The Seminar Jinx

Jinxes are funny things, aren't they? The only way they can work is if you believe there are such things as jinxes, and if you already have a preconceived notion that the jinx is in effect. If you don't believe in jinxes, then they rarely affect you, but if you are a believer, they can put a serious dent in your mojo.

I try not to believe in jinxes, or superstitions, or karma, but even though I don't believe in them, that doesn't mean they can't jump up and bite me every once in a while. Take this past weekend for example. I was at tthe Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the fly tyers in the Fly Tying Demonstration Area. They even agreed to let me put on a special hour-long seminar to showcase some of my techniques. I decided to show off my unique way of tying parachute hackles on dry flies, a technique I devised more than 15 years ago. This technique allows me to tie nice looking parachute hackles almost all the time, so I decided to call my seminar "Tying Perfect Parachutes", because along with tying good parachute hackles, I'm also good at boasting...

To get ready for my seminar, I tied dozens of parachute dries in the days and minutes before I was supposed to take the stage, and all of them looked good. I felt good. I felt confident. I remembered all my materials that I would need. Everything seemed to be in order. I had planned on tying three different parachute flies during my seminar, and the first one turned out quite good, if I do say so myself.

Then the second fly, a parachute Adams, happened. This fly would be the most difficult, but I had tied it hundreds of times before, so what could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah, the seminar jinx is what could go wrong! And it did! No matter what I did, I could not get the hackle to wrap the way it was supposed to. It looked horrible. My technique to tie a "perfect parachute" was turning this fly into a perfect mess, and it was all happening while I was under the lights in front of a room full of fellow fly fisherpeople. It was quite easily the worst parachute fly I had tied in 10 years. I had jinxed myself when I used the word "perfect". If they ever invite me back, I will try to remember not to jinx myself. Good thing I don't believe in jinxes, huh?

This is a good looking Adams Parachute, I think.

This is the one I tied during my seminar, up in front of millions, or at least tens, of adoring fans. It's terrible! And look, it's so bad, it's even blurry! No good...