Fly Tying Group

Organizing a Multi-Day Tying Curriculum

By Doug Jeffries

First posted July 17, 2006 Last updated June 17, 2008

1. Remember this is supposed to be fun. Don’t make it so serious people quit. Have some funny stories, history, anecdotal info or something to keep the class entertained. That reminds me – I vote to forget the whole certification idea. There’s no real need in my opinion. And unknowing people may assume that just because someone or some fly isn’t from a certified fly tyer it isn’t any good. Some of the best flies I have came from guides who spend many more days analyzing fish than I do and most of them haven’t had any formal instruction. They simply started tying what they thought would work. Some do things completely contrary to “established” practices (like a make a big, bulky head or something) and the fly works great. I think FFF needs to be very careful about getting to anal about this thing. That’s an aside opinion of my own.

2. I think it is very important to be very clear about the intent of the classes and what will take place. Let people know what they are getting into and giving up time (sometimes money) to attend. If the intent is to actually teach fly tying (as opposed to simply demonstrating some flies for the local area) make sure people know that. Tell them exactly what you plan to do each evening or session, what knowledge they will leave with, and what to bring to the next one.

3. I believe the most effective fly tying sessions are designed to teach techniques at the same time as resulting in a finished fly or two. To do that, pick some flies that will demonstrate a specific technique. Explain to the group that if they learn the techniques, they can look at any fly and figure out how to tie it themselves. Plus, they can mix and match techniques to create their own flies – which is half the fun of fly tying in my opinion. To this end, I developed a 16 week curriculum while living in Australia. Each session lasted one hour max (that’s about all people can comfortably spare and all the knowledge that can take away and retain). Each session we tied one or two flies – one salt water, one fresh water. The local shop owner helped me pick flies that could be used in the area. Doesn’t make any sense to have them tie a fly they can’t use. I emphasized to the students that mastering the technique of the night was more important than the finished fly. This is especially true for the opening sessions. The first technique might be mounting the thread and tying in a tail for a dry fly and a salt water fly. We would continue to finish each fly but since they didn’t have the next techniques the final product didn’t always look like mine. But I praised them if the got the technique of the night right.

4. I also agree with the posts about providing a handout. I wrote a step by step instruction for each fly we did and drew pen & ink line drawings for each step. They weren’t perfect but they gave the students somewhere to write notes of their own, and to refer to later during the days between classes. I encouraged them to practice the techniques at least once between classes and to bring any questions or difficulties to the next session so we could try to help them. Since we did this for 16 weeks I think I have write ups for 28 – 30 flies. Some sessions we only did one fly because of the complexity. For example, the Dahlberg Diver night we only only did that one fly.

5. Equipment – I think it is very useful and students appreciate being able to try out tying before buying their own gear. Plus, if the class has access to different kinds of tools they can try them out – such as different whip finishers or hackle pliers, etc.

6. Remember to tailor the instruction to the experience of the group. If you have all beginners, you cannot take any step for granted. I remember Wayne Luallen talking about spinning the thread so it’s flat for certain steps and round for others. It is important to explain how and why you do that. The why is almost more important than the how. If you have a mixed class, it is very important to explain to the experienced folks that you will be covering the details. If they go ahead or get impatient it ruins it for the beginners because they feel threatened about asking questions, etc. Of course, a helpful experienced person can add value by offering different techniques of his or her own.

7. There is always more than one way to do things. Just because it isn’t mine doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s only wrong if the final product is flawed in my opinion. So be prepared for people to ask about different methods they’ve read about or seen or maybe think up on their own. Don’t discourage or denigrate those methods. Explain the advantages or disadvantages and let the class decide on their own.

8. The class has to allow for hands on time. And the instructor has to get out of their chair and go around to each student and observe. You cannot see the details of most steps without doing that. That of course means you need to limit the student to instructor ratio to 5 or 6 to 1. If the instructor takes too much time going around the room before going to the next step the group gets impatient and side discussions start and people lose interest. If the purpose is to only demonstrate the fly, you can allow as many people as can reasonable get around a standard size desk or table. Any more and they can’t see well enough. I find the video system that Int’l Expo uses to work pretty well but the instructor has to make sure what they are trying to show is in the camera. Plus, it’s probably overly expensive for any non-profit group.

9. Material selection has to be a part of all classes. The techniques work better when you have the right materials. So include in the curriculum the different attributes you look for in the materials. Have examples of good and bad materials to effectively show the difference – simply saying “look for stiff barbules” doesn’t mean anything to someone who hasn’t felt the difference. Even synthetic materials can have minor differences that make a big difference in the fly performance. For example, craft foam from Michael’s is softer than the foam Lew Haskin’s sells for Gurglers. The soft foam isn’t strong enough to keep the bubbler lip standing out in front of the fly – it folds back over the top of the fly after a few strips. The result, you either need to add a stiffener loop of heavy mono – or buy the right foam in the first place. Another example, as you know, dry fly hackle that’s advertised as dry fly hackle can be very different. I’ve wasted lots of money on useless hackle. The subtle differences only became clear to me when I started to find really good hackle. So for each technique, I included a discussion about the materials commonly used for that technique, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. On the other hand, I don’t think there is value for an instructor to go into the micrometer dimensions of the various ought sizes of thread. It’s sufficient to explain some are thinner than others and when you should use each.

Cheers,
doug