JeffK wrote:
Been tying for 50+ years, so have been through plenty of phases. Craft store stuff is OK, but over the years I have probably bought 100times more stuff than I really needed.
For example, had a glass bead period where I tied all sorts of glass bead bodied nymphs. Fun for a while, but now I have a box of little glass beads and I don't really fish the glass bead flies. Still use bigger glass beads to slightly weight estaz egg flies for steelhead, and have another box.
Yarns. Once used all sorts of tapestry wool (smaller size on smaller packages) for wets and nymphs. Now only use the dark and black ones to rapidly build up larger nymphs. Have a box of wool yrans though.
A certain color yarn at Walmart is used for my golden stone pattern. One skein is a 200 year supply.
Had a chamois worm phase, which led to getting chamois pieces in the oil paint section. Tried other leather stuff that didn't work. Now I have a box of leather bits.
A buddy of mine makes nymph bodies with fabric paint. Got into that for a while and now have a box of all sorts of fabric paint.
You see the trend. I ended up with boxes of all sorts of stuff - threads and embroidery yarn for midges, all sorts of foam, etc. A few years ago I moved into my retirement home and most of it had to go - but I still have plenty.
As to threads. I started with black. My flies caught fish. Then I added tan as a neutral thread for lighter bodied flies. My flies caught fish. Then I got white as an underbody for wets so the body wouldn't change color when wet. Could easily change color of white with a marker pen, and some guys I know only used white and had a box of markers to color the thread. Now I have a box of threads in dozens of colors. Not sure I catch more fish.
We all love to try new tying materials all the time, so tying is almost never cheaper than buying or craft store materials cheaper than fly store materials. One can catch as much on a few guide style flies tied with a handful of readily available materials. But what is the fun in that?