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Taking flytying back to the basics

Seven stalwart members of the Club braved the wintery elements on Thursday the 18th of January to attend the monthly flytying meeting. We departed from recent tradition, by not having a featured tyer. Rather, the 3 more experienced members partnered with the others and tied flies that illustrated basic techniques. Howard Fiander demonstrated how to attach a soft hackle to a wetfly (using a pattern that Primrose Trout eat like popcorn). Then we moved onto dubbing loops, and an efficient way to spin dubbing without a loop. Each small group worked on different patterns to practice these techniques and we had quite a good collection of flies by the end of the evening. The learners appreciated the one-on-one guidance, and each learned at least one basic technique.

In February, Dave Whalley is going to talk about the different kinds of feathers used for flies, how to choose them, how to tie them on and the kinds of patterns that use each feather. We'll tie a couple of patterns to illustrate the methods, using the small groups again.
NOTE: the February flytying date is the 23rd, not the 16th as I erroneously put on a flier that went to the tackle shops. The meeting will be from 7:00-9:00p.m. in the Learning Room on the 2nd floor of Kitchener City Hall, as usual. Non-members are welcome and encouraged to come (with a $5.00 contribution for materials).

Jeff Thomason