Tom Herr has been tying flies for over 50 years. He has a passion for designing and tying patterns for our military veterans. This fly is an absolutely breath-taking piece of art but what truly sets it off is the inspiration behind the creation of the fly. When Tom started to tie this fly, he wanted the design to honor our country and the sacrifices all of our citizens have made throughout history to make it great. After completing the pencil drawing for it and spending over eight hours of time on the fly, the news broke about the events that occurred during the El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio shootings from August 3rd to Aug. 5th. Tom was heartbroken by the tragedy and when he sat down to continue the tie that he had started, he felt the need to start the fly over. Tom took a razor blade to what he had already started, cleaned off the hook and proceeded without a drawing or design in his mind which he almost never does when tying. There were 31 individuals who lost their lives in those shootings and within the fly, there are 31 individual "curls" tied to represent those innocent lives that were taken too soon. It took Tom 23 hours to create this masterpiece.

Materials: Hook: 6/0 blind eye handmade hook by Yuji Wabe, Hook eye: Twisted colored silver wire, Tag end: Pure silver twisted ribbing. Pure Japanese silk in red, white, and blue. Tail: Dyed white turkey in red, white, and blue separated with strands of bustard and married together. Main wings: Red, white, and blue dyed white turkey separated with strands of bustard married together, Cheeks over the wings: Jay coverts, Body: Antique pure silver ribbing and embossed tinsel. Pure Japanese silk in red, white, and blue. Each body section separated by black herl., Curls: 31 curls were created by utilizing individual barbs of red, white, and blue turkey and carefully either marrying them together again or tying them in individually. Head: pure silver thread