High School and Fly Tying: Karma and Growth

I went to high school for two reasons: to chase girls and to play sports. It turned out I was not very good at either, so I went to college after high school because I didn't want to work full time. Karma got me and I'm in my 27th year of teaching high school.

What killed me was "falling in love" with all the beautiful, awesome, girls of my youth. There were so many and I was lucky to get two girl friends throughout high school. The killer part was years after when more than one and close to ten women told me "I had the biggest crush on you in high school. All you had to do was say 'hello' to me and I would have been your girlfriend'". AAARRRGGGHHHH.

The same thing has happened to my fly tying. I learned how to tie flies back in 1979. Sure, there were decades when I didn't, but by now I can dub a tapered body, about half the time, and tie simple patterns at a rate of about 15 to 18 an hour. But, there were years and years of frustration and hares ears that looked like sausages.

Then, I buy a copy of Don Ordes rope dubbing technique. I sat down and watched it and it was like a woman telling me she had a crush on me in high school -- why was I not taught that when I first started? I'm tying mostly wooly buggers and midges these days, but would have loved to have known how to make segmented flies, and more importantly, be able to make corrections after wrapping (since most of my flies had reverse tapering lol).

I haven't mastered all the techniques, or really gotten the time to use them (again, buggers and midges). However, I have just entered the professional fly tying world with my first order for $50 whoooo hooooo. Our local owner of a fly shop, who is a master fly tier, gave me a small order for some peacock bodied flies. He was Very Specific on how he wanted the peacock wrapped around the hook -- very specific, stating that it was the way to make the strongest peacock bodies. The punchline? He described exactly Don Ordes' rope dubbing technique.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated and have never been affiliated with Don Ordes and his business(es)-- I purchased his DVD at full price.