Kyle Hand is someone I have a lot of admiration for. Not only is he a great guy to be around he is an extremely dedicated fly tyer. He has been tying close to 20 years and for most of those he has been tying commercially. He has tied countless thousands of dozens of fishing flies but only recently has been bitten by the bug to tie Atlantic Salmon. He currently lives in Fort Worth Texas where he spends his spare time (when he should be sleeping) working, the midnight shift, dispatching trains for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The rest of his time is dedicated to his lovely wife and two beautiful daughters. Somehow he sneaks in numerous hours at the vice. July 17 2005 Now I have finally figured out how Kyle does it. He sleeps while he is tying. He must need the blindfold so the light doesn't shine in his eyes.

He developed the serious desire to tie Salmon Flies a little over a year ago but was somewhat perplexed as to where to begin. We have a mutual friend, Doug McKnight, who lives in Dallas and works in a fly shop. Doug pointed Kyle in my direction as a source for some of the hard to find materials late last summer. I coaxed Kyle into attending the Salmon Fly Summit held in Cleveland last Fall and planned to have him come up to my home for a few more days of tying and messing with materials immediately following. Those plans were dashed by my being called away early Saturday morning due to a family emergency. Kyle learned a lot of the basics in Salmon Fly construction but still requires some gentle (you have to to be nice to a guy his size) encouragement. We have spent a lot of time on the phone but he always has a list of well thought out questions. If nothing else I think I've convinced him that he is the person he needs to please with his tying and not to worry about what the "Big Guys" think. He is quite interested in all phases of Salmon Flies even to the point of raising Turkeys just for their feathers. He and a co-worker have started a flock that includes the Rare Heritage Breed birds Royal Palm, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Slate Gray and Spanish Black. He will be adding Beltsville Whites as well as some others in the near future. Click on the thumbnails below to see larger pictures of some his of his birds. Also see Raising Heritage Turkeys by Kyle Hand.



Kyle tells me his friend's daughter names them. I believe him because if he named them it would probably be Tinker bell or Foo-Foo or things like that. He says they are constantly strutting and are a ball to watch. He has promised me he will write a short essay on his raising the critters.

February 2005 Kyle is getting serious about this Turkey thing. He has acquired several new breeding pairs of Black Wing Bronze, Harvest Gold (a brand new breed of which Kyle has purchased a breeding pair of the 24 of these birds that exist) and Regal Red.
Click on the thumbnails below to see tail feathers from the various birds:



These are the tails that were on the birds at the time of purchase. Due to their penned enviornment and the ensueing transportation home in a dog kennel was pretty tough on them. They do show great promis in making spectacular wing material. They should be available mid summer 2005.
Below are a few new pictures of Kyle's birds. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them:



Late last year (OCT. 2004) Kyle finally made the trip up to see me, so we could spend some time tying a couple of flies and playing with feathers and stuff. He survived the trip somehow and actually got to tie a little. We each tied a Durham Ranger and he finished up a Baron Body I had started some time ago. Both are shown below as are some of the other flies Kyle has tied. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.



Kyle sent a new fly picture. I named it the Turkey Partner because in Kyle's words: "I tied it for my turkey partner Laura. The wing is composed of Royal Palm, Light Speckled Bourbon Red, Cinnamon BR, Gray Slate and Narragansett. The colors are divided by one slip of Spanish Black. These are also the same birds we raise so it has some significance. I am happy with the way the wing turned out, I was afraid it would be kind of bland.

The throat is tied with parried marabou (stuff you gave me) and in the next one I will not use it, but will find something different."
May 27 2005 Kyle has been faithful in sending fly pictures I've just been remiss getting them posted. His abilities are obvious.



Kyle's comments that accompanied the pictures above:

"Here is finished product of second Jock Scott. This one is tied with Indian Crow, Toucan, and Cotinga. Wing is the actual recipe, no subs. Throat is Vulturine.

Here are a couple of pix of an Akroyd I did this afternoon. I was disappointed with my effort at the show so I decided to try another one while the sequences were still fresh in my feeble mind. I used some of my Regal Red tom tail, utilizing the portion of the feather which had quite a bit of speckling.

Here is a picture of the fly I just finished for Ashley (Kyle's daughterthat just graduated from High School). Remember, she wanted lots of pink and black. I think I accomplished that."

Kyle?s comments on the flies below:

"Here is my latest creation. Hope you like it."
I do like it! The name is not very original though. Maybe he meant the name was Hope You Like It. I?ll have to ask him. Looks like he?s using the real deal on those veilings.

" I made this last night and finished the crest today. The head is not done yet. The wing is about 32 fibers thick so I figured I would use the Chute wing setter on this and the "Vulcan" method. As you know, I have been unable to make the Chute tool work to this point, but for some reason last night it worked pretty good. The fly is tied entirely out of stuff you sent me. The crest is one of the first Hareline crests you sent me and as you can tell the wing is made of mottled gray, dyed gray, dyed black (florican sub), Kori and Amgold you sent me. The hook is a 5/0 Harrison Bartleet from Gaelic Supreme."
I liked this fly so much when I first saw it, I thought I had tied it.





July 16 2005 Kyle sent the fly above Kyle's Crazy Curly. Here's what he has to say about it:"Here is a fly I just finished. Seems like I am on a Paul Rossman wannabe roll. Actually, this is a fly I started prior to our trip to Connecticut and ran into some problems so I got to spend some time with Paul talking about it. Then recently, a friend of mine sent me some pink feathers which I substituted in the main wing and the thing just kind of came together. I actually tied the fly for another friend of mine who brings me lots of wood ducks, teal, mallard, gadwall, etc., and he wanted something tied with the Mallard butt feathers. I knew of only one pattern at that time utilizing the curly butt feathers so I made my attempt at tying this particular fly."
Kyle's wife, Susie, decided to figure out a way to display it properly. Her sopping spree consisted of a baseball display box some polished rocks and some decorative moss from the craft store. Kyle thought. "Oh crap she's going to ruin it." The pictures below depict the finished product. I certainly don't think she ruined it. Kyle had this to say when he sent the pictures: "This is the fly Susie put in the baseball display case. Turned out pretty nice I think."




August 4 2005 Kyle sent the Carolyn"s Folly above left. A fly he tied during a weekend tying show as a gift for the show's organizer. Next to that, a Sir Richard, using Dyed Sooty Slate Turkey in the wing.

August 25 2005 Kyle had this to say about the Kori fly above:

"I tied this one for the local zoo that has Kori?s. It was a fun little project. I wanted to see what the streamers would look like coming out the bottom and was somewhat apprehensive at first but once I got it out of the vise it didn?t look too bad."




October 4 2005 Kyle has developed a new proceedure in taking fly pictures. See his article Photography Light Station. He is using it with great results as you can see in the new pictures above.