You haven't been to my friend, Kat's, fly tying cave. Granted she's a professional salmon fly tier and a serious tying history buff (there's an upcoming article on her in Fly Tyer magazine). She ties in hand, makes her own dyes from lichen and barks, and has even considered cultivating silk worms so she can harvest and stretch their guts. The amount of tying materials she has accumulated puts most fly shops to shame! While I admire her singular passion, it's also a tiny bit scary (her husband, Rob, would agree with me ;).
Hence, my resistance to go over to the dark side of fly fishing—that bottomless black hole of feathers, furs, notions, and hooks.
 |
| My new vice: the Regal Revolution. |
At the show, I ended up getting a top-of-the-line, full rotary, Regal vise. Crazy, huh? Well, this flygirl doesn't mess around. I figured I'd never outgrow it and it would last me a lifetime, or two. Kat helped me select some hackle materials and get a few basic tools and supplies. A couple of shopping bags and several $$$ later, I was ready to knit some flies ;).
These past couple of months, I've tied with the Julianas (classic Catskills style March Brown dry, emerger, and comparadun) and my NYC Fly Meetup group (Caddis emergent sparkle pupa, deep sparkle pupa, and buzzball, a la Gary Lafontaine). I must admit, it's been a lot fun, very educational, and hopefully rewarding once Spring decides to finally get here (hurry up already!!!) and I can put some of these flies to good use.
 |
| My new knitting circle ;). A great group of tiers from the NYC Fly Meetup. Photo courtesy of Brent Taylor |
