Heather Purvin on getting better at fly tying

I had a question about stage fright lined up. It seemed like a fair one. Tying at a show is a strange kind of performance: a hook in the vise, a small crowd leaning in, and every thread wrap happening in public with no edit button.

Then Heather Purvin told us what she does when she isn’t at the vise, and I quietly moved that question down the list.

For the past 23 years, Heather has worked as an organ and tissue transplant coordinator with what she describes as the nation’s largest organ procurement organization. Before that, she was a paramedic. On a given day she might be getting a surgeon halfway across the country, or moving a recovered organ from the West Coast to Philadelphia, with hours on the clock and a donor family to look after. “When something crazy happens at a show,” she says, “I’m like, this is nothing compared to what I do on a day-to-day basis.”

Fair enough. Next question...

Heather picked up fly tying so she could get outdoors with her brother and young nephew, and learned largely from the YouTube videos her brother kept on repeat: the likes of Tim Flagler and Davie McPhail. She spent several years hosting the Delaware Valley Women’s Fly Fishing Association’s table at the International Fly Tying Symposium before sitting down to tie there herself, and she is now a regular demonstration tyer with a particular interest in historic regional patterns that have mostly slipped out of sight. She has also shared her routine for new tyers here on the blog in Fly Tying Tips for Beginners: How to Build a Routine That Actually Sticks.

Greg Patterson and I sat down with her to talk about tying in public, getting better at the vise, and why a room full of tyers still beats a screen full of them.

You probably saw my face when you said AI. Not a fan. I think it pushes aside the creators, the tyers, the makers.

The online experience is genuinely important, though. Think of the person in North Dakota whose nearest shop or tying group might be six hours away. We learned that during COVID: having 30 or 40 women from all over the world tying together on Zoom was pretty insane, and for some of them it was the first time they’d had anyone to tie with.

But if you have the opportunity, tying in person is a pretty critical part of getting better. I didn’t level up my tying until I was tying with other people, seeing what they were doing and having those face-to-face conversations.

And I’d say consider every tyer your peer. There are certainly legends in this community, but you can learn something from everybody, including the person right next to you who’s just starting out. They might have come up with a way to do something you never thought of. At the core, we’re all artists, creators and innovators. Being able to say, “Show me what you’re doing, I want to see that again” is the whole point.

Both. There’s an aspect of crazy to it. George was gone before I started tying, and a lot of people respect that history. You want to do it justice and still be able to say, this is my interpretation.

I can’t even replicate his original form, because his wing feathers come from a bird that’s now protected under federal migratory bird law, and I’m not up for going to jail for tying flies. So we adapt, the way we always have. Honor the original materials, then use modern ones to give the pattern modern stature. I’m using synthetic dubbing and chenille in the body where we once might have used rabbit or muskrat. Some purists might curl their lip at my modern cheats, and that’s fine.

At the symposium a lot of people are there specifically to learn, so I’m prepared for someone to stop me and say, “Can you show me that?” or “Tell me about your vise.” Depending on where I am in the fly, I’ll say, “Let me get this next turn done,” or throw a quick half hitch before I lose my place.

There’s still been a time or two I got sidetracked and forgot to tie the wire in. So I say, “I just missed my wire. Let’s back this out, because I want a sturdy fly.” Sometimes I stop a fly and start over, or put it aside for the burn pile. I share that on purpose, because newer tyers think the pros are tying perfect flies all the time. That’s totally not true. All of us blow flies up, and I don’t care who you are. You have to break thread to learn how to control thread, and have deer hair blow up in your lap while people are watching you.

This is totally a Tim Flagler lesson. Don’t tie 12 flies. Tie 15, and kick aside the three you’re least happy with. Being that critical, saying that tail’s a little short, that body’s a little chunky, that collar doesn’t match the others, is what makes you a better tyer.

Absolute beginners can’t do that yet, because they’re barely tying one or two flies at a time. So work up to three at a time, then six. That could take a week or a year. Build in small increments until you can tie 15 and cull the three.

Then give those three away. Put them in a donation bucket for Project Healing Waters or Casting for Recovery, or give them to someone at the boat ramp: “Hey, these were working for me.” People did that for me when I was new. Someone handed me sulphurs one evening when I didn’t have that pattern, and I wouldn’t have caught anything otherwise. So I try to pay that back.

J. Stockard was the first place I ever ordered materials from. My brother probably has J. Stockard catalogs from 20 years ago lying around. I remember picking one up and thinking, wait, there’s squirrel? What are you doing with squirrel?

I’m a lefty, and there aren’t a lot of lefty vises out there, so the team at Renzetti takes care of me. I rely on Renomed scissors, I’m a big Semperfli Classic Waxed girl, and I don’t leave home without Fulling Mill and Semperfli materials and Ahrex hooks. Your tools, materials and hooks are the foundation of your tying.

One of my favorite things at the symposium is saying, “Back in five,” and walking a new tyer across the room to the J. Stockard crew, or to Steve at Regal, and saying, “This is someone new to tying. Can you help him get started?” Or, “Here’s the Classic Waxed, but here’s the Nano Silk and the rest of the line.” It takes a village. Without the businesses and vendors, we’d still be tying with roadkill in a clothespin.

That’s exactly why we’re there. You might feel like your tying isn’t good enough, or you don’t know enough to take a class. But nobody is at the symposium to hide in a corner. We’re there to teach, to share our skills, and to tell you how not to blow up that deer hair, or at least how to try. There’s a steep learning curve in fly tying, and we’re there to make it easier, because we’ve all been on that path.

Find Heather on our stand at The International Fly Tying Symposium when it marks its 35th year on November 21 and 22, 2026, in a new home at the Lancaster County Convention Center, 25 South Queen St., Lancaster, PA. Doors open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, with tickets at the gate, cash only. Full schedule, classes and the tyers list are at internationalflytyingsymposium.com.

Heather will share a table with Halena Fischer, a former US Youth Fly Fishing Team member now building her guiding career, who tied her first big event at the symposium at around 15. The J. Stockard crew will be there too with Semperfli, Fulling Mill and Ahrex team members in the booth. Come and say hello, or let Heather walk you over.