Some time ago, I offered some pictures of flies tied by a young enthusiast here in Nashville. His name is Ken Yamazaki, he is 11 years old, self taught (mostly) and is quite talented as you can see by his work.
He has been tying for about a year now and his talent never ceases to amaze me. His very first fly was a beautiful Salmon fly and that was last April or May, somewhere in that time frame. He came in once and asked me to show him how to spin deer hair and I spent maybe 20 minutes with him showing him a few techniques. The following Saturday, he came back and gave me a small fish that he had tied, completely out of spun deer hair and immaculately trimmed to resemble a very small fish. I thought that was very clever, then one day I found the fly that he had tied in one of our fly tying books and I asked him if that was what he had tied and he told me that he had seen it and wanted to tie one like it.
I really thought that you would enjoy seeing what his young man is doing and has only been tying for nearly a year now. Pretty remarkable to say the least. Enjoy!!
I remember the original post as well, I’m just hoping that, That vise is his father’s…could not imagine being 11 yrs old…and owning a nor vise! or apparently…37…lol :rolleyes: Beautiful Flies btw!.
Scuba, I’m not AT ALL “jealous” of this young man’s tying skill, I think I’m far beyond that stage, seeing his work!
I’m more attuned to just toss out all my own tying equipment and going straight back to worms!
Truly beautiful free-style flies, simply beautiful.
I am aligned with all of you on his work, and I always stand in amazement of his range in work…take a look at his “fishing” fly box…now talk about jealous…
and the Nor vise is his, his father doesn’t tie (yet). When I asked him what vise he wanted, he told me NorVise so cest la vie!!
Check out the little green and yellow spun deer hair fish in the shadow box!!!
Great looking wings on the fly in the center of the box
Okay, that kid is flat off the hook!! The deer hair fish is just unbelievable. I have seen similar flies tied by experienced fly dressers, not by a self taught 11 year old. Have you convinced him to tie your fishing flies yet?
My God, this post is only getting, WORSE, as to how bad this young man can make me feel!?! The ONLY THING, that I can even come CLOSE TO, with this boy’s talent, is “making fly boxes out of empty Altoid tins”, (last picture)!
Let’s face it folks…this young man is the Tiger Woods of fly tying! The more I see, the more I am in awe. The amazing thing is his creativity & concentration at his age.
BTW Leo…How’s “retirement”?..As if YOU would or could retire!
Mike
Its great Mike. But it is really lousy in some ways. All day, every day, I am either working on a bamboo, tying flies or hanging at the fly shop and getting to talk to folks of all levels of fly fishing expertise.
It gets worse with Ken. In February, I built a bamboo rod in the fly shop as a way to drive traffic during a slow month. Ken, his father and brother were there every minute of it and Ken sat right in front of my wrapper most of the time. The guy I was building the rod for was there too. It was a partridge blank (8’ 2/1 5 wt) and we did transparent wraps on it using white Gossamer. Ken was fascinated by the way the thread seemed to disappear when the varnish went on them.
After I did maybe 6 wraps, I looked at little Ken and asked him if he was ready to try wrapping. He very shyly said that he wasn’t, and Mark, the guy I was building the rod for told Ken that he would be honored if he would do a wrap on the rod.
Ken came around behind me and stood looking over my shoulder while I did another wrap on one of the guides, then when I finished I got up and he sat down in the drivers seat. It did take him a while longer than me but big deal. His first wrap was absolutely flawless, no tag end showing, nice and tight wrap, the whole nine yards. He even burnished it perfectly when he finished it. We put a green agate stripper on the rod too and then did green accent wraps. After I did several accent wraps, Ken did a couple of them too and they, too, were perfect. Ken didn’t get to see the finished rod because I finished it at home, so he will get to see another surprise on Saturday hopefully. Mark and I agreed that Kens name should be on the rod too, so we put it on there along with mine. Kens Father knows about it but wants Ken to see it without telling him about it.
I guess one of the greatest satisfactions God has ever given me is to get to work with and help a young man like this to learn and to grow in what he really likes to do. He is, no doubt, a prodigy and there is also little doubt in my mind that one day, he will definitely be someone we are all reading about and looking at his work in books and magazines. I am working with a few vendors now seeking some support for him and some sponsorships so he can get a lot more knowledge than I could ever give him. About all I can do with my limited knowledge of tying skills is to help point him in the right direction. My tying skills are limited to a soft hackle, midges and nymphs, and a few streamers but nothing like what he ties.
