Another label emerges... :)

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time, but..I have decided to finally get around to posting some Fly Tying stuff on the blog. So there is a new Fly Tying label here (on the list below at right).  I had dabbled in it long ago when I was literally a fish bum, living on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington in the college years, and then again got back to it briefly after moving back home to PA, but it never stuck.  Guess I kinda spent too much time fishing back then to have any left over for fly tying...

At any rate, I now have long Alaskan winters to fill.  Long story short, I set out last summer (about 40 weeks ago, now) to get back into fly tying.  But this time, I really meant it. I was not only going to 'dabble' in it, I was going to LEARN it.  The 'new first' fly, a green rockworm-dubbing-nymph-creature-thingy, emerged after a flurry of Longboard Lagers (see pic) as I tried out my Anvil Atlas vise back in June. The Atlas was the first tool I selected to accompany me on this journey:

And since then I have been poring over books, videos, websites, blogs, and opinions on, "Which dubbing for this?", "What type of feather will do that?"...and on and on.  Since then I have (at times, quite unsuccessfully) tried to tie everything from size 20 midges to huge bulky pike flies - "streamers full of junk", if you are up on the recent lingo that fly fishing and tying has adopted. :)  Having some base knowledge (of the flies and the bugs both) and some vague memories has helped a bit, but mostly I think it has been the addiction that has advanced my learning curve the most of all.  That, and, of course, living at Ground Zero for trout and salmon Shangri-la helps too :) - you get to try out all your creations and experiments on real fish...immediately...and fish are the best teachers, when you are a fly-tyer.

So though I am still nothing close to a Jedi, my flies have come along enough now, (and caught enough fish for me) that I am ready to start posting them here.  Should be another fun element to add to the blog...and of course, the fishing itself will be found on the species list blog, found by the link at the top of the pages.  And away we go...