I came across this in a note written by Theodore Gordon’s on April 28, 1906 and couldn’t resist sharing it. I wholeheartedly agree with him.

If one has leisure, fly-making is an absorbing occupation and there is considerable satisfaction in taking trout with the work of one’s own hands.

from The Notes and Letters of Theodore Gordon by John McDonald (1949)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made quite a few updates to this Classic Fly Tying website. New pages have been added to fill in some of the history of the classic fly patterns I’ve selected for my collections. I’ve even added the references that inspired those collections. Check out the Wet Flies and Dry Flies pages to read some of that history. There you can also get a close-up view of all the flies that are included in each collection.

After checking out those pages, you might get the feeling that I’m a history buff … and you’d be right. I absolutely love digging into the historical books that have been written by the old-timers. One of them even goes back over five centuries! I’ve learned A LOT about fly-fishing and fly-tying from those old books and I’m certainly wiser every time I take a journey down that old memory lane. The works of Frederic M. Halford are certainly near the top of my “all-time favorite” list. Check out his amazing instructions on fly tying from 1886. I’ve extracted some of it to my Fly Dressing page. If you’re a fly tyer or are even considering the subject, you won’t be disappointed.

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