Description
What Got Me Started Was an Old Wooden Box...
Like many fly tyers, we all have to start somewhere, and for me, it all began with a small wooden box.
When I first started tying flies, I bought a fly-tying outfit from the well-known company Veniard. Mine was the Trout version, which came in a lovely little wooden box with a sliding lid. Inside were the basic tools and materials needed to get started, along with small instruction booklets showing you how to use the tools and dress a selection of flies using the materials supplied.
The Trout outfit was mainly suited to tying dry flies, and although everything was quite basic, it was enough to get you started and, more importantly, develop an interest in fly tying that could last a lifetime.
The wooden box featured in this video isn't my original one, unfortunately. It's a Veniard No. 4 Salmon Fly-Tying Outfit that I recently managed to find on eBay. It's still nearly complete, and I believe it dates from around the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Although this is the Salmon version, it gives you a good idea of what my original Trout outfit would have looked like all those years ago.
Looking through the contents brings back so many memories of when I first started tying flies, learning the different techniques and discovering just what could be created with a few feathers, some fur and a length of tying silk.
It's amazing to think that something as simple as a little wooden box could be the beginning of a lifelong passion for fly tying.
I hope you enjoy this look back at a little bit of fly-tying history, and perhaps it will bring back a few memories for some of you as well.
I'd love to hear how you first got started in fly tying. Did you begin with one of these Veniard outfits, or was it something completely different?
Thanks for watching, and all the very best,
Davie
0:00 Introduction to the kit
3:03 Vice and essential tools
5:28 Threads, tinsels and hooks
7:00 Fly tying feathers and materials
11:21 Manuals and legacy findings
14:21 Final assessment and reflection