Audio clip
Wendy Williams
DAYTON, Tenn. — A nurse, a psychologist and a preacher are fishing on a river bank.
While it sounds like the beginning of a joke, it happens when the Dubbing Teasers Fly Tying Team gets together on trout-filled rivers around the Southeast.
The unlikely trio — Wendy Williams, the nurse; Bill Boyd Jr., the psychologist; and his dad, Bill Boyd, the preacher — are a group of fly fishing enthusiasts who spend much of their time outside the office together, traveling around the area sharing their passion for tying flies.
“It becomes addictive because once you catch a fish on a fly that you tied, it’s a feeling of awe and an adrenaline rush that you will never forget,” Ms. Williams said.
The three do about 10 fly-tying demonstrations together around the South each year, most recently at the Shallow Water Fly Fishing Expo in Atlanta at the end of January.
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Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell -- The Madison River Candy Fly fishing lure for salmon was created by Bill Boyd Jr.
And while they occasionally charge a fee for the demos, most of the time they don’t. They sell DVDs of the group’s members performing fly-tying demonstrations, but often any money they make just pays for their hotel rooms when they travel.
They joke of someday turning their fly-tying demonstrations into a business, but for now, they do it for reasons that have little to do with making money, and mainly do it just because they love it.
Bill Boyd Jr. is a licensed psychologist and runs a busy treatment center in Dayton called Stepping Stone Retreat for Enhanced Living. All of the things involved in fly fishing, from tying the delicate flies to catching a trout with one of them, provide a great outlet from his professional life.
“I deal with a lot of suffering in my work, and to be an effective psychologist I need to be balanced myself,” he said. “After a weekend of fly fishing, when Monday comes, I feel better prepared to face the week.”
He started tying at the age of 8, though his father says he was 9. Now in his 40s, he has a sophisticated setup where he ties the flies, including his signature fly, the Tennessee Stonefly Nymph.
But the younger Boyd said he worries about what making fly-tying his job would do to his beloved hobby.
“I just tie flies for fun right now,” he said. “If I had a deadline, it wouldn’t be as fun.”
But Ms. Williams, who works as a travel nurse for a health care company, is more vocal about the idea of making money doing what she loves. She started as the “camera person” for the guys, met the Boyds as she and Bill Boyd Jr. were working with a group fighting the construction of a paper mill near one of the rivers where they fished.
The Boyds describe Ms. Williams as the comic relief of the three, but each member of the group says they enjoy interacting with the crowds that come to watch their demos. They try to keep the lessons fun and entertaining with PowerPoint presentations and lively descriptions of tying the flies — something they said children especially like.
The demos have a lot of light-hearted fun, but when it comes to tying flies, each member of the group knows what he or she is doing, and each has had “recipes” for flies they have created published in several national publications.
In January, Ms. Williams’ signature fly, the Foxy Lady, was published in Fly Fish America. The fly is made from mink and fox fur, and has a gold bead on it. Ms. Williams spent a year working on the fly.
“It’s deadly,” Bill Boyd said.
At specialty stores, flies sell for between $1.75 to $3.75, so for people who fish a lot, it makes sense to create your own, Bill Boyd said. The flies, bugs, frogs and other things made to entice fish are designed to be as realistic as possible.
“You become a little bit of an entomologist if you get into this,” Bill Boyd said.
Bill Boyd, a retired music teacher, preaches part-time at a couple of rural churches near Dayton. He has been fly fishing for decades and is responsible for teaching his son to tie flies and to fly fish. He also instilled in him a desire to keep the rivers where they fish clean and support conservation efforts. All three of the fishermen use hooks without barbs and practice catch-and-release.
He said he fishes for the beauty of it and describes the sport as a spiritual experience.
“We enjoy this and we want other people to enjoy this, too,” he said.
At a glance
On the Web
www.thedubbingteasers.com
Signature flies created by the Dubbing Teasers
* Tennessee Stonefly Nymph, created Bill Boyd Jr.
* Foxy Lady, created by Wendy Williams
* Hiwassee Streamer, created by Bill Boyd
