Fly Tying, an Optimist’s Pastime

I was thinking the other day about fly-tying. It was the pesky article about “Yobs with Blobs” and the comments from other fly fishermen that started me mulling it over.

Here is the thing; every fly we tie is imbued with the hope that it is the killer, the irresistible, the one that no fish can refuse.
I have yet to take a fly out of the vise with out feeling a little bit of hope; maybe optimism is a better word, that this is the fly that will make my season.
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I first started tying flies close to thirty years ago. It goes through phases but basically now I’ll just tie what I need for a trip, usually the night before.
I have my favourite patterns minimized to a point that they are virtually unrecognizable to other fishermen. Mind you, if I am tying to give some flies to another fisherman I will follow the recipes exactly, but for myself- not so much.
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As an example, knowing a certain river has a run of salmon that favour the colour yellow, I will tie a handful of Blue Charms but substitute all of the blue bits for a bright, lemon yellow.

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That is because I like the way a Blue Charm fishes but know that for whatever reason, yellow will elicit a strike where the blue gets looked over, even followed, but strikes are seldom immediate.

The funny thing is that I say this stuff as though it was 100% true but I don’t really know. Is it apparently true because I fish as though it were true; or is it really true, about the yellow bits I mean?

Does that make any sense? Who knows? What I do know is that everyone who ties flies stops at some point and thinks,” This might be the one”