On Sunday morning, I went to the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show. I was really excited: I had signed up to take Tim Flagler’s fly tying seminar, which focused on making small flies.

It was very useful and enjoyable. In fact, I wish the seminar was longer.

Now, you’re likely familiar with Tim’s fly tying videos, which are best-in-class. They’re insightful, funny and incredibly well-produced. We’ve featured many of them on this blog.

So, when I saw that he was offering a seminar, I really wanted to go.

Everyone brought their fly tying vises and tools, and Tim provided the materials and materials list. Here are the flies that we made:

He also projected onto a big screen, which made following his work incredibly easy.

We tied flies down to size 26, and he let us ask any and all questions. Since the seminars limit headcount, we were a small group, and that allowed for a lot of back-and-forth discussion.

I learned a ton, and here are some examples:

• Why fishing with small flies is even more important these days (the recent drought really has diminished the volume of larger bugs)
• The differences among Zelon, Antron and Poly-Yarn (Zelon shimmers and has very narrow fibers, and Craig Matthews at the Blue Ribbon Flies is the only one who sells it)
• How to securely add wire to nymphs (trap the wire and reverse the thread) and which peacock herl fibers are the best (near the eye)
• What kind of fishing he enjoys these days (Euronymphing)
• Some of his favorite flies (Midge Larvae are on the list)
• How he got started fly fishing (a college professor mentored him) and how he got into making fly-tying videos (an accident)

I could go on and on.

Tim is at every east coast Fly Fishing show (link here), offering both seminars and speaking at the main hall gatherings. He also guides at some of his home rivers in NJ; you can schedule an outing by contacting Shannon’s Fly & Tackle (link here).

I strongly encourage you, if you can, to sign up for one of his seminars. What I learned really moved the needle for me.

Great to meet you, Tim! It was really awesome to connect, and I truly learned a great deal.