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Van der Spuy goes on a personal fly-tying journey with some of the best tiers on the planet. Contributors include Vladimir Petrovic, Daniel Duane, Walter Reisinger, Hans van Klinken, Tim Rolston, Luis Meana Baeza, Umberto Oreglini, Jay lee, Wayne Luallen, Davy Wotton, Marcelo Morales, Jonathan Antunez, Mike Lawson, Leon Links, Barry Ord Clarke, Michael Olesen and Steven Fernandez. For two years Gordon was in constant contact with these tiers who helped him wrap his brain around the nuances behind each pattern in the book. The book is not just a pattern book, it's an idea book jam packed with all those tiny details that make all the difference. The tiers in the book take you on their personal pilgrimages with each pattern and unpack the details behind what makes these flies the killer fishing tools that they are. The book is pregnant with illustrations because a picture paints a thousand words. With over 200 hand drawn pictures that's a book crammed with fly-tying goodness. Colour photo, colour & b/w illus, 6.65x9.44 inches, 244 pgs. Softcover
We live in a world that is hooked on a drug called instant gratification. We're the McDonalds generation. We want things to be quick and we don't want to expend too much energy obtaining them either. Tiers are not exempt. Post a photo of a nice nymph on Facebook or Instagram and the almost immediate response will be 'pattern please' or 'video please,' as if patterns and videos are all you need to successfully tie the fly.
What is sorely lacking in today's society is the concept of some form of a cognitive process. We're programmed to follow and constantly on the lookout for that proverbial 'silver bullet'. Tying is largely taught with a 'monkey see monkey do approach'. The problem with this is that the tier teaching often doesn't divulge all the detail behind what they're doing. Everyone tells you what to do but not everyone tells you why you should be doing it. Sure you can tie by numbers as it were, but that will always be limiting or even restrictive. The path to fly-tying enlightenment it would seem lies in understanding the logic behind what makes effective flies effective. Essentially every killer fly ever created had some form of a development process. A large part of that journey took place in or on the water. 'Don't sweat the small stuff' you often hear but it's the 'small stuff' that makes all the difference. The devil is and was and always will be in the detail. And don't confuse the idea that detail means complexity. At their heart, the most important details are simple.
We live in a world that is hooked on a drug called instant gratification. We're the McDonalds generation. We want things to be quick and we don't want to expend too much energy obtaining them either. Tiers are not exempt. Post a photo of a nice nymph on Facebook or Instagram and the almost immediate response will be 'pattern please' or 'video please,' as if patterns and videos are all you need to successfully tie the fly.
What is sorely lacking in today's society is the concept of some form of a cognitive process. We're programmed to follow and constantly on the lookout for that proverbial 'silver bullet'. Tying is largely taught with a 'monkey see monkey do approach'. The problem with this is that the tier teaching often doesn't divulge all the detail behind what they're doing. Everyone tells you what to do but not everyone tells you why you should be doing it. Sure you can tie by numbers as it were, but that will always be limiting or even restrictive. The path to fly-tying enlightenment it would seem lies in understanding the logic behind what makes effective flies effective. Essentially every killer fly ever created had some form of a development process. A large part of that journey took place in or on the water. 'Don't sweat the small stuff' you often hear but it's the 'small stuff' that makes all the difference. The devil is and was and always will be in the detail. And don't confuse the idea that detail means complexity. At their heart, the most important details are simple.
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