If and when you attend a show that has various fly tiers involved do you watch these demonstrations to see the tier make his or her new patterns or to glean how the tier makes flies in general? Do you prefer to see how techniques are presented or does seeing new patterns draw you?
harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:f1b92]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:f1b92]
I like to watch how different people handle different materials. ALWAYS something to learn. As much tweaking as we do, pattern is less important than material effect (action and function) and how stuff is handled.
Like painting the WHOLE feather! 
…lee s.
I like to see how the patterns are tied. I still learn a new thing or how to do something better each time I go.
Your tutorials are great Harry.
Rick
I certainly agree about the tutorials on troutflies. I refer to them all the time.
I’m a beginning tier, and I’ll never be able tie the breadth and range of patterns that are out there. So I’m mostly trying to figure out what patterns I can tie, and focus on those. Everything else I’ll just buy.
As a concrete example, I want to be able to tie a few soft hackle patterns and wet flies quickly and effectively – not classic wet flies necessarily, but flies that I’m gonna fish myself. I’ve recently learned a few tricks at fly tieing demos on tieing in soft hackle that I really liked. They were probably boring for the tier, but I liked them. Also, it’s easy for me to see that more advanced tiers would find the same things uninteresting.
I also recently learned some nice little tricks on tieing Pheasant Tails from the troutflies tutorial. I probably have tied 10 times more Pheasant Tails than anything else, but I learned a little thing from the tutorial that helped me do the legs better.
Probably doesn’t answer your question, but maybe there’s some useful information in there.
BFB,
“I’m a beginning tier, and I’ll never be able tie the breadth and range of patterns that are out there.”
May we querry you as to this in a couple seasons? You will be surprised as to what will become “old hat” to you and what you will be able to accomplish as you progress. 
Like others have stated my main goal at shows is seeing how materials are handled and watching specific techniques. That, and you can often score unusual hard to find materials at shows. If you want a pattern you can find it somewhere on the web, but you can’t physically watch these guy tie over the internet - at least not yet.
Jeremy
I was wondering because I find myself watching people who are tying more common patterns to see just how they do it. At one time, I was all into the new ties. What is “so and so” tying today? Today I watch more of the materials handling and proportions and just how these guys do things. Also, I was undecided as to what to present at the shows I will be at… I think I will stay with the basic stuff…makes for more conversation over the hook 
harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:3ce17]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:3ce17]
Jeremy,
If you want a pattern you can find it somewhere on the web, but you can’t physically watch these guy tie over the internet - at least not yet.
Sometimes the two may come together 
[http://www.danica.com/flytier/movies/flytying/cdcelk.wmv[/url:d31b9]
5 minute movie clip I put together on tying the CDC&Elk (Windows Media Player format, 12MB)
Cheers,
Hans W
=== You have a friend in Low Places ===
[url=“http://www.danica.com/flytier”]http://www.danica.com/flytier](http://www.danica.com/flytier/movies/flytying/cdcelk.wmv:d31b9)
Hans,
I’ve seen your CDC and elk video. It’s very good. I should tell you again what a great resource I think your site is. It’s the first place I go when I’m looking for a pattern or some inspiration and a few ideas to put together a new pattern. All of us owe you a giant thank you for work putting it together.
Jeremy
Well harry, I DO like the stations that have a shovel nearby.