This is a set of three DVDs: Wet Flies; Dries and Emergers; Stillwater Flies. The style is modest, with decent image quality and good sound. Essentially, we watch Stevie tying flies at his desk, quietly narrating the tying sequence as he works though his flies. No fuss, no attempts at show-off tying techniques, no overblown claims for the deadliness of a pattern, no philosophising.

Stevie assumes the viewer can tie, knows how to use fly tying tools and knows how to source materials. As result, there are no long-winded explanations of the properties or peculiarities of tying materials, rather, 'this is what I use, and this is the colour.'

I associate Irish flies with wet-fly patterns so the first Volume in this set really held my interest and had me off to the vice trying Stevie’s take on Dabblers and his own patterns, specifically Munn’s May. Filmed in ‘real tying-time’ these seem dour and slow paced viewed as entertainment on a TV; set up next to the vice with the materials at hand they are well paced tying lessons. I can follow Stevie through a fly practically thread wrap for wrap (actually I had to pause the scenes from time to time – ah, the wonders of the remote control!) and end up with flies which look surprisingly like Stevie’s.

The emphasis in these three DVDs is on tying durable practical fishing flies, the selection of flies is not explained but seems to me to be well thought out, so I get a couple of teams of wets, dries for several types of situation, river and lough, and the tying techniques are straightforward and practical. Which, to my mind, is the point; by following the tyer as he ties, by seeing what he does in sufficient detail, I can copy and learn. Our ability to copying what someone else does is one of the simplest and most effective methods we have of learning practices and techniques. And if, as here, the selection of flies includes a broad range of tying techniques and repeats the most important techniques until they are second nature then the lessons are learned without the viewer really being aware. That is not to say you can learn tying by watching, but you can learn by copying.

Stevie does not offer a bewildering range of ways or methods. He simply lays a solid foundation of thread on the hook, waxes his thread probably more than any other tyer I’ve seen (bar Marvin Nolte) and uses the simplest most direct techniques to get the results he wants. The filming is unobtrusive; it quietly allows me to see how Stevie manipulates materials, catches this in, twists that onto the thread, strokes those fibres back, slips a hitch over the eye and ties off to finish his fly.

Viewed for their Irishness, Volume 1, ‘Wet Flies’ and Volume 2 ‘Dries and Emergers’ have more of that flavour. Volume 3 ‘Stillwater Flies’ offers a set of dressings which could be found on stillwaters anywhere in the UK.
A very practical set of tying DVDs aimed slightly above complete novice level. Like Stevie’s flies, these lay a solid fly-tying foundation.