MARCELLUS - With no snow, few birds, and no walkers for his Snow Bird Walk early Saturday, Tom Meier still scanned Baltimore Woods for birds and waited to see who might show up for a fly-tying lesson.

Meier, 28, an ESF graduate in forestry and biology, formed the 15-member John Weeks Bird Club in response to Marcellus residents' requests.

The Saturday Fly Tie drew a handful of enthusiasts, with one or two repeaters. This was Meier's third time leading fly tying at Baltimore Woods.

He started fly fishing about four years ago when he worked in New Hampshire.

“I had an instant attraction to it,” he said. “One of my favorite fish is the brown trout.”

As the fly tie session began, five fly tying fishermen sat around a worktable, pulling gear from tackle boxes Their sewing kits had spools of thread, feathers, scissors, bobbins, various tools and other gadgets to make flies.

Jon Marshall and Daniel Stabile, 11-year-old fifth-graders at State Street Intermediate School in Skaneateles, intently focused on twirling thread around tiny bundles of hair and feathers to make woolly worm flies.

“I like fly tying,” Jon said. “I've been fly fishing for a year-and-a-half. I like to catch rainbow trout at Grandpa's pond.”

Jon's grandfather, Wilhelm Gruber, taught him to catch trout at his pond in Ontario, Canada.

Jon pointed out the fly-tying paraphernalia - vice, bobbin, and woolly-worm hook - and explained he was making a hackle from a feather to catch rainbow trout. Jon's parents, Bob and Susanne, observed, then went walking in the woods.

Daniel, with a two-day minicourse in fly tying at Cayuga County Community College under his belt, welcomed Jon's help.

Flies are meant to imitate real insects and leeches that specific kinds of fish eat.

“Most of these flies are for trout,” Meier said. “That's where this all started.”

“They are filet mignon to a trout,” John Kopley, another fly fisherman from Skaneateles, said. He was making a soft hackle fly to fish on the Willowemec River in the Catskills.

Jen Bryz-Gornia Denkenberger, school program coordinator and environmental educator for Baltimore Woods, sat down to learn how to tie a fly.

“I want something pretty,” she told Meier, now rummaging through his case to find the materials.

“Easy or pretty?” he asked. “I was going to show you how to make a scud, but it's not pretty.” They settled on a modified Adams lure.

Jen put a hook into the vice and tightened it. Then Meier selected thread to wrap tightly around the hook.

“It matters what color you choose,” he said. “The color has to match the insect. Trouts are very finicky.”

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net