I just got back from the tying demo at Jimmy's. I sat in on Bruce Staples.
He's an author and tier of note who ties at many of the large, symposiums.
Bruce had a different slant than the tyer I watched last week He used most
natural materials and "sparingly", added synthetics. His theme was where to
present the fly and then the presentation, were 90 % of the nitty-gritty,
and it is the necessity of fly shops to sell materials and flies that create
the mind set in many flyfisherman to focus on the fly. He also mentioned
that he seldom uses a tippet size smaller than 4x, even on small flies. He
felt the need to land bigger fish fairly quickly and therefore accepted the
challenge of getting takes on larger tippets. Bruce tied a fine looking,
loop eyed #16 blue-winged olive using monofiliment for the loops. He could
draw the mono down after looping to create the loop size and then the two
mono strands at the tail end, he secured in hackle pliers that were rubber
banded to a post and then dubbed over a small extention portion for an
extended body. Dub forward and hackle and it made for a good looking
flat-water pattern. He trimmed it under. He was very big on peacock herl
also,as many of us are. He created a very nice looking adult caddis that I
was impressed with. He used the irridescent ringneck neck feather matched
as a wing. A drop of cement after stripping the feather and pressing it
into the feather as he pulled his thumb and forefinger back created a
fairly, durable wing. These were tied in on each side of the pattern after
using one strand of pheasant feather for the body. He also added antennae
using strands of bailing cord (straw/hay) He then slant cut the back of the
two matching wing feathers slightly forward to look like the natural. Now,
I've got to tie and get ready for next week! I found out, at the shop
today, that they have their huge, two day tying exhibition at the big
downtown hotel the weekend of April 21-22...the weekend that I've planned a
fly fishing school and a return to the Seattle area! Figures. Chris Helm
will be one of the many tiers out from back East. I guess he is one of the
tops at spinning deer-hair patterns. Jere
