I'm going to chime in and say that Don isn't trying to attack anyone except the lazy. Equal "effort" is all that is required or even asked by anyone. I know of one tier that obviously put in as little effort as possible in a couple swaps. His patterns had never even been fished by him or anyone else. Word gets around about this type of obvious "laziness" and this particular tier would probably be denied entry into many swaps due to his reputation. Most of us appreciate the swap flies we get, weather from a Pro or for a newbie, in either case we get to see somebody else's take on a pattern or even get introduced to a local pattern from another part of the world. This is what the swap is all about, don't run off Dan, Don really isn't trying to attack the "newbies".
My 2 cents Jim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Harriman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 2:40 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Perpetual Swap / to All Swappers > Excuse me?? This is what the folks on this list think of beginners? > > DonO; You sure tie great looking flies. I am glad that you can even > get more than 300 dollars for them. I think that is great! I wish that > I were half as good as you. Maybe even a quarter as good. Damn, > I just wish that I was a hair on your ass as good. > > I am a beginning fly tier. I thought that doing the occassional swap > would help me to get better. But if this is the consensus of this group, > I can see that my unworthy attempts are not welcome here. It is great > that some folks have a fly shop within walking distance of their house. > The nearest one to me is a 250 mile round trip. I just can't see the > justification in making that drive just to be in a swap. > > You can rest assured that from now on, I will not enter any more > swaps. Yes, I entered the crease fly swap. I was pretty proud of the > one I tied, even though it didn't measure up to the standards of this > elite group. It was only the second fly I ever tied for a swap. > > I will send your fly back to you and I will do so for anyone else that > thinks they got shafted from my unworthy fly in the crease fly swap. > > I think that I will start to hang out at FOAL. At least they don't come > out and blatantly belittle beginners like you just did. > > Bye > Dan Harriman > Orange, Texas > > > At 04:25 PM 11/20/2004, you wrote: > > > >As for the quality of flies, the same goes for the regular swaps. There are > >tiers that put out a worthy effort in the swaps, and there are tiers who > >don't. Is it fair for one tier to put in the effort to trim wings, add eyes > >and legs and feelers- and another to submit a fly with 3 wraps of chenille > >and a hackle-tip wing? I personally feel that if someone is such a beginner > >that the flies they submit will become throw-always, it would only be fair > >to go down to the local shop and buy the flies required for the swap, and > >just let the meister know. This is not unfair, and the step-up in quality > >would serve everyone, and the swapper would still get nice different > >patterns in return. They would thus still progress in their skills until > >they felt confident in submitting their own. Plus, better tiers would sign > >up for swaps if the reciprocation was better. > > > >If we all exhibited the conscientiousness that Nick and Rodney do in their > >approach, the step-up in the swap flies would be drastic. It's not that all > >swap flies are poor now, as a whole, actually it's the opposite. It's just > >that a certain % of flies of each swap could use some more effort. > > > >Flame me if you wish, but I think that it would be fair for swap-meisters to > >ask for submissions of photographs of swap flies from participants. This > >would serve two purposes. 1st it would weed out the throw-away quality > >flies. 2nd, and even better, the meister could offer constructive criticism > >for the tier to improve his entry for the swap. Now how cool is that? > > > >Now I'm not advocating that all flies for fishing have to be exotic artwork > >flies. Far from it. Simple flies catch fish. But there should be an > >equality of effort to make things fair for the tiers who put forth great > >efforts in their entries. An hour's effort per fly (or more for some) > >should not be traded for 2 minute's effort on the parts of others. > > > >I'll respect everyone's opinion in this. I've had comments made to me in > >the past about the quality of the flies in swaps, and maybe now's the time > >to address it, with the comments on the perp box. > > > >Sine the vfb is the forum for swapping flies, I'll give the floor (screen) > >to Byard and let him comment on my thoughts and give his. > > > >DonO > > > If at first you don't succeed, maybe you shouldn't try sky diving! > > dit dit > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.796 / Virus Database: 540 - Release Date: 11/13/2004 >
