Tie or Buy?

Jimbot

Jimbot

Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2016
Messages
118
I love to tie. Especially this time of the year. I put on some sweet tunes, pick a pattern, and knock out a dozen or so of my essential flies.

However there are certain patterns that i just find way too annoying (or difficult) to tie, and i just find myself purchasing them. Theres just a few patterns that i buy....mostly dries.

Real small parachute adams, muddlers, daves hopper's....these are some of my challenging flies.

Anybody else like me give in to a few patterns?

What are they?
 
I am a nymph fisherman 99.9% of the time. I don't really tie dries, and articulated streamers. I just ordered 3 artic streamers today from a facebook friend of mine. I have also swapped nymphs for dry flies. It doesn't make sense to me to buy material and such to tie a fly im not really going to use. I think I used maybe 2 dries last year, and 4 streamers.

I try not to buy and would rather swap some nymphs for patterns I don't do but will occasionally buy.

LOL but I feel like im cheating on my wife or something when I am fishing a fly that I didn't tie myself. LOL
 
I nymph, swing wets, and rip streamers. I almost never fish dries. I buy all of my dries. The only dries I am considering tying are elk or deer hair caddis.

I have been able to tie most of the nymph patterns I fish or have a desire to fish with out having to buy too many materials. But that is my opinion my wife feels differently.

Outside of dries I buy muddlers. I have watched a few videos and feel it would be easier for me just to buy a muddler.

I did purchase a lot of files before I started tying so there may be a few that I fish that I might buy but it will be a long time before I run out.

 
everyone knows that tying your own flies saves money!

I used to never tie dry flies because i thought they were difficult, but recently bought a bunch of capes, watched some videos and got down to tying them.

Charlie Craven has a nice video online tying a 14 or 16 Parachute Adams....its not as difficult as you might think.

That said i'm always looking for new challenges. I only tie flies for species i target throughout the year, so no salt water flies for me.

E
 
LOL Eunan...dry flies too difficult looking for u is funny.
Those awesome traditional flies u tie, dries will b a piece of cake!

Don't ever remember buying any flies other than poppers, and now I tie them myself as well, both foam pre formed and last year got into deer hair type.Got some corks awhile back but haven't gotten started on trying to use them for poppers yet.
 
everyone knows that tying your own flies saves money!
Click to expand...


I dont know about that. Maybe in psychiatry bills!

I have trouble tying parachute in sizes 18 and smaller....man thats tough for me.

I tie a lot of comparaduns and traditional adams in smaller sizes. They are ugly, but i dont think the fish care.
 
Jimbot wrote:

However there are certain patterns that i just find way too annoying (or difficult) to tie, and i just find myself purchasing them. Theres just a few patterns that i buy....mostly dries.

Real small parachute adams, muddlers, daves hopper's....these are some of my challenging flies.
Click to expand...

My experience has been that flies that are tricky to tie, usually have a better/easier method of tying i haven't discovered yet. A great example is parachutes. Parachutes are easier or harder to tie depending on how and where you tie in and tie off the hackle feather.

Another example is Prince nymphs. Tying the biot wings in facing forward as the first step and folding them back as the last step results in a much nicer looking fly and is actually the easiest way to do it IMO.

If a fly is giving you trouble, google it or search it on youtube and see how other folks are doing it. There is almost always an easier way.

Failing that there are almost always easier alternative patterns.

Materials also can make tying easier or harder on certain patterns. Bad or the wrong sort of marabou can make even a basic fly like wooly buggers look like trash. Other times, there is just one material that is clearly superior to all others. McFlyfoam for instance, is THE material for tying round single eggs. Period.


Kev
 
If I can't tie it myself well then I guess I'm not using that pattern. Perhaps if I traveled far away and there were some specific local patterns I would buy them. As far as trout flies and SM bass flies which constitutes almost all of my fishing I haven't come across a pattern yet that I don't think I could tie to my, or the fish's, satisfaction.

I watch Pat Cohen's tying videos and his ability to spin deer hair into bass bugs is incredible. Far beyond my skill level. Also, Eunan's salmon flies.

Not sure why so many struggle with catskill dries or parachutes. Not that tough if you put some time in on the vise. In the end though, tie what you use and catch fish on.
 
Fly tying is a learned skill, just like FFing. It just takes some basic instruction in the beginning and lots of practice to become proficient.

Some become more accomplished than others, but good enough is good enough when tying flies, and there's no shame in buying certain flies that you don't want to tie.

Hey Mike and Nomad, I suggest you guys tie on a dry fly more often and give it a go. It's really a lot of fun to fish on top. Matching the hatch is da bomb.
 
I plan to fish dries a little more often this year. I started FF in june last year and never managed to catch any significant hatch so I went on trying to figure out how to catch fish with a fly rod. I did catch one fish on a Hemingway caddis this fall and I can see the draw.
 
I pretty much nymph fish 95% of the time and use streamers. I have a core of 10-15 flies I always tie and keep in stock, but if I am going on a trip where I'll be targeting (hoping for) certain hatches, I'll make an effort to tie up a dozen or so of my own and maybe supplement with local shop flies. I agree with many others, there's no point in stocking my boxes with dries that I rarely use!
 
I try to tie all my flies that I fish myself. I mostly fish euro style so I have found it easier just to tie them myself. I don't use any certain pattern mostly modified pheasant tails and Waltz worms. When the terrestrial patterns are on the menu I switch over and tie them as I call it arts and crafts, because all my patterns contain foam. I do not tie many dries as I find it a little cheaper to support the local fly shops, because to be honest my dries stink.
 
I pretty much just tie my favorites and what I think I'll need locally. I prefer fishing top or in the film, so I tie mostly dries/emergers/softhackles for my boxes. Not much of a nympher/streamer thug, so a lot of those get bought. And when visiting destinations near or far I almost always buy a handful of the local pattern even if I've got something comparable in the box, as those flies often come with a bit of extra added information about the neighborhood waters...
 
My experience has been that flies that are tricky to tie, usually have a better/easier method of tying i haven't discovered yet. A great example is parachutes. Parachutes are easier or harder to tie depending on how and where you tie in and tie off the hackle feather.

Another example is Prince nymphs. Tying the biot wings in facing forward as the first step and folding them back as the last step results in a much nicer looking fly and is actually the easiest way to do it IMO.

If a fly is giving you trouble, google it or search it on youtube and see how other folks are doing it. There is almost always an easier way.

Failing that there are almost always easier alternative patterns.

Materials also can make tying easier or harder on certain patterns. Bad or the wrong sort of marabou can make even a basic fly like wooly buggers look like trash. Other times, there is just one material that is clearly superior to all others. McFlyfoam for instance, is THE material for tying round single eggs. Period.
Click to expand...

Agreed, youtube has changed tying for me big time. Huge help....being able to pause....rewind....its a game changer.

And man do i hate tying biots....what a pain in the ***.

One thing Ive learned with dries is Less Turns!!!! Ive gotten better with that. Im slowly tying better parachutes.

-Bot
 
I tie all of my flies and this includes a wide array of FFing opportunities in both fresh and saltwater.

However, tying is, for me, the most meaningful and enjoyable aspect of the FFing sport and I tie a lot - often producing more flies than I need in a season.
 
The only store bought flies I still routinely fish are parachute adams. Mostly because I fish a lot of parachute adams flies, and I can't seem to keep up with the demand since parachutes take me quite a while to tie.
 
I can tie pretty much anything, but if I am asking a fly shop for advise I will buy a dozen or so local flies to support the business. Plus nothing like local flies for a confidence booster.

I've been tying for a long time and some days I just don't feel like knocking out the standards. Then I buy. Other times it is a great therapy.

Getting ready for trip spurs me to tie. Tying flies gets me in the mood for the trip. However, I usually tie 10X more flies than I need. My bonefish and steelhead wet fly boxes are overflowing, but I will still tie up a bunch of new patterns. Then I will use a handful of my old favorites.
 
^...I will still tie up a bunch of new patterns. Then I will use a handful of my old favorites. :lol:

+1 to that...
 
I tie 99% of my nymphs and streamers.

I tie few dry flies. I do my own Elk Hair Caddis, ants, Beatles and spinners. I buy my other dries. I just found that buying the dry fly hackle is pretty expensive for low volume tiers. I don't lose too many dry flies annual so I buy what I need.

Subsurface is another story, I go through a lot of flies annually. Since I tie them, I throw them aggressively. Plus I give many away to guys I fish with who don't tie their own.
 
I fish and tie only dries. And have no problem tying just about anything I want to fish with.
However, one pattern that has seemed to be a bit of a PIA to tie - is a royal wulff. Getting that body - 2 sections of peacock here, divided by red floss - to look just right seems to take some practice. I tied these a bit shortly after I started tying flies. But was never really happy with the way they looked. And, since I really didn't use them very much, just quit messing with them.
Over the past few years though, I have across some of them for sale at a rather cheap price. They were nicely tied - and I bought them.
 
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