Published Apr 8. 2004 - 19 years ago
Updated or edited Oct 8. 2020

Crummy Work Days and Flytying

Get Paid to tie flies...here's how I did it...

In a construction PM job I used to have circa 1994 or so, I was on lengthy phone calls ALOT, wasting alot of time; mostly fiddled my fingers, doodled and pretended to update costing spreadsheets. Picture this: a jobsite trailer, an old panasonic analog radio "SuperTuner" with 8-track, attached to a car battery and two loose 6x9 car speakers and a coat hanger antenna, a vise clamped to the corner of my desk, and a stash of materials in the top drawer, amongst other trivial jobsite "collectables". I began to tie flies while I listened onward through the conference calls. It's a jobsite trailer, I didn't care where the scraps went. I tied over 1,500 flies for a trip to Yellowstone I had booked for that summer. 400 for my brother, 400 for a good friend and 500 for me & 200 or so for the jobsite Super (just to keep the leniency skids "greased"). When I got back from the trip, I found out that our project was ending suddenly, no more funding. I packed up my tying gear and skeeeedaddled, 500 flies richer and a whole bunch smarter on how to tie flies in production mode while listening to idle chatter. I still have a few flies left, 10 yrs later....relics they are...and historic memory makers, to me. M.O.T.S. : Get paid to tie flies. :) PS - Once, I did get "policed" by the onsite OSHA geek...he thought the hooks were a workplace hazard, as if the monstrous Cat 315's and JD 450 backhoes skooting around weren't a hazard. "Yeah," I said..."I guess so...but you oughta see what they do on the stream to those PETA fellers..."
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