions to my Asperger's. Also I was hit by a car which left me disabled. Now I am taking tying back up and I hope to use it to make some extra cash in a small part. The last time I tied I was selling quite a few to people who were also tyers. They asked me to tie when they went on major fishing trips. Mainly because of my Obsessive nature I think. When I get into something it all has to be perfect. While it is detrimental to me in a number of things, in Fly Tying it was an advantage. I don't know how much better I am than most on a national level but apparently it was enough in the then semi-rural area of Merced. I wanted to note that because I am just noting what happened, I do not really consider myself to be on the level that some people told me I was at. Now since I have been out of practice for so long I am going to have to learn it all over again but I think I can do it. At the moment I am spending the majority of my time re-reading and learning the techniques and nomenclature for everything again. Also I am finding it to be rather interesting to study the techniques of other countries beyond the US in this respect. Especially that of the Japanese. I have always loved Japan and Fly Tying so learning Japanese Fly Tying was just a given. Well anyway, thank you all for letting me in and it will be great to hear from others of how they do things so I can incorporate it into the way I do things. I look forward to reading your posts and want to say hello to all of you involved.
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