salmonid

I began tying in 1963 on a new Herter's vise, $1.35 at the time, one spool of black silk thread, a 1/4 oz. of mixed, dyed, loose hackle and 1/2 of a grizzly neck. I soon added all the yarns I could find from each of two grandmother's sewing kits, a small pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer, a bottle of clear fingernail polish for head cement and a piece of beeswax from my barber who, it turned out, also tied flies. Eventually I added some marabou from the S.S. Kresge dime store in town, a few game bird feathers, rabbit and squirrel hide pieces from a cousin who was old enough to hunt with a real gun and some eyed peacock tail feathers from someone on the edge of town who kept a small flock of the birds. I read and studied Vince Marinaro and Lee Wulff's writings in OUTDOOR LIFE, FIELD AND STREAM and SPORTS AFIELD whose subscriptions I sold in order to be able to buy my own. I spent the long Iowa Winter nights poring over the Herter's catalog and eventually learned there were other fly tyers in town. We would all go back and forth by phone, comparing notes on catalog items, discussing the details of the tying properties of various materials, making up lists for tying items and eventually work up a joint order list so we could save on shipping costs. After school I would rush home in order to have enough time to tie flies every night and still get my homework done. No TV for me as tying generally came first. After finishing a fly I would sit back and study it from all angles. If I saw something I didn't like, the wings weren't symmetrical, the tail didn't cock right or the hackle tips didn't support the fly when dropped on a plate of glass, I would take a razor blade and shave the materials off the hook shank and start over. Hooks were expensive, I couldn't afford to waste them so I tied my flies one at a time.

I kept everything in a large, cedar cigar box until my collection of tools and materials outgrew it. I eventually added a pair of hackle pliars from Herter's, a dissecting needle from Jr. high science class with a broken, wooden handle that was being thrown away and a gooseneck desk lamp with an ornate, scalloped cast iron base from my Grandfather.

I still have my original Herter's vise, hackle pliars, a box with a few Gaelic Supreme hooks and the dissecting needle. Oh, and what's left of the 1/2 grizzly neck. I used to show it to my tying students to let them see how much better hackle is today than what I could get in 1963. And I always kept a few moth balls in the cedar cigar box to keep the pests out. This was way before the days of the zip-lock plastic bag which I consider to be second only to "genetic" hackle in terms of revolutionizing fly tying in the last century. When I look back at the changes in fly tying over the last fifty years or so I see that tying really hasn't changed much at all. Sure, folks all have a lot more "stuff" in the way of materials; synthetics have caught on but were nearly unheard of when I started and were held in disdain. There are many, many more tools available today and found on the tier's bench. But the basic process of wrapping some materials around a hook shank and securing them with thread remains pretty much the same as when I started tying. And I find many of the absolute finest tyers use a bare minimum of tools but know the characteristics and physical properties of their materials intimately well.