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I read his books and had very very strong impressions of his tying and fishing ideas. I expected to be counting and measuring bucktail hairs and feathers all evening. I also expected to see a very organized and quite critical tyer. To be truthfull I was very nervous and intimidated when I walked into the room.
That didn't last long, his stuff is less organized than mine! He dumped bucktails, necks, saddles, hooks, and everything else in the middle of the table then asked me "What do you want to do?" I asked him to demonstrate how to tie in flatwings without them spinning on the hook. We spent 3 hours tying 2, 3, 4 & 5 feather flatwing files. They ended up being all the flys in "A Perfect Fish". Eel Punts, Practitioners, Squid, Flatwing Rays Flys, even a Clam Fly.
It was obvious that Ken isn't a believer in using synthetic materials in his flys (he isn't anti-synthetic, just dosn't use it) as there wasn't any of it to be found. He ties "VERY" sparcely and lets the materials react to the movement of the water to give the illusion of mass and fishy motion. He specifies the number of hairs in his patterns only because he feels that measurements like, the diameter of a match, 1/2 of what you think you need, are vague and don't accurately express the intended ammount. He was very specific about the location of the materials on the hook as that is critical to the visual and physical balance of the fly. I felt that it was a great learning experience and will enhance my tying.
If you liked his books you should go to one of his conclaves.
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