Part 2 Another case in point for the extra 'edge' of a technique. This year's Denver ISE show, same one as above. I'm at a tying table and Lefty Kreh is tying just behind me in the video theater. He's demonstrating wooly bugger style flies, and he demonstrates his version of a 'bulletproof hackled peacock fly' by spinning the peacock and the hackle together before wrapping them forward. He was tying with wire, but brought the wire forward to the eye before he roped the peacock/hackle at the back end. Him and I are good friends, and I was going to show him the 'rope-dub' method for this, using the wire as the core of the rope rather than just spinning the peacock on itself, which is still 'roping' it. Unfortunately he was hurried off for a seminar and I never got a chance. But this is my point. I've taken the wood saw of my Swiss army knife and raked the peacock/hackle right down to the wire core and halfway through it and the fly has never come undone. I can send you show samples. That abuse would have left Lefty's version mangled and coming apart. Yet we both 'rope-dubbed' the peacock and hackle and called our versions bulletproof. Again, it's the little difference that makes the big difference.
There's nothing for me to gain by 'glomming' on to a method, as I was a show tier long before I ever demo'd this technique publically. I am not trying to make any money off of it, as I have always demo'd it for free. My motivation springs from enjoying sharing things with people, and if it winds up that I'm 'popularizing' the method, as you stated, rather than 'creating' the method, I could easily live with that, because that's what I've done so far. I still have the 'Baits Hotel' for Shiggils and Gits. I offered 3 of my show flies as prizes just to motivate vfb'ers to give this method their best shot. I receive nothing from that swap, other than satisfaction, just like the co-op swaps. Byard even gets the extra flies- not me. I would feel slighted, though, if someone else got total credit for the whole technique based on finding the first 75% of it. The fact that the technique at the extent that I do it is so unknown among the rank and file is just proof to me that if someone had invented it, they didn't see all of the possibilities, and then didn't publicize it well enough as it sure is receiving a lot of attention now. I only hope that the end result is that everyone will learn how to do it, not controversy. Those who have seen my work first hand know that I don' t need the rope-dub as my 'claim to fame'. Actually, it's too practical, unless I'm tying a 14/0 Adams. The rope for one of those is 30" long and takes 3 bags of dubbing. Now that's more my style! So, Paul, all of your comments are well-taken and I hope that I've somewhat clarified matters here. DonO
