Fly tying as a relaxing hobby

Press, 2 August 1979, Page 11

Fly tying as a relaxing hobby

(By JOHN MORTON, of Fly by Night Products) After having spent a lot of money on handyman, improvements, comes the time to relax and consider your hobby or sport. Fly tying is both a hobby and a sport and can save you many a dollar when planning the pursuit of the elusive trout. Flies from trout come in four categories: The large lures, which imitate small fish, whitebait, cockabullies and snails. The dry fly, which represents insects that have fallen on the water or have just hatched from their underwater larval life. These come floating high and dry down the current. Wet flies, which represent sunken flies and beetles drifting slo'wly downstream. Nymphs, the underwater larvae of many of the mayflies and stoneflies which float to the surface, hatch and form dancing clouds over the water on still days. These make up a large part of the trout's diet. All flies have, in addition to a fish hook, a common basic ingredient of feathers and fur. Many other materials are also used, such as plastics and paint, to achieve creations designed to catch the eye and titillate the taste buds of the wary trout. The materials we use come from all parts of the world, some feathers being obtained from rare as well as domestic species of birds. Fly by Night Products buy from countries incl uding India, South

Africa, China, the United States and Great Britain to provide materials for .their fly supplies. The tying is an all-ab-sorbing and fascinating hobby for which tools costing about $2O will last a lifetime. Feathers can come from neighbours’ fowls, and even the tail of a possum which has fallen victim to a passing motorist can come in handy. In the early tying days, the befeathered hats of ladies often provided the coloured feathers for the brighter patterns. After a few tries, a fly is extremely easy to tie and although the beginner will not achieve that shopbought look straight away, his creation will certainly take trout. Finally, nothing gives the angler more confidence that to have a fly tied exactly as he wants it and, of course, there is no better way to achieve this than to do it yourself. To see how easy it is, watch fly tying by a professional expert this Saturday at the Building Centre. He will give you many tips on some of the more difficult techniques.