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Since I'm a music teacher as well as a professional fly tyer, I will comment that fly tying like music is an art that must be nurtured. Some are naturals as to the creative process, but these prodigies must still be educated, & practice their art.
Like music, you never stop learning when it comes to fly tying (even the masters; the Deans....Legends....Professors or whatever you want to call them know this) !!!!
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RonMt....
Do you have an opinion as to why you found doctors were the worst tiers?
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Sort of like casting, your level of tying will only get as high as you want it to get. I suggest that the best tiers have unreachable goals, while most tiers simply want to catch fish.
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I agree with JC. I took a class taught by Mike Mercer. Even as he explained and demonstrated what he was doing I realized that he has a special talent that no amount of practice on my part will duplicate. Someday I will tie a reasonable copy of one of his flies but it still won't be like his.
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We can argue the talent-practice question back and forth for hours, days or even years and still not reach a conclusion.
I like Norman Mclean's quote answer about his father's view of talent and practice from "A River Runs Through It."
"My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things---trout as well as eternal salvation---come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."
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You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.
[This message has been edited by Eight Thumbs (edited 08 January 2006).]
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Practice, and a genuine, persistent need to get their flies as close to perfect as possible. Also, the ability to adapt, and innovate new patterns and materials. One of the persons I can think of who embodies this is Rick Takahashi of CO.
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Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies!
www.customflys.com
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I do think that some of it is just simply talent. However, all of the better tyers that I know tie a whole lot of flies. So I do think experience behind the vise figures into it very much also.
And of course there is the quality of materials. I think that John Gierach said it best in his book "Good Flies"...something along the lines that with mediocre materials the very best that you can hope to tye is mediocre flies.
-Darryl
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"If we carry purism to it's logical conclusion, to do it right you'd have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each."
~John Gierach
[This message has been edited by Darryl (edited 09 January 2006).]
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The quote I recall from something I read by a well known tyer was, "You really don't know how to tye a fly until you have tied the first 100 dozen of them." From this I would say practice and attention to detail have something to do with tying an exceptional fly. That tyer is AK Best.
JC, to add to your 4 martini tyer story, I shot my best round of golf ever by drinking 3 beers before I started playing. Maybe I should try that with fly tying!!
Dr Bob
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If you say "I cannot do this!", before even trying, you are insuring your own failure before you start.
I had Rickets (calcium deficiency for lack of Vitamin D) when I was a child, wore leg braces for the first 10 years of my life, and have one foot that is a whole size smaller than the other. I had a 27 year career in the U.S. Army. I wore out the soles and heels on my Jump Boot many time over those 27 years.
I had a speech impediment, that required three surgeries, and 9 years of speech therapy. I became a Senior Instructor, and Course Manager of MOS (Military Occupational Skill) Training. I am also trained in Mechanical & Construction Drafting, Engineering Material Design, Static & Dynamic Load, Algebra, Geometry, Logarithms, Analytical Trigonometry, Spherical Trigonometry, Calculus, and Metallurgy.
I have dyslexia, yet I never let it stop me of learning to become a avid reader of books, or to excel at math. I became a Artillery -Topographic-Construction Surveyor, Nuclear/Biological/Chemical Warfare Specialist, Pipeline Design NCO.
I have short stubbing fingers, yet I play piano, guitar, trumpet, and banjo. I tie flies, build fly rods, make furled leader, do wood working, build boats, and even do Cross-Stitch.
So believe in yourself, and if the going gets tough, just keep plugging along. Instead of looking at something (as if it where large mountain) that is too much to shovel, just take it one shovelful at a time, pretty soon whatever it was, will have disappeared. For some, everything in life is easy, for the rest of us it is a adventure in our character.
What would have happen, if I listen to those people who said, "Forget about trying, you will never be able to do this!"
I also learned how to Parachute, and fly an airplane, and many, many more things....and I am still going!
`Parnelli http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 12 January 2006).]
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There is very little I am jealous of in this world but 'talent' is one of them.
To watch someone do anything 'effortlessly' amazes me to no end. And I don't mean someone who has spent thousands of mind-numbing hours honing their skills to the highest level (though that's impressive in it's own right).
I'll never be a highly accomplished fly tier. Though I do believe a well-tied fly will pay dividends in fishability (mostly durability) There comes a level when I say, "That's good enough for the girls I go with." And I go fishin'. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif