Design of flies?.Going with the FLOW!
By Aaron Ostoj

I have put off writing anything, up to this point, on the design of salmon flies. This subject seems to get more of my attention than any other aspect of tying lately. You can have you?re stashes of cotinga and whatever rare stuff you want to tie with. But, if you?re flies are just mindless creations, based solely on the moment at hand, all of the Indian crow in Columbia will do you no good!

Let me explain. Most of my early days of salmon fly tying were spent trying to accumulate materials. We all go through this phase. Face it, the most experienced trout fly tiers don?t have any of the materials needed to tie salmon flies, so the initial materials hunt can be time consuming. But, some of us never seem to let the gotta-have-it-at-any-cost mentality go. If you can put the materials consumption behind you for a while, and think about the whys of material placement, and colors, beauty will come.

Yes feathers, hooks, silks and tinsels are all beautiful, in their raw state. But why can two tiers tie the same pattern with the same identical feathers, hook, silks and tinsels, and come up with two distinctly different flies? The answer lies in DESIGN?..

Face it, salmon flies were originally designed to be fished, they were fishing tools, pretty ones at that, but still tools. Flies tied to be fished, had stout gut eyes, thick bodies, large heads, and could take a thrashing.

Today flies are designed for two main purposes, antique reproductions, and impressionistic (or artistic creations).

Let me explain my thoughts on the design of both schools?..

First, Antique Reproductions ( Classics). Reproductions as I discuss them here should all have the following characteristics in common. They should be patterns published by the ?classic? authors Kelson, Blacker, etc. Or, they should be un-named patterns of the same vintage. In other words the patterns were originally meant to be fished. They will all have gut eyes, blind eye hooks, and components typical of the Victorian salmon flies.

Believe it or not, classics can be designed. By design I mean the relation of all materials in the fly to each other. Are you trying to showcase one part or feather in the fly? Are you tying on a long shank hook? How thick of gut are you using? All of questions should factor into the design of the fly. If you merely start tying the fly according to the dressing right out of the book without visualizing an end result, you are not designing your flies. Try this, photocopy the hook you want to use for a particular fly. Then start sketching the tail and topping. This is the first step in the design process. The tail and topping frame the fly. They should be in proportion to the size of the hook (within reason). Now take some colored pencils or markers and start laying out the colors of the fly. The colors should be well balanced, trying to not let one feather or component overpower the entire fly. Picture you?re favorite landscape painting. Most likely it will be a well designed painting with the colors complimenting each other. It will have shadows, highlights and well proportioned subjects. Now picture you?re favorite landscape with a red fire engine parked in the middle of it. That is what an overpowering component does to a fly. It looks out of place. You?re eye is first drawn too it. No matter how flat the silk of the body is, or how nicely tapered the tag is, or how long you looked for that chatterer in the cheek?If that fire engine is parked in the middle of the wing, no one will notice the other features of the fly.

Another way classics can be designed is by carefully selecting the components for shape, and pattern. Natural feathers all have variations of patterns. Carefully choose those feathers with curve, shape and patterns that will enhance the design of the fly. These characteristics would be the source of what I call ?flow? in the fly, the flow is shapes and lines that tie colors together.

Next, I will discuss Design of creative flies. Creative flies are the pinnacles of Atlantic salmon flies as art. There are no set guidelines for their design, but I my feelings are that there should be some. But my feelings are based on opinion. You know the saying ?opinions are like @$$-holes, everyone has one? Well hopefully after an exclamation, tiers of creative flies will not think I?m ?one of what everyone has?

I hate to say it, but I feel a lot of creative flies lack any forethought. Some of them seem to be excersizes in how complicated fly tying can be, or a way to show off a rare feather by strapping it on a hook. Good for you tiers that do this, I am proud the tag has 18 colors of floss and 12 sizes of tinsel in it, and you managed to find a dodo bird feather and tie it on as a whole wing. But these do nothing to show you?re creativity, or artistic spirit.

Let?s start with the foundation of the fly. Face it; you have to tie the fly on something. Most people choose a hook, because it?s traditional. Whatever you choose to tie you?re creative fly on, you should do the same thing as stated above. Photocopy it, and sketch an outline of the fly. Know what the end result is going to look like. Most creative flies try to showcase a single feather. Fine?. If you are going to showcase the thing, showcase it. Frame it with all of the components of the fly. Make everything in the fly direct you?re eye to that feather. It?s almost the opposite of designing a well balanced reproduction fly. All of the flow in the pattern should flow around and towards the showcase item. You want the fly to look like the fire station, that?s right, the place a fire engine should park.

Next I feel that creative flies should follow some of the rules of color in art. If you haven?t studied colors in art, and how they contrast and compliment each other, then you need to do so. Get a color wheel and some colored pens or paints and start playing with colors and shading. Figure out what looks good on canvas, and I guarantee it will look good in a salmon fly.

Also, Creative flies need to flow. I feel flow is even more important in these flies. Use the curves of that dodo bird feather to enhance the look of the fly, or choose a hook that mirrors the shapes or patterns of the dodo feather. I know you?re itching to add a couple dozen Indian crow feathers to the dodo fly, but if they contrast or kill the flow, leave them out and tie a few pophams. Creative flies should not be a contest of who can strap the most expensive rare crap on hook. Yes, some of these flies are impressive from a financial point of view, but we are not accounting here. We are creating beautiful works of art.

So, there you have it??Some ideas on design. Forget what you have been taught. Rules were made to be broken. Start looking at flies from a designer?s point of view. Remember every hook, feather, tinsel and silk is different. Each fly is a unique combination of those components, and every fly demands a different approach to achieve a beautiful design.

Start making your existing materials work together. As you acquire new materials, think of how they will compliment each other. Stop fighting yourself??Go with the FLOW!