Tying with the Good (Old) Stuff

March 7, 2011 By: Marshall Cutchin

The most entertaining part of this story about how found materials are being put to new use is a quote from Jeremy Nelson about the fly tier’s skill: “Trout fishermen are a small, inbred breed.” He’s referring to tiers like Sweetwater, Tennessee tier Walter Babb, who is creating flies from the personal materials collection of Harry P. Ijams, who fished Appalachian streams for brook trout in the early twentieth century.
Walter Babb also happens to be the older brother of Jim Babb, who told us this morning: “Down in East Tennessee, I’m not editor of Gray’s Sporting Journal or the author of three books on fly fishing. I’m Walter Babb’s little brother. Which, by their measure, is several orders of magnitude more significant. Hell, by my measure, too, you get right down to it.”