Memories of the fly-tying teacher

It all happened years ago. I was attending Central Junior High School in St. Cloud, Minn. We were required to take a series of shop classes and I chose electricity, printing and mechanical drawing. There were seven students in the latter course and we devoted our time to drawing tables and creating 3-dimensional versions of various wood blocks that the instructor, a man named "Mac" Dohme, gave to us.

It was not very difficult and each day Mac would describe the project, carefully check out each of our drawing tables and then retire to his corner desk to — tie fish flies. He was very good at it.

Since I had ties to the Flathead Valley and spent every summer on my grandfather's farm in Somers, I had been exposed to Montana fly-fishing for trout. The students showed interest in what Mac was doing. He stated that if we finished our assigned projects ahead of schedule he would teach us how to tie flies. The challenge was accepted and soon three of us were spending about 10 to 15 minutes of each class hour learning the fly-tying skills.

Mac was good. He started us on simple panfish flies (tail, body and hackle feather). He stated that most commercial flies were designed to catch fishermen and that modifications could be made to catch fish. Fly tails could be too long, for example, and hackles 'resembling the legs of insects' should be scant and limited to two or three wraps around the hooks. He pointed out that commercial flies only had single knots with the whip finish knot at the head of the fly with a single drop of "fly head cement" (glue) on the final knot. A single bite by a sharp-toothed fish could unravel the commercial fly and make it useless. Mac taught us to insert six to eight half-hitch knots (each with a drop of fly head cement). We would allow the cement to dry before proceeding. Mac normally used two fly-tying vises to allow the cement to dry while he worked on the second fly.

From simple panfish flies, we progressed on to complicated trout flies. Royal Coachman, Mosquitoes, Grasshoppers and the like were soon mastered. For Christmas that year, my father purchased for me a fly-tying kit from the historical Herter's Company in Waseca, Minn., and today, nearly 60 years later, I am still using that kit. I have tied thousands of flies in Mac's style and have yet to fish with a commercially-purchased fly. As a youth I supplied flies to my father, my grandfather and an uncle. Eventually I married and had three sons, each of whom received flies tied by Dad. Eventually they learned to tie their own in the style of Mac.

So a teacher modified his subject techniques to the interests of his students. Perhaps, under modern teaching procedures he would be criticized for violating good teaching ethics but as a student that was exposed to his hobby interest I am thrilled that he made this change. Thanks, Mac, for your superb teaching skills. I even appreciate what you taught me about mechanical drawing.