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Over the past 5 weeks, I’ve been working on my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a programme that encourages young people to challenge themselves, learn new skills, and build confidence through activities involving service, physical recreation, skills, and adventurous journeys. For my skills section, I decided to learn how to tie fly fishing flies as part of a 12-week programme. I chose this because I already enjoy fishing, and I thought it would be cool to learn how to make my own flies instead of just buying them. At the start, I didn’t really know much about fly tying, so it was a bit tricky. But as the weeks have gone on, I’ve started to get the hang of it. So far, I’ve learned how to tie a few different flies, including the Hare and Copper, Prince Nymph, San Juan Worm, and the Woolly Bugger. The Hare and Copper was one of the first flies I tried. It was quite hard at first, especially getting everything the right size, but it’s getting easier with practice. The Prince Nymph has been a bit more complicated, and I’m still working on getting it looking neat. The San Juan Worm is probably the easiest one I’ve done so far, but it’s still helped me improve my skills. My favourite at the moment is the Woolly Bugger because it looks really good and is useful for catching different types of fish. Throughout the programme, my mentor Gordon has been giving me feedback each week and helping me improve my technique. He was actually the person who inspired me to choose fly tying for my skills section after I attended one of his fly tying workshops. Seeing the different flies he had made and learning about the process made me interested in giving it a go myself. Since then, he has shown me better ways to use the tools and materials, as well as giving me tips on making my flies look neater and more realistic. His advice has helped me notice the small details that make a big difference when tying flies. Gordon is also my assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh Award, so he has been tracking my progress and encouraging me to keep improving each week. Even though I’m only about halfway through the programme, I can already see that I’ve improved a lot. My flies started off pretty messy, but now they’re starting to look more like the real thing. I’ve also started to understand more about why different flies work and when to use them, which is really interesting. I’m looking forward to the rest of the programme and getting better at tying more patterns. Overall, I’ve really been enjoying it so far, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes fishing or wants to try something new. Thanks to everyone who has helped me so far and given me tips. I’m keen to keep practising and improve even more over the next few weeks. Categories All Isaac BridgeComments are closed.
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