Along with me [C], the Bahamas’ Benjamin Pratt [L], the Ministry of Tourism, and a fellow Bahamian administrative staffer had a substantial presence at the Atlanta Fly Fishing Show.
Deciding late in the game, tube flies are better than hook-tied flies, almost always
By Henry Clement
It has been my experience fly fishing with tube flies, almost exclusively, since 2000, but in the trout world only since 2015. As an Angler, I’ve been fly fishing since 1960. My conversion from spinning began with Steelhead in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It continued in Pennsylvania, surrounding states, and much of the world. I enjoyed the rare opportunity to fly fish and catch sails to salmon, pike, and trout to bluegill and crappie.
A secret paradise
North Georgia has classic trout rivers, streams, lakes, and impoundments. Its natural abundance of habitats assures trout for tomorrow, especially with the impacts of climate warming.
Richard Katzman is a fly angler, dedicated Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum member, avid Catskill area fly fisherman, and skilled tube fly tyer. He’s grown local interest in fly fishing, fly tying, and mostly tube flies in the Mecca of fly fishing.
Freshwater flies take more talent to tie than saltwater flies
Tying tube flies and fishing in freshwater is more challenging than fishing in saltwater. Learning aquatic life stages for ‘bugs’ and seasons of spawns for trouts, bass, crappie, and other species keeps the learning switch on. Learning about the ‘inventory’ of game fish species is especially interesting.
Without malice of forethought
I shared the obvious reasons I should put my hook-tied flies in the attic for posterity—not the hook or the fly as individual items, just not as a married couple.
Hook-tied flies are not in the same league if catching fish is of more interest. Not so much more that you are in the subsistence fisher category with the fish commission. A single-tube fly is like The Three Faces of Eve. Ruin the hook point, get a new one right now – 90 seconds, and the same fly is swimming again.
A hook changeout
Changing a fly’s sink rate has several options; all take more than a few minutes except for a tube-tied fly. I might quickly solve that issue with a larger, heavier hook—90 seconds. The opposite is also true: a bent hook, changeout in 90 seconds. Getting tail bites, changing hooks—90 seconds.
It is a great benefit to tie a large fly as a tube and not have the hook size and weight govern its effectiveness.
Changing flies with my hook-tied flies requires so many leaders’ lives before they are too short. Not so with a tube.
Ruben Martin’s tube humpy. Ruben Martin has been tying tube flies for over a decade. He’s known worldwide for his tying skills.
My private email account is not so private
Over a year ago, while attending a fly fishing show, I went to the set-aside area for fly tying. I asked everyone the same question: “Do you tie tube flies?” It was my first solo pass. A few said they knew nothing about tube flies. Nobody reported ever having tied a tube fly. One replied via her standby husband and said they were banned.
On my second pass of the fly tyers, while talking with a fly tier about the merits of a tube fly, a nearby listener, a celebrity tyer, chipped in that, he knew who I was and said my championing tube flies was—never mind what he said or who he is.
Illustration by Thom Glace – rainbow trout, brown trout, and brook trout. Used with permission.
His assault tone drew a crowd
It silenced the traffic of the tying tables down and up quite a bit. I was on the spot. I responded, “How many tube flies do you tie in a week?” He said, ‘None, I never tied a tube fly.”
He realized that admitting never to tie a single tube fly incriminated him, putting him in the wrong spot in front of dozens of fly fishers. It was too late. The crowd roared at the admission. He, the avenger, cursed me. I left immediately, purposely letting his remarks hang in the air.
Later, I felt terrible even as a handful of attendees shook my hand and said not-so-nice things about the celebrity tyer.
Current politicians sell hate thy neighbor—Envato image.
Selling unreasonable fear of the world beyond a cacoon
I was puzzled as to why anyone, especially a talented fly tyer, would think a tube fly could cause him to be so rude and angry. I chalked it up to a sign of the times, realizing an ill-mannered politician and present presidential aspirant with moral deficiencies never before seen has a grip on half the population. Maybe fly fishers as well?
