Hello, my name is Paul M. H. Whillock and I am a fly tyer from Solihull, England. I was about twelve years old when I began fishing and kept a fishing diary which recorded my trips and experiences. One of my early entries documented my decision to begin tying my own flies and shortly after, I purchased my first fly tying outfit from a local fly shop.
The owner was a friendly, helpful fellow who gave me an impromptu fly tying lesson even though there were other people waiting to be served in his shop. I remember him asking me; “Have you ever tied a fly Son?”, figuring the answer out for himself and without a second thought, he set the vise up on the end of the table and began rummaging thru the box of fur feather and fibres. I watched his huge hands as they magically crafted a small dry fly which was delicately presented to me seconds later.
As I left, the shop owner handed me a few extra bags of apparently ‘essential’ materials, a small pot of varnish and a magazine. That magazine contained 12 fly patterns which I practised tying constantly however, it was the Classic Salmon Fly used as the front cover image that really inspired me, I often studied that fly image and wondered how proud the fly Tyer must have been to see their fly on the cover of a magazine.
Thru the passage of time, ones memories sometimes fade, a busy workload, a growing family or just plain old age will cause you to forget some of those older memories. I attended a recent US fly tying show whereupon a young tyer accompanied by his father asked me to sign a copy of ‘Fly Tyer’ magazine where my Stonefly Nymph had been used as the issues front cover image. Smiling to myself, I remembered the time when I stood where the young tyer now stood, I also remembered that one of my fly tying ambitions was to see one of my flies in a magazine however, I cannot explain just how good it felt to see my fly on the cover of a magazine or, how great it felt that someone had asked me to sign that magazine. That occasion also became a great memory.
Browsing through my Diary I happened across one particular entry dated January 29th 2002 and entitled: ‘US Customs’; I had been invited to tie realistic fishing flies and also display my Art Flies at the International Fly Tying Symposium in New Jersey, America. I had spent most of the year preparing the flies for my display but, it soon became apparent that the display would not fit into my suitcase so, under the suggestion of my good friend; ‘Bob Mead’, I packaged the flies, the display bases and “Fed-Ex’d” the entire shipment to his address in up state New York. Bob was attending the show himself and the plan was that he would bring the flies along for me however, I received a phone call from Bob 2 days before the show informing me the package had not arrived?
Arriving at the Doubletree Hotel in New Jersey, the awful truth emerged that my flies had been lost or perhaps even damaged in transit…….I had no idea where to start looking. After seeing my desperation, Hotel Crew leader; ‘Eric Leininger’ sprang to my assistance and after spending many hours on the telephone he somehow managed to track my package down to the Customs Office at JFK Airport whereupon it transpired that my flies had been impounded on account that at least one of the Nymphs was believed to be ‘a real insect’ that had been coated in plastic and mounted on a fishing hook! Customs went on to say: “Sir, it is illegal to import insects to this Country”. Though one of the Nymphs remained in ‘custody’, most of the shipment was eventually released and mailed to Bob after they discovered my flies were harmless imitations though attached to the package was an import duty bill for $535 dollars!
One final thought taken from one of the last pages in my diary, it is a set of three Realistic fly tying rules that I set myself many years ago as a result of listening to others and from what I had learned en-route. In this high tech age we seem to push many boundaries which in many ways can be a great thing but, in Realistic fly tying we must remain tethered by one fundamentally important rule and that is; right down to the last hair on the leg…….a fly must always be tied together!
So what is fair game in the world of realistic fly tying? I am sure some of the answers could fuel many bar room debates for an eternity but, below is my own short list of realistic fly tying rules.
#1. Any of the material used in the fly should be tied onto the fly. Under no account should anything be glued onto the fly!
#2. No carved wood or plastic bodies!
#3. Use only materials that are commercially available to all tyers!
Best regards
(My old saying is that Flies are tied together whilst models are glued together!)
