FLY TYING CLASS TO BEGIN SOON

BY JOHN BERRY

I don’t know about the rest of you but I have been spending a lot of my time tying flies for the past few weeks. After one of my busiest years ever, my fly boxes were almost depleted. There were sizes and colors that I was totally out of. Somehow I made it through the year and I am now working toward restocking them. I tie in my sun room, on a desk, facing the television. This allows me to keep up with the news as I tie and helps the time pass. With our recent brutally cold weather, this has been a very pleasant way to spend my days.

There are a lot of reasons that I tie my own flies. Basically I enjoy working with my hands. If I weren’t tying flies, I would be in my shop working on some project. There is a great sense of accomplishment when I or one of my clients catches a fish on a fly that I tied. My clients always ask if I tie my own flies and I am proud to say that I tie the great majority of them. I do have certain patterns tied by local tyers because they are too complex for me to tie. Berry’s law of fly tying is; you have to tie them faster than you can lose them.

You can tie a better fly than you can buy. You can use the best hooks available (I prefer Tiemco factory barbless hooks), the absolute best materials and take the time to add extra features. By extra features, I mean an extra whip finish, glue on the thread base or a metal rib to add to a fly’s durability. Or you can tie the same nymph with several different sizes of tungsten beads so that the same fly can have multiple sink rates for varied water conditions. There are other tricks that can make your flies better than commercially tied one, because you can take the time to tie them exactly the way you want.

What I like the best about fly tying is teaching it. There is something special about introducing someone to the art. The excitement in their eyes, when they catch a fish on a fly that they tied themselves, is a reward, in itself. I have been teaching fly tying for over twenty five years and I really look forward to each class. As a result, I have scheduled a fly tying class at Arkansas State University Mountain Home on Thursday January 9, 16, 23 and 30 through the Continuing Education Department. The classes are scheduled from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on the ASU campus. Contact the Continuing Education Department to enroll.

You will need to furnish your own fly tying tools. You will need a fly tying vise, fly tying scissors, bobbin, hackle pliers and a spool of 6/0 fly tying thread. All can be purchased at reasonable cost at Dally’s Ozark Angler, our local fly shop. If you are not sure what to buy, just come to the class. I will bring extra tools to the first class.

The course will concentrate on learning basic techniques that you will use to tie all flies and the course is designed for the complete novice. We will learn to tie the basic flies that I use the most when fishing the White and Norfork Rivers. These are what I call guide flies that are designed and tied to specifically catch fish. 

If this sounds like something that would be of interest to you, please call ASU and sign up. I will see you there.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.