Time to Tie Flies

We are just entering the months with the coldest days of the year. Not a lot of sportsmen want to spend time in the outdoors now. (Imagine how wildlife deals with the cold.) Anyhow, most sportsmen find things to do during the winter to put in their time, including watching outdoor shows on TV, curling up with sporting books near their woodburners, or reloading shells. Hoping to fool fish with artificial flies, some sportsmen head off to obscure corners of their homes where they tie these artificial flies.

Spending quite a few hours in my fly-tying room, I have made a solid dent in the number of flies I will need for the upcoming season to replace the ones I lost or that wore out last year. I do not have many more to tie, since I didn’t fish as often last season as I have during other years.

Some fly-fishermen tie many dozens of flies. These sportsmen enjoy tying artificial flies as much as they enjoy fishing with them, and their flies look much better than the ones I whip up.

Fly tying has been described as an art, and for some tiers it is. However, for most of us, fly tying is a craft based on a series of repetitive steps.

For some, fly tying is relaxing. For me, it is challenging to construct flies, especially as my manual dexterity decreases.

There are many kinds of flies, and each pattern requires specific materials to be attached to fly hooks in certain ways. Good tiers construct flies so that each one of a pattern is almost indistinguishable from another one of that pattern.

Numerous sportsmen express a desire to learn to tie flies, and some of them find their instructions online. Others want a personal touch. For the first time in several years because of the pandemic, the John Kennedy Chapter of Trout Unlimited (Blair County) is offering a series of weekly beginners’ fly-tying classes on Saturdays starting on Jan. 7 that will last until Feb. 25. Being held at the Allegheny Township Fire Department, 651 Sugar Run Road, Altoona, these classes will begin at 9 each morning. Class size is limited to 30. Though it’s a little late, call Scott Kavanaugh at (814) 515-4788 or Jerry Green at (814) 934-7046 to register. You could also make contact for the class by emailing johnkennedytu@gmail.com. The instructors of these classes are amazing fly tiers, and they can get you well on your way to tying the flies you’ll want to have in your boxes.