Tying the fly of a life time

When I first got into fly fishing, my grandma introduced me to tying flies. She would always have me over on the weekends and she would either help me tie flies or get one of her friends to teach me how to fly fish. Eventually she wanted me to tie flies with her and she even took a class for tying flies just so she could make me happy. The one fly that I attempted to tie again was her favorite. She always wanted me to tie her one whenever I opened up my fly tying kit.

This fly is probably one of the best flies I've ever tied. In the book "Essential Trout Flies" by David Hughes, he talks about the golden age of streamers: "The golden age of streamers lasted two or three decades, ending in the 1960s. But these beautiful flies represent things that trout still eat, and they still catch trout" (85). This shows how you can still make beautiful flies and still catch trout. 

To tie this fly I used the materials: red and orange dyed buck tails. Like Hughes once said in the beginning of the book, you don't want to use cheap material because they tend to not be as durable as more expensive material. These two buck tails were about $10-15 each.

This fly will always be held close to my heart. It's a beautiful fly and it will always remind me of my grandma. Hughes said these flies tend to usually be big flies, size 4 and 6 but they give a lot of positive results when they are tied in sizes 8 and 10 like the one I tied. The hook I used was size 10 because the trout here in Washington tend to be on the smaller size.

From the book "Essential Trout Flies" by David Hughes, I learned that you can tie any fly, any shape or size and still be able to catch trout. I also learned that tying flies is truly an art because how much time and patients you have to put into it. You have to not only replicate but master the ability to examine and copy what flies actually look like in nature.

To continue on about tying flies, do you think tying flies should be considered an art? why or why not?