Week of December 16, 2024

I worked in Manhattan on Monday to host a WordPress community event at our offices after work. I got in some last-minute shopping and had lunch at Hamburger America, and caught up with some coworkers I hadn’t seen in a while. The event itself was kind of a bust, but while waiting on the subway platform on my way home, I ran into one of our friends from Lake Peekskill, also on his way home, and we got to chat for the next two hours on the train north. Serendipitous fortune!

We got some snow this week on Monday, Friday, and Saturday. Chilling temperatures this weekend, too. 11F out right now, and it will be 7F when we wake up in the morning.

Charlie and I had some fun out in the snow.

I turned a scoop on the lathe over two late evenings this week. It was a good learning experience, but the final product doesn’t quite match what I had in mind. It needs a longer handle, thinner walls on the scoop, and spent way too much time hollowing out a larger section than needed. The next one will be better.

I don’t mean to brag, but I have a cleaning crew come vacuum up the woodchips after I use my lathe.

I tied more flies this week. Some eggs, bead head nymphs, and leeches.

I really like the look of the grey ones.

Speaking of tying flies, it has been about three months since I first got a vise and gave it a go, so let’s check in:

I’ve tied 226 flies so far. About a quarter are crap. Bad proportions, bad execution. Another quarter are pretty good. The remaining half are somewhere in the middle: They’ll catch fish and stay together, but have room for improvement.

I’ve given some of the better ones away to friends and either tossed the bad ones or cut the thread off with a razor to reuse the hooks.

I’ve tied:

Tenkara flies

Wet flies

Dry flies

Streamers

Nymphs

I’m slowly chipping away at the basic skills. The nymphs above all have dubbed bodies, and that was a first for me. Previously I really only dubbed thoraxes/collars.

I’m getting more confident in figuring out the order of what gets tied on when I see a pattern recipe. I’m also getting better at getting the proportions right.

I still have a lot to learn, though I imagine that this is something I’ll do for years to come, though not at the same rate. Once I feel good about having reached a decent competency level, I’ll probably just tie enough to keep my fly boxes full and gift some to friends. I have no interest in trying to sell them or tie things just because. I have too many other things I want to do.

What’s next?

The local Trout Unlimited chapter has a tying class in April I’ll probably attend to learn some new skills and meet some local tyers.

I’m done until the new year, but once the holidays are over I plan to tie more tenkara flies, pheasant tail patterns, fox squirrel patterns, then some dry flies.

I’m sketching more ideas for patterns. This is for a standard winter box:

It is challenging trying to learn two new skills at the same time (fly tying and bowl turning) that take blocks of focused time to make progress on. I try to spend at least one night (post kid bedtime) each week on each one, but I make better progress when I can do two nights in a row on the same thing, which I usually don’t have time for.

January and February are a bit slower than the last two months have been, so we’ll see what I can accomplish then.

The other thing that is tough is that I have other woodworking ideas I want to work on besides bowl turning, which limits the learning time even further.

I think I just need to be more patient with myself. I am making a lot more progress this year than I did last year. I also need to remember that the folks I am drawing inspiration from in the fly tying and bowl turning communities are folks that have been doing it for decades and spend most of their time on it.

This week was a whirlwind of finishing things up at work before the holiday, various holiday get togethers, a friend’s birthday party, last minute shopping, and travel prep.

Winding down for the holiday and family time. I probably won’t write a weekly update next week, though I have some year-end reflection posts in the drafts.