fishingfly

It has been mentioned on here that there are many ways to tie each pattern and do it well. Even things like changes in material and proportions, as well as method, might be acceptable in the overall scheme of things, but in a situation where things are going to be held up for judging it is necessary to keep the variables to an absolute minimum so that everyone is being measured to the very same standard and then you isolate the one measure that you want, "skill'. That is why you see the specific patterns, instructions, and videos being offered. The goal is to offer each tier an objective critique and evaluation of the level of skill that they are currently tying at and offer some suggestions that will help them move forward. Taken in this context, tiers participating in the program should derive significant benefit from following through as far as their skill level allows. The bronze award requires some skill to achieve. The silver award is considerably higher and quite a number of people might have difficulty attaining that level for some time. The gold award might not be within the grasp of some tiers who would be deemed expert in some narrow areas of tying but haven't broadened their skill base. Tiers have a choice, motivate, or give up. I suspect that the motivated will eventually achieve their goal, they usually do. At the very least, they'll become significantly better tiers. That's my goal.

I used to own a shop as a sideline from my regular profession and after retiring. I had to get rid of it because it consumed so much time that fishing time was almost non-existent. I have lots of friends that are shop owners or employees and I can tell you its almost a community service to continue in this economy to operate a shop. Every sale is vital, so when you buy elsewhere, remember that you are putting that shop owner one more step closer to just saying "why bother". Its nice to say that you spend $500 to buy the "important" stuff there and "only" a $100 or so at craft stores or through the mail order houses to save a few dollars on other items. I agree with this practice on some obvious items like beads and foam. We never carried these in the store because it wasn't worth it, unless we had a specialized bead or foam. The craft fur in the Craft stores could never match the stuff we got from our suppliers. It was just plain anemic and the colors were bizarre (at least for fresh water fish). We used to have two customers who would come into our store and try to send people off to these other sources to make their purchases. One used to even haunt tying expos and clean up the floors and tables afterwords for abandonded material bits and fallen hooks. He tied flies from all of these items and stored them in Altoid boxes that friends saved for him. As he became more accomplished he started to see the value in maybe spending a little money on quality and it showed in the output of his fly quality. Of course, when I closed the shop ( which was mostly for covenience, and not economy, although the dollar per hour return was going down even though sales were up) people showed up that I hadn't seen for years or don't remember seeing at all and lamented how sad it was to see us close and how bad it was going to be not to have a shop around. The local big box sporting goods store was closing down the last month of our close out and they were never the real cause for any difficulty. So I am glad to see people here see the value in supporting the local fly shop, providing of course that you recieve professional, helpful, and valued service.

The best way to cover your tracks is to buy a Fly shop like I did. Problemis that doesn't really amount to a cost savings, but when my wife sees new stuff she thinks its just store inventory I brought home to work on for the store. Or maybe I just think thats what she thinks. After all she's pretty smart.