Guesstimate

[Lkyboots]

Flyfisherman are a strange bunch but I wonder if I'm your normal fly addict or abnormal. Just for yucks I counted the number of files ive got tied for this season and was surprised to find I had over 1300 flies ready for the season. The odd part is I think I should tie some more.lol

I couldn't even guess how many I've tied overall but it has to be over 5000 and that would be a very low estimate. I know I've given away more than a 1000 flies to new fly fisherman.

How about you fellas?

 

[FarmerDave]

Lkyboots wrote:
Flyfisherman are a strange bunch but I wonder if I'm your normal fly addict or abnormal. Just for yucks I counted the number of files ive got tied for this season and was surprised to find I had over 1300 flies ready for the season. The odd part is I think I should tie some more.lol

I couldn't even guess how many I've tied overall but it has to be over 5000 and that would be a very low estimate. I know I've given away more than a 1000 flies to new fly fisherman.

How about you fellas?

Well, I di find it strange that you took the time to count all of them when you could have been tying more.;-)

 

[JeffK]

I don't count my flies, but I buy 100 packs of hooks and go through them.

 

[just_jon]

I’m right there wth you except for counting. I have a 4 drawer Richardson packed to the gills with dries and 4 boxes filled with nymphs, wets and streamers. On top of that, I tied many dozen more this winter in exchange for needed services (10 boxes of 28 gauge reloads and deer butchering). Also have 2 fishing buddies who don’t tie and have been raiding my fly boxes since the 70s.

In spite of the above, I tying in preparation for a couple of week long outings even though I’m sure I have everything I need 10 times over.

 

[govtmule]

wow...i need to get working, i only have 15 +/- musky flies...

 

[tomitrout]

1300 flies / 52weeks = 25flies per week.

If you're losing that many, maybe less time at the vice and more time practicing casting?

 

[FarmerDave]

tomitrout wrote:
1300 flies / 52weeks = 25flies per week.

If you're losing that many, maybe less time at the vice and more time practicing casting?

Or tying knots.;-)

 

[sandfly]

since I started probably over a million

 

[Lkyboots]

I look at it different, since I get out about twenty times a year and say I lose fifty flies a year I'll have enough flies to last till I'm 92 years old.lol

 

[FarmerDave]

About your OP, it sounds pretty normal to me for someone who recently started tying, and the numbers that you posted indicate you started fairly recently. 1300 this year, and 5000 total.

When I started tying my own, i spent hundreds on tools and supplies, and the tools I bought to get started were cheap. I'm sure I tied hundreds each year for the first few years and the number increased as I went along. I was even tying during my lunch break at work. Eventually that slowed way down.

These days, I only get out a couple times a year to fish, and except for steelhead, I have all but given up tying. But I still have the supplies.

I still have quite a few flies for a typical NWPA freestone, and if I go to the jam, I usually buy some from a local shop.

 

[franklin]

3 to 4k based on the number of boxes from hooks that I emptied.

A lot more than I can fish with these days.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

I've never tied a fly in my life or will I ever probably my guy that ties for me lives 2 houses down from me.

 

[wbranch]

At one time, when I was totally bored, I decided to count all my flies. That included trout, bass, salt water flies. I did it over a period of about a week since it is more boring than watching paint dry. The total was something a bit over 10,000. I probably have about the same number now since I have pretty much stopped tying.

At last count I had at least 44 fly boxes of different styles, shapes, and capacities. Somewhere I may have a picture of most of my boxes.

Here are just four of my C&F fly boxes. I have five with the swing leaf and three without.

 

[shakey]

I generally tye by the dozen .on rare occasions I will tye a half dozen of something.

I also tye for at least two other people,plus,my wife tyes plenty.

My guesstimate is that I have whole bunches of many flies.

 

[flyflicker]

Tomitrout for the win! ????

 

[flyflicker]

????=hilarious face

The OP poses an interesting question. I am at probably 1,000 flies tied after 20 years of fishing.

 

[sandfly]

been tying 51 years, 41 years commercial, at an average of 15000 a year that's 615,000 flies alone + an average of 2000 a year for 51 years for myself and give aways (rocks, trees, breakoffs, other anglers) =102,000.
grand total of 717,000 give or take in my lifetime. I wasn't that far off from a million.

 

[FarmerDave]

And being this is a fishing discussion, you get a pass on the slight exaggeration.

 

[redietz]

I'm not sure whether the OP is questioning whether it's normal to tie that many flies or to carry that many flies.

I once counted the flies that I carry, and got a figure around 900 in my trout vest. (I also have a bass/panfish pack with several hundred flies.) That's not counting the flies I keep in a tackle bag in my car (flies with only limited usefulness, like white fly imitations, which get added to my vest when appropriate) or the flies that take up a drawer in the filing cabinet where I store my tying supplies.) My guesstimate would be around 2000 flies on hand. Then again, I've been tying for over 50 years, so that's not really that large a number.

I tie a lot more than that, though. I teach tying classes, demonstrate tying at numerous other events, tie for swaps (I never fish the flies I receive in return), tie to give away (TU fundraisers mostly, but I donated 400 flies to the Boy Scouts one year), etc. I'd guess that less than 50% of the flies I tie are for my personal use.

 

[jifigz]

I don't tie a ton at once and tie specific patterns for certain trips and as needed..I obviously have flies in boxes but I don't just tie to tie. I experiment and create things and then tie my staples. For instance yesterday I lost all of my particular pattern that was hot so today I tied 4 more of them..sure, not a ton, but enough to get my by another day on the river.