Gordon van der Spuy: Beyond the Pattern

Gordon van der Spuy is a South African actor and author of the highly acclaimed book “The Feather Mechanic“. His approach to fly-tying is refreshing in that he believes in the concept of tying purpose driven flies as opposed to just being a disciple of the pattern. His mantra is “Form follows function”: figure out what you need the fly to do and then tie it to do that.

In his presentation, “The Feather Mechanic – a fly tying philosophy”, he explores the concept of tying flies logically as opposed to just following recipes without question.