Tying Flies

I want to write just a bit about fly tying.  I started tying flies right after I started fly fishing seriously.  I decided I wanted to be a good fly fisherman and to do that I knew I needed to be able to tie the flies that I wanted.  I am cheap.  I knew that if I had to pay $2 for a fly that I would never spend enough to really get into fly fishing. 

I started to tie as a way to save money.  That was a terrible idea.  I know have thousands of dollars in fly tying materials and hooks and carry hundreds of flies on me when I fish.  I stand by the fact that I would never have been a serious fisherman if I didn't tie my own flies. 

Buying flies is a great alternative.  I know lots of good fisherman that buy their flies.  That is great for them and I have watched them catch lots of good fish.  I just knew it wouldn't work for me.  25 years later I have had the opportunity to teach fly tying, I have tied professionally and I feel that it is part of my game to tie the flies that I use. 

With that being said.  I want to talk about some of the flies that I see being tied on You-Tube and fly fishing websites.  I see the most elaborate flies being tied and some of these flies are using materials that you have to spend lots of money on.  I idea of a great fly is one that I can tie in 3 to 5 minutes.  All tied up the fly should be around $.25 or less.  That is including the hook and the bead if needed.  When I see these flies that have pre-cut wings and the are $3 for 10 or even 20.  That bumps up the cost of the fly to almost $.50. 

The wings look great, the flies are beautiful.  but poly yarn works just as good for wings and is $.01 per fly.  These materials catch fisherman and make little or no difference to the fish.  I was able to fish the Brown Drakes on a local Famous spring creek 2 weeks ago and in the past I have bought some flies at about $3.50 a fly.  I still have all of the flies I bought mostly do to buying them for the pattern.

I tied up a bunch of Brown Drakes and had 6 different patterns to fall back on when the hatch came.  The hatch came and I started throwing out the Drake flies that I had and caught one fish.  I stopped and started to watch what the fish were eating and doing and it looked to me that most of the fish were on a large (size 14) PMD.  I didn't have a PMD that big but I had a size 12 Parachute Adams.  These large educated fish went crazy on a size 12 Parachute Adams.  I landed 12 fish with a poly post Parachute Adams.  All of the fancy flies I had didn't work as well as a Parachute Adams. 

I use that as an example that if you want to tie beautiful flies that appeal to fisherman then go ahead.  It is fun and part of your game.  To tie flies to catch fish it is often much better to KISS.  Keep it simple and can I add CHEAP.  You will catch just as many fish with a Polly winged fly as a fly with $.20 wings.  The fish aren't that smart. 

Thanks for reading.