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      I mentioned to Sylvester--at a fly tying demo at the Bozeman Angler--that his flies had made a huge impact on Montana fly shops: there were soft hackle wet flies for sale in every store in the state. "But most of the soft hackles you find in the stores are beadheads," I pointed out. "Do you ever tie your flies as beadheads?" I asked.


Sylvester grinned mischievously and--while peering at me over top his half-lense glasses--turned the question around by asking: "Why don't you just get a spinning rod?"

I also noticed he fastened every hackle feather by its tip, rather than the stem. That makes the winding easier. Sylvester talked a lot about the importance of color while tying. What might at first glance look like minor dubbing variations, for instance, often represent different flies to Sylvester: flies with different names and different targets spots to fish them in. Sylvester Nemes sure does make a nice-looking wet fly.