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Jacob's Black Belt Journey: Request

AZHunter

Iowa Boy At Heart
Our son, Jacob, who turns 11 next month, started his year-long journey to get his black belt through our TaeKwanDo studio this past Wednesday. He's currently a blue w/red stripe. In February, he'll test for his red belt. In June, he'll test for his red w/black stripe, and next October, he'll go through the 20+ hour test for his black belt. All of this, of course, is assuming he doesn't make any mistakes during interim stripe screening where he shows he's learning his new forms, kicks, blocks, etc along the way. At this point, he has ZERO room for mistakes.

I can't speak for other studios, but I know getting your black belt in this studio is a difficult process. Among the many things he has to do, he has to raise the $550 black belt promotion fee on his own. One of the ways he wants to raise that money is to tie flies for fly fishing and accept donations for them, since we technically can't sell them. He does great with woolly buggers, and does pretty well with elk hair caddis, parachute adams, foam beetles, griffiths gnats (down to #22), and a couple of nymphs. He recently tied 12 woolly buggers for Daver here (4x#10, 4x#12, 4x#14) for farm pond bluegills and Jacob put the $20 Daver sent towards the start his journey. I explained to my wife that we, as parents, are probably going to lose money on this deal, but we have to support his journey and his thought process.

You obviously won't hurt our feelings if you say no and pass this, but Jacob would appreciate any consideration. You can PM me or text me if you have my number if you are interested and want to place orders. Below are some samples of his work. Thanks for reading this and, most importantly, considering helping Jacob. These are not even close to professional-grade flies, but, as an avid fly-fisherman, I think he's off to a good start and I've helped him figure out he can make them look more like what they are supposed to. The top left fly in the middle pic is his first attempt at a #12 elk hair caddis. I told him it was a good start, but it needed work. The elk hair caddis in the bottom pic is a #14 and is his second attempt, after getting a better "how-to" video on Youtube. That's my favorite fly out here, so I was very critical of how he needs to tie it.

Wooly Buggers.jpg

Beetle and Bugger.jpg

Elk Hair Caddis.jpg
 
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Great idea. Makes me wish I knew how to fly fish.

You can contribute to the cause, get some good flies, and then have an excuse to learn! ;) I'll even point you towards some inexpensive rods that compete against top-end rods!
 
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