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Old 04-14-2023, 10:55 AM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
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Default The dark side of fly tying

Reading the book "The Feather Thief" by Kirk Johnson. In 2009, 20 yr old Edwin Rist broke into a British Museum of Natural History and stole a suitcase full of rare bird specimens whose feathers were worth a fortune to the tiers of classic Atlantic salmon flies. He wanted to tie with a good supply of "authentic" materials and also raise money for his other passion as an accomplished musician. Johnston became engrossed in the crime, tracking down and interviewing all the people involved - Edwin, sellers, byers, tiers, museum curators, etc., - as well as the fate of unsold skins/feathers. No spoiler here 'cause I'm only half way through.

I tied a few such flies many years ago (with legal feathers of course) for steel heading on the coast, ala Haig-Brown, but too much work compared to hair wing flies developed locally.
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Old 04-14-2023, 11:26 AM
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Savage Bacon Savage Bacon is offline
 
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Very neat story. Not all heists are diamonds and gold.

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Old 04-14-2023, 07:31 PM
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Lornce Lornce is online now
 
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Read the book a few years ago and really enjoyed it.
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Old 04-18-2023, 02:17 PM
walker1 walker1 is offline
 
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I enjoy tying my flies. Like anything you do for yourself there is the pride factor.
Mine are not award winning but fool many trout.
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Old 04-18-2023, 07:45 PM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
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My dark side is tying too many. A recent chironomid pattern count in boxes and storage bins totaled over 1300, not including blood worm patterns!
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Old 04-19-2023, 07:42 AM
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Lornce Lornce is online now
 
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Sad thing is that after reading the book I searched eBay for a lot of the protected species and found a lot for sale. The theft was a huge lost to science many species (some extinct) where collected by original African explorers. Timeline DNA and Historical collections lost forever.
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Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten,
but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I been in a place that was less than beautiful.

My blog - casting on the waters

fishing regulations and facts on fish handling
Fishing Regulations
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