Sit me down to tie, say, a #12 Royal Wulff, and you'll get a belly-laugh that'll stay with you all week. The brain knows, or can figure out, most of the common mechanics; but the skill to build from those a well turned fly...
I'm not trying for false modesty here. I can turn out a near-perfect Aztec with my eyes half closed. And if I wrestle with an average pattern a couple of times, I can knock off an acceptable example. But if you're looking for breadth of experience, fine and ready skills, a mind like a steel trap, and patience for detail, you're looking in the wrong end of the View-Master. I'm not gonna get near the salmon flies you folks put out. I use size A thread whenever I can get away with it, 6/0 rarely. After I tie a #16 dry, I often have to straighten the hook back into shape, I'm so rough. I've built a thread head on almost every fly I've ever tied, and I still don't whip out a perfect one as second nature.
I get away with it all by tying only what I want to tie and what I'm good at. (Like those damselfly eggs for this Swap- I can do those well all day )
) 
