Ten Questions with Tim Flagler, Fly Tyer/Cook Extraordinaire

Culinary Creations from Gordon Hamersley

Sparrows began to pile up on my desk, but I still didn't have enough. The pheasant skin lay nearby, and I had plenty of rabbit and squirrel dubbing. The more sparrows I tied, the faster I got, and the better they looked. Jack Gartside's Sparrow is a fly pattern that fish like.

Gartside was a Boston fly tyer with a larger-thanlife personality. I fished with him in Boston Harbor for stripers one day, and I recall he was as good a storyteller as he was a fisherman. At one point, he jumped overboard in thrift store suit pants with a cigarette in his mouth and waded to one of the harbor's many rocky islands. He was one of those grand guys who pursued fish and fun with equal passion.

I tie easy flies, and I usually follow the recipes carefully, at least the first few times, but then I'll change things up. I'm the same way with food, too. Make the recipe the way the author intended and then change it to suit the tastes of the customers whether they be fish or humans.

I love the simple elegance of the sparrow pattern. Three different feathers from a cock pheasant tied on a streamer hook with a rabbit and squirrel body. As a chef, the sparrow appeals to me the same way a good food recipe does. I wondered, maybe pro fly tyers feel the same way about food as this chef does about tying? So I decided to call the best fly tyer I know.