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Tying jitters

2K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  hitcher 
#1 ·
I have been looking at my vice with a AJ blind eye for the month and have not been able to bring myself to start tying for some reason.:confused:

I even went out and bought myself a new camera, a Nikon D3100 for taking pic's of the flies I tie.

I just get behind the vice and freeze, just staring at the hook. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem I'm having right now. I sit and look at the great stuff that's being turned out and say hey I can do that but just don't for some reason.

Maybe I need a shrink? we don't need to go into that.

Borderfly
 
#2 ·
I've been there. I had 3/4's of a green highlander in my vise for months.

I got in to a pattern of buying new materials thinking that it would get me going again. No dice.

I ended up tying a small box of flies for a friend's upcoming trip. I needed a deadline and some easy flies. It did the trick. The moment they were done, I finished that pesky highlander.
 
#3 ·
Get your new camera and some mp3 player (or walkman, discman, minidisc, whatever you prefer) go out and start taking pictures of the river, the stones, the woods, find the spots you like to fish and picture them, all while listening to some really relaxing music (something like "ah-nee-mah" or "Dead Can Dance" or "Inkalesh") and every time you take a picture think about the fly you would use there. I'm pretty sure that you will recover the will to tie some of the great stuff you usually tie :smokin:

Oh and yes, it happened to me and i did just what i told you, except that i also went to the lagoon with my bike, it was a freat day and the very same night i was tying again :hihi:
 
#4 ·
My problem is that I want to tie too much :hihi:

Sometimes I freeze up because I have too many patterns and ideas on the brain . This really apparent when I start a new style of fly . I'll sit and stare at the vice with the hook in it not knowing which pattern to tie first . I'll bounce back and forth between materials and such that I never get started . I find that it is best to walk away from the vice at that point and do something else to release my thoughts from the vice . Then once I'm clear , pick the first pattern that pops into my head , gather the materials and then start . It helps to gather all the materials so you have now made a conscience decision on what to tie . Try that .... it may help .










Mike
 
#8 ·
Mike, that almost always happens to me! I end up with wayyyy too many patterns on the brain. I have dozens of lists of flies I want to tie in a drawer of my feather chest. If I tied a fly instead of making a list, I'd have a lot more flies, and be a much better tier for it.

But for list making... I might be in the the 98th percentile. I'm the Bud Guidry of list making.
 
#10 ·
I call it the darkness of winter;

I have periods like you are talking about but it has nothing to do with blind eye hooks. Here it's all about winter and the short days. Right now we're gaining 5 min. 40 seconds per day and I'll come out of my hole soon. I have some empty clips in boxes from last year because of a series of sweepers that I lost a bunch of my big king salmon flies in last May. I even went back when the water dropped to see if I could get any back and the logs and limbs were bare, no snagged flies :confused: I figured that the recoil when the 25 lb leader snapped just sprang them.

There's always the fact that I have enough flies to make the next three seasons acting as a block too :D At any rate I tied some of the purple wet flies that Marty used in his challenge thread and will start making some Thor, Skykomish, and Freight Trains. Of course the three Double Dares I hung on that one set of submerged logs and limbs need to be replaced. Funny thing here, the kings like to hang in the eddies caused by trees that are hung up and sweeping the current. If you want to get one on you gotta swing the fly right through the thick of it. It's not so bad if you get a fish but when you just clean out a row or 2 from your box and never hook a fish it's a rough ride.
 
#11 ·
We need to see your flies

We the undertalented tyers need to see your flies. Here is my therapy recommendation. If you are willing and able to drink that is...
  • Pour two fingers of single malt, put it down the hatch
  • gather all the materials you need and mount the hook
  • pour two more fingers, you know what to do next
  • begin wrapping thread or tying floss, as preferred
  • pour two more fingers, dispose of consumptively (is that a word? After six fingers who cares)
  • Now you are flowing, tie away.
  • When in doubt, pour two more fingers, do what is right with it
  • once finished, photo and post...the ice is broken

I thank you for your willingness to go through all this trouble to show off your talent. I hope many others will follow this ice breaking process and share thiers!
 
#12 ·
Just tie something you want to fish. If it looks ragged don't post it. Just fish it. I can't post flies right now so the only thing that counts is if the fish like it. My most productive flies I won't post anyway because they don't look so pretty out of the river.
If it came down to art or fish I'd pick fish anyday!
 
#13 ·
I'm with Riverborn, and I'll tell you why from a different perspective.

I'm an artist, a painter- not a hobby, it's what I do for a living. I hear all the time about muses, etc. BS- if you're serious about it, you have to show up for work- no sitting around waiting for inspiration, for the right mood- that doesn't pay the bills.

That said, there is still evolution, experimentation ...... work that doesn't cross the bar of what goes out of the studio. The percentage of the work at that end of the scale is thankfully less than it used to be- but still, sometimes, they go to the burn-pile. If I am afraid of doing something bad, I never would be able to do something good- ie, I learn from my mistakes, not successes.

So dive in. Don't worry about it- if it sucks, don't post it, get out the knife, clean the hook, and go again. Mistakes can be kept to your self and learned from, success shared.

Good luck.
 
#14 ·
Don't worry about it- if it sucks, don't post it, get out the knife, clean the hook, and go again. Mistakes can be kept to your self and learned from, success shared.
Sage advice, right there. I got hung up on a Black Ranger a few months back and finally reconciled myself to the fact that it was gonna look like a tie-dyed hummingbird that had a run-in with a bug zapper. Got it finished, tossed it into the "general use" bin and moved on with my life. :chuckle:
 
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