Ed 9 That mojo thing

 Sometimes, fly tying is hard. Something holds you back, the internal motivation is gone, and usually it’s run off with your creativity. Shit happens (as they say). It’s not just me, I have heard other tiers say they have “lost their mojo”, meaning they are experiencing a complete lack of enthusiasm for tying. I wonder if this happens to people who make a living tying flies? I tend to think that if tying was your job, you would probably just do it regardless of feelings; experience, pattern familiarity, and the ease of repetition allowing you to churn-out stuff with no real mental effort, rather like being on auto pilot. For us hobbyists though, tying tends to be a ‘take it or leave it’ thing, and we may choose to do the latter.

 About a year ago a rod builder and restorer asked me if I would tie two sets of flies for a project he was working on, representing the four stages of the mayfly lifecycle that anglers try to represent with the fly: nymph, emerger, dun, and spinner (spent or dead). Happy to oblige I knocked out the two nymphs and two emergers in short order, but then the thought of tying the duns brought about a deferral, because I don’t fish with many up-wing patterns I therefore don’t tie many. In essence, I stalled due to a lack of confidence. Most of my tying is like riffing: playing around, varying a pattern or theme, usually triggered by seeing or reading something, I don’t like to slavishly follow a pattern or recipe. In time, I completely forgot about fulfilling that request, but came one day recently and I received an email reminder. Mortified, I had to get on with it, trouble was this coincided with a complete void of creativity within. I could have looked up a pattern or two and cranked-off copies, but that’s not how I roll; I want to challenge myself. Of course, days started to slip by, I wasn’t doing any tying at all. Being like this began to worry me, But I still eschewed the easy option. Then, idling through a note book, I found some scribblings I made about encouraging creativity, sourced from something the BBC produced. One of the hints and tips was to challenge oneself when the mind is not cluttered with other things. Doctor Jung said one is more likely to come up with an original idea when there is less activity in the brain’s frontal lobes, allowing ideas to flow. Running (exercise) or meditation can both reduce activity in the frontal lobes. My notes also suggested one of the most important ways to increase the chance of being creative is to ensure you are not stressing about the process.

 Yesterday, I realised I didn’t have much that was pressing, thus that busy, conscious side of the brain was relatively calm, so I sat at my tying desk, selected the materials I thought could work, then tied up an E. danica dun. Happy with this prototype I repeated it twice more, for the project. Then, before any hesitance or reluctance could set in, I started on the spinner, never having tried one before. Creativity came back with a rush and at last I had completed my obligation, mojo and karma back to their normal settings. Result!

 Now, what shall I try to tie next?