Re: Symposium Report

On 23 Nov 2003 15:51:47 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Littleton) wrote:

>Attended the International Fly Tyers symposium in Somerset,NJ yesterday and 
>came out of it with mixed feelings. As always, it was good to see a lot of
>familiar faces which I tend to only connect with once or twice a year. It was
>good to see, albeit briefly, Lou Teletski from this little group. On the other
>hand, I came away with a terrible deja-vu feeling. One sees the same "big name"
>tyers, giving essentially the same presentations which they have presented for
>years. I don't want to pick on any one individual, but geez, can't we see
>something novel anymore? As always, there were many,many talented tyers, but
>after one got past beautiful salmon flies, huge saltwater streamers and
>elaborate nymphs, I thought the variety was a little slim. I came out of the
>show thinking how nice it would be to see Peter Charles tie Spey Flies, Big
>Dale tie bluegill bugs, Mike Connor tie Yorkshire patterns, etc, etc. Perhaps
>the present company gets me spoiled, perhaps I am jaded, or merely getting old
>and cranky. Are we at a plateau period in both fly angling and tying??
>                                                                   Tom

We are probably at a stage where new ideas and materials give us far
more opportunity for creativity, but with that opportunity goes a rise
in our expectations in what will be produced.  With the huge amount of
flies being tied today, the odds of producing something truly
revolutionary is virtually nil, yet all experiments build on what went
before.  We're at a stage where we can only improve incrementally.
There's only so much that can be done with feathers on a hook.  

Listen to the questions being asked at these shows and it's fairly
obvious why the level of tying is reduced to McFlies.  Those demos
aren't for the likes of a Tom Littleton.

Peter

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