Mr. Harrang's recent article considering some of the problems of producing flies hand tied, in the original sense of the word, is valuable for attention it brings to a neglected area of fly dressing. I know of only a handful of people, one in the U.K., four in the U.S. and one in Sweden who tie flies in this manner with regularity.

Until recently the Rogan studio in Ireland tied its entire inventory of trout and salmon flies this way. They were established in the 1830s. Up until the early 1900s, this practice was all that not unusual, after that, however, they stood alone. I do not know if they are still in business.

In Sweden, Sven Olaf Hard produces salmon flies professionally without a vise, making his work unique in the world. Hard accomplishes this with severe life-long tremors in his hands. His greatest wish is to serve his wife a cup of tea, which he has never been able to do without spilling the entire contents. His work is as fine and beautiful as any produced today. His flies appear to include tying a properly sized snell along the full length of the underside of the shank. This treatment of the body of the fly may be much more significant than we realize.

Along with Hard is Donald Downs of Great Britain, Marvin Nolte, Nick Chiovitti, Darwin Atkin, and myself. Marvin and I started independently of one another, both feeling that it was something we needed to know about. My own flies range from full dressed salmon flies to trout dry and wet flies down to size 24. These are the flies I use; the patterns range from contemporary back to the 17'' century. After what must number well over a thousand flies certain characteristics of hand tying have become apparent. Some of them will follow.

I have not found any thread equal to Pearsall's Gossamer. It is also superior for flies tied in a vise. Thread color is important particularly when it is properly combined with dubbing to produce the color of the body. The only exception to Pearsall's is size A silk sewing thread which I use in two of or all three of the flies to secure the snell to large salmon flies. The colors of silk, unlike any synthetic are vivid and bright, and have a sheen that is unequalled. Because Gossamer is a different size from modern threads, it has a different effect on materials and the way they are secured. Instructions for using silk were pretty much gone by 1950. Today instructions, while similar in contents make no mention of the fact that they originated with hand held flies and waxed silk thread.

In hand dressing the most critical operation is waxing he thread properly The bobbin has basically eliminated wax by holding the thread under tension, where it, the bobbin, hangs by its weight underneath the fly between operations. Regardless of the kind of thread being used, waxing a length and re-rolling it on the bobbin before it is used will always tie better flies.

Wax is a form of cement and the thread is a delivery system. Super strong super fine threads are no match for well waxed silk. Because of the new and tiny diameters the poor technique of extra turns, that do not create bulk, has gone unpenalized. Having tied with a number of formulae, both old and new, Marvin Nolte's wax is far and away the best. In his own words, it is a "manly" wax.

With a full snell included, the body cannot avoid being a good deal thicker. There is no doubt that this bulk formed a different kind of platform than we are now using for the attachments of the wings, hackle, etc. Further that the visual appearance of this mass contributed consciously and unconsciously to the amounts and proportions of materials used in all of the other parts of the fly, that is to say the entire pattern.

With the introduction of the eyed hook, the diameter of the body was suddenly and automatically reduced. On today's salmon flies this is manifested by bodies of anemic proportions. The same anemia was transferred wholesale to today's "exhibition" flies dressed on blind-eyed hooks. The "snell" on these is now a mere snippet of its former self. Oddly enough on modern trout flies the elimination of the snell created the opportunity for very lightly dressed bodies which today's studies have ignore keeping flies at robust proportions.

While the body has become skeletal the same metamorphosis has not occurred in areas like the tails, hackles, and wings. They are as they used to be, and loudly discussed and proclaimed for being so. Looking at what are considered today's standards of excellence, one could observe that two different people worked on the fly. One on the body with modern notions, and the other on the rest of the fly with older "traditional" ideas. If the body dimensions have been summarily changed shouldn't those on the rest of the fly as well? To not do so is trying to play on both sides of the street. In earlier functional designs the whole appearance of the fly evokes a sense, at least in me, that all of the parts belong together in terms of size, visual, and tactile mass.

Both Mr. Kelson's book as well as that of Pryce-Tannatt are hand tying books, although those who stand today with their right hand upon them are noticeably silent on that point. I'd bet that those famous exhibition flies of George Kelson's have snells that run the full length of the body. The precise delicacy of modern exhibition flies would never have passed muster on fully snelled hooks.

Why is overhead incandescent and/or fluorescent lighting considered "proper?" Tyers years ago used some forms of globe, mirrors, candle and/or flame or just plain daylight. The use of a globe produces a bright light, and sunlight even more so. F. M. Halford went to considerable trouble to create a fluid for his globe that would cause a source, a flame, to be converted to something as close to natural light as possible. He did this in order to keep his colors accurate after the sun went down. The admonition of judging your colors in natural light is, after centuries, still repeated today. Twenty odd years later, after the book containing the section on light was published, he electrified his home and used a standard 8 candle power bulb (about 30 watts). He was quite pleased with the results.

Gas lighting was available in the early 1800s. It was dim, dangerous, noxious, and toxic. This is not surprising when one sees how it was made and delivered. If you lived on the gas line the piping could be any number of things like varnished silk tubing or discarded musket barrels from the Napoleonic Wars. OSHA would have had a field day. If you didn't live on the line and were well off you could install you own home owner's coal roaster and its accessories. One look at these and a concept of what was entailed in using one would send any prudent person back to daylight for everything that needed light.

The particular quality of sunlight is a unique part of all of the colors and images found in the natural world, and for that reason is the only light to judge your colors under. It will impart to the colors of fly tying materials qualities that which under any other type of illumination remain hidden. It has another characteristic in that most of the time it is available it is coming to us at an oblique angle. This is accentuated in hand dressing by the infinite number of positions that the fly can be held in during assembly, and compounded by the constant movement of the sun throughout the course of the day. The sun will illuminate the surface and interior of the fly in ways that cannot be seen when the fly is held stationary in a vise under a stationary artificial lamp. The properties of natural light and its manipulation by the fly dresser had to have been an influence on the choice of materials-to develop or subdue them, and so on. All of this will affect the resultant design.

Tyers had to position themselves so that the light will illuminate the work but not cast a shadow from their body or hands. This positioning had, of course, to be adjusted during the entire year. Tying in your hands will suddenly impart new insight into what you may have been doing by rote or simply following instructions.

The great fly patterns are probably in all cases symptoms of an evolutionary process, and did not spring fully clothed from the first attempt. The individuals who developed them, whether they were professionals or not usually possessed a depth of comprehension regarding their subject; a sense that comes from keen observation, deliberate study and thought, and sustained practice.

Finally here is a list of what some of us have found to be a few of the advantages in hand tying. Several have already been mentioned.

1. Illustration and instruction in the older books will make more sense. If the illustration shows the hook bend to the right instead of the. left, it usually means to reverse your hold to the shank and for that operation. If the hook is upside down it usually suggests that you hold it that way.

2. Stout bodies holding a full snell are easier to hold than thin ones.

3. You can tell as soon as you touch the fly whether the material in place is too much or too little, tight or loose. Gold miners will tell you "When in doubt, it ain't". If it feels wrong it is wrong. This tactile part of tying becomes a large part of technique, as most of your work is covered or touched by your hand during the processes. It is a part completely missing when a vise is used.

4. One need not be in any particular position to dress a fly. You can change your position and that relative to the light and the fly at any time. Comfort is important. If you don't think so put a golf ball under one side of your bottom, and sit down at your vise to tie a dozen simple two part flies like Brown Hackle Peacocks. No stationary vise ever allowed this kind of freedom. Both Marvin and I feel that tying away the hours in a comfortable chair is very therapeutic.

5. There is no need to be compulsively precise, there never was anyway. Constantly touching the materials has its effect and will give the fly a look that cannot be had any other way; no doubt contributing to the overall design from yet another source. I'm quite sure that many of the adjustments made in design were a result of how materials appeared after they had been secured by hand. These same designs are now faithfully copied by today's "traditionalists" who, when emphasizing the size of the head, quality and authenticity of the materials, style and source of the hook, etc., are avoiding the inclusion of a full snell and the fact that the design that they're responding to originated in someone's fingers with a full snell. The flies they are copying were the standards of excellence. It is rare that I see a new fly that looks as if it had been touched by a person. In my experience this is a loss. The human hand is the greatest tool ever developed, and its mark is truly unique.

6. Nolte has suggested that noncompressive dubbing for both trout and salmon flies became, because of the pressure between the thumb and forefinger, a necessity. Matte finished donkey and monkey were used, but had no where near the appeal in and out of the water of the shinier materials such as hog's wool, mohair, seal and "skunk"go look it up.

7. The materials that were used for wings, tails, toppings, roofing, hackle and so on had to be able to survive handling. The selection of materials that were durable was every bit as critical as it was for appearance.

8. Silk floss can be put on without leaving a mark on it. Nolte suggests this to be done by rotating both the hook and the floss at the same time. it can be wound as evenly as it ever was in a vise, and a lot faster.

9. Bobbins are a nuisance. A 15" piece of thread is plenty long enough. it takes about four pieces to complete a 210 salmon fly. I am excluding the thread needed to secure a full snell.

10. Hackle pliers are fine for hackles, as well as for a pendant weight to hold something under slight tension while it is being tied off.

11. THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE MADE IS HOLDING THE HOOK TOO TIGHTLY. How and where you hold it is much more important than the firmness of your grip, which when overdone will ruin your materials. Because your hands are covering or in close proximity to your work, hand tying lends itself to being thoughtful about every turn of thread and its tightness. For a number of years I made my living tying flies professionally, and as careful as I was I was never as thrifty using a vise as I am with my fingers.

12. In hand tying, it is essential to plan the fly before you tie it. With a vise you can get away without doing it-for a while. Eventually it will show in your work.

13. In concrete terms the preceding means to first lay out everything you're going to use in a useful sequence. Many of the old books are quite clear on this. Today this is forgotten if it is every considered in the first place.

Maybe everybody knows enough and they no longer need to do it.

14. If you use a vise the space age, ram jet, belch fire steel in jaws is a lot of hype considering how far your finger and thumb are from ever becoming that. More useful would be replaceable brass or leather jaw liners.

15. Marvin Nolte has suggested that we are losing a resource which in all likelihood will not be replaced in our lifetime if ever. There are probably fewer professional production tyers working in this country, on the Continent and in the British Isles than there were 75 to 100 years ago. It is from them that much of our knowledge concerning procedure and materials has come. They had to make a living and that automatically adjusted the manner in which they did things. Who will fill the gap? Most of the flies tied today for the market are produced in countries that have no tradition of northern European field sports.

16. The people who learn hand dressing with the greatest ease are those who do not resist gaps in their knowledge. Most often these are people from areas with few fly fishing resources, beginners, and women. Those with the greatest difficulty are "experts" or "advanced" tyers.

17. Hand tying reinforces the need for a sensible realistic approach to fly dressing, and will in very little time produce the most elegant flies you've ever tied on a regular basis.