When I joined the Santa Cruz Fly Fishing club, I assumed that I was going to learn how to cast, where to go, how to read water, and land a fish. One day, I asked Sam Bishop where I could buy surf perch flies and he looked at me with incredulity. “You don’t buy them, you make ’em and if it takes longer than 3 minutes, than you did it wrong.” So a bit chastened, I went to to a fly tying class which featured a surf perch fly. On the left is a picture from the Feb. 2020 newsletter and on the right is the fly that I tied in the class. Let’s just say that I wasn’t a natural.
With that experience and COVID shutting down all in-person activities, it should have been the end of my fly tying. However by September, Tom Hogye (past-president) convinced Elaine to teach fly tying online using Zoom and I volunteered to help Elaine run the Zoom class which means I participated in the class. Over the months, I started to look forward to spending an evening a month in the Zoom class with other club members. Now I watch YouTube videos on tying, go to club swap meets, and buy material on-line. Oh and I still go to the monthly tying classes to learn from others in the club. I even think my tying has improved.
Over the summer months, we will have guest club instructors including Tom Eckert, Greg Foy, Jerry McKeon, and Michael Sherwood. You should give it a try, you might accidentally become a tyer.
Have a wonderful 4th of July,
Scott Kitayama, President
P.S. The fly that Sam was referring to is the “orange stick”. Very effective, fast to tie, and only uses two materials. I am not sure you can buy it. You might just have to make ’em.
Posted on June 14th, 2023