Somewhere in one of John Gierach’s books (and forgive me..I am not going searching for the quote), he mentions that he sees his flies more as ammo than art. That resonated with me. Most of the flies I tie, when subjected to scrutiny with a magnifying glass, reveal hopeless faults. Thread showing through. Uneven ribbing. Imperfect body tapers. Tag ends of trimmed materials. Etcetera.
And the Trout don’t give a damn.
So neither do I.
I think my deteriorating eyesight, and the fact that I always seem to be in a chapter of needing stronger glasses, has a lot to do with it. Often I tie a fly that looks great to me, and being so chuffed with my handiwork, I decide to photograph it. With a lens trained on the thing, the viewfinder lights up, and I recoil in disgust. I generally put the camera away very quickly. But here’s the thing. I still put the fly in my fly box. And I still put it on with confidence beside the river.
And then I catch Trout on it
It remains counter intuitive, but we have to fight the good fight and NOT view our beautiful lives through the ugly lens of social media. I am like a moth to candle in this regard as I am sure we all are. I mean, do I post my worst photos here and on Instagram? Hell no! Do I envy all those perfect Trout flies (and sunsets and river scenes)? Hell Yes.
So I do give a damn about trying to improve my scraggly Trout fly. But I also try hard to just load up with a bundle of ammo, and go chase Trout and catch life in all its imperfection.
