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I have had lots of free time spent at home lately(due to no work for me at the moment), and I have been trying to keep my hands busy. Now I have not ventured into fly tying yet but my wife just bought me a starter kit from bass pro for my birthday. Have yet to open it up yet and I just have a quick question for you tying vets.
I am curious if you get more bang for your buck when you tie. I have always just bought my flies and it usually runs me about $1.00 per fly (depending on the fly of course).
For example.. if i were to buy $30 worth of material for hares ear nymphs.. would I be able to tie 30 nymphs with those mats? Hares ears run about 99 cents here at my local fly shop.
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Im a novice as well so I will let the experts reply further.. but I will say that when I sit to tie up flies the only three things I generally run short of are hook, time.. and on rare occassions patience .. :-)
MacFly [cool]
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[indent]Yes, you get the bang for the buck, but once you start, you will NEVER use up all your materials. Right now, after tying for over 30 years, I have enough materials to tie millions of flies. I'm talking huge box after huge box full of crap, most of which I'll never, ever use. I've spent many thousands on materials. Enough to buy all the flies I could have ever needed, or will ever need.
It is far cheaper to buy your own flies, especially trout flies. (Saltwater--well--that's a different deal)
Hell, I could have bought entire fly bins in fly shops with all the money I've spent on materials. Not to mention all the hundreds of flies I've tied over the years that will never be used, or have already been "tossed" to someone else.
However, if you don't tie, you don't get the satisfaction of having exactly what you want, tied exactly to the specs. and proportions you want, on the hook you want, etc etc. Also, you don't have to worry about finding the flies you want in a pinch, like on a fishing trip. I tie more now while on a trip or the night before one than I do just for something to do. It used to be fun. Now its more of a chore. But I still have a few bugs I need to tie myself, the way I want them, on the hooks I like, to the proportions I want.
By the way, if you were to buy $30 worth of hare's ear tying materials, you could tie far more than 30. Try hundreds. Dubbing (hare's mask), thread, wire for ribbing, something for a wing case, and something for tailing. Dirt cheap fly, and dozens of variations for tailing and wing case materials. Maybe a bead or some lead if you want it weighted.
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Wow, great response! At the moment I am really only interested in tying the few patterns that I used during last season..basic stuff like hare ear nymphs, pheasant tails, princes, stimulators, wulffs and adams..Also interested in tying up some terrestrial patterns as well. Maybe ants and hoppers... so for now, I am thinking those are the only materials I will be buying.
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Totally agree, been tying for many years and as Jim, I can now tie pretty much anything, but we are talking $1,000. of material accumulated.
If you enjoy it, it is worth it, it brings out the creativity side also, but no way is it cheaper.
Great thing is, I take my stuff (small portions of everything) with me. I do fly tying shows so I am pretty mobile. So, I take it camping and fishing, because it is ALWAYS the one fly you only have ONE of that they want, and that last big fish just took it.
So it is on the spot, any time, any where.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000] ![[Image: happy.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif) I like to think of fly tying as a hobby within a hobby. An advantage of tying ones own flies is that it helps one to learn not only about the different materials used but the names of the flys themselves. Likewise learning the idenity of various insects is a major plus in learning what flies to use and when.[/#008000][/font]
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Don't do it!
It will suck you in
hook, line and sinker ...... er I mean hook, thread and lead wire.
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Most people start out with saying I just want tie a select few flies. Then when you get started all of a sudden you are reading about this other fly that is even better or just seems to be better. Then several hundreds of dollars later .... there you are ....... Oh man, I just need this one other material to tie that killer fly that Fly Goddess posted on this forum.
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But it will keep your hands busy. However, it will not keep you from going crazy but at least you can direct where the craziness leads you.
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I will actually do both. I tie the flies I use the most of like woolly buggers etc. But the more difficult flies that I might use now and then I will purchase. But I do find that I enjoy tieing the flies. And yes every now and then I find a new pattern that looks fun to tie and yes I have to buy materials usually, but hey it does give me something to do while I am on the road for work.[cool]
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I agree with the posts above, there is more.....
Yes, you can spend 000s on it, but you don't have to. that applies to everything in life.
Yes you can "go pro" but you don't have to.
Yes you can have flies instantly without having to go to the shop or mail order, but you can still into a flyshop too and make a purchase of new and stimulating flies to copy at home.
But some things have not been said yet :
You don't have to buy Whiting or Metz quality everything. Like most things you get "normal" adequate quality mostly, and "add a little fizz on top" of super quality stuff confined to the area that inerests you most. So the cost can be made to vary to suit you.
For instance you can buy a chenille for every color fly body, or you can could instead chop wool and dub it into a fur body of the texture you require.You can buy an expensive jungle cock cape for putting eyes on flies, or you can use a matchstick to put a dot of white paint on their heads instead.
So cost is adjustable to suit you and how much of a tackle junky you are!
Now consider this: sometimes you can't go fishing, it's dark, or icy out there, or the fish season is "closed". You can still "do fishing stuff" and tie flies for use later.
Better still - fly tying beats TV by a huge margin. There is nothing so relaxing as concentrating on making a batch of flies just to suit your requirements.
But even more, when you catch fish on flies you tied, every fish is elevated into an even better experience.
When you open up your wallet of flybox, looking around at your world of fly imitations inside is really cool and satisfying.
And you can invent and create for almost free! Wonder what that fly would be like with a red head instead of black? Done! Are gold hooks better? Tie up identical flies one on bronze the other on gold, fish a dropper and swop positions until YOU KNOW FOR SURE which is better.
I sometimes use tiny flies in places where huge trout feed. Occasionally I had a hook straighten when I latched into a monster. Now my tiny flies are tied on tiny specimen wide gape carp hooks. The hooks are stronger - a lot stronger - and their gape is wider, so one of my 24 size flies has the hooking power of a 16 "standard hook" version.
I could go on . But it can be boiled down to this: if you are "into" flyfishing, you will be more into it when you tie up your own flies.
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IrishFloatTube, Please tell more about these carp flies. I have never seen carp specific flies and certainly not small ones.
I have often thought that i should tie the tiny stuff on bigger hooks since the fish seem to have a propensity to ignor that big eye and even bigger hooks hanking out the end. So what if there is a little more shank hanging out one end or the other? Now that my supply of tiny hooks is getting smaller I might want to pay attention to your experience here.
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[quote Dryrod][font "Comic Sans MS"][#008000] [.img][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif[/img]I"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...rum/happy.gif[/img]I[/url] like to think of fly tying as a hobby within a hobby. An advantage of tying ones own flies is that it helps one to learn not only about the different materials used but the names of the flys themselves. Likewise learning the idenity of various insects is a major plus in learning what flies to use and when.[/#008000][/font][/quote]
You sure have a really good point there big guy [  ]
Peter
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Personally, I think I have saved a bunch of money on flies by tying them my self. Most people on here talk about seeing new and exciting flies and going out and buying a ton of stuff to tie them with. Now I'm guilty of this as are most of them but I have been able to limit myself pretty well to only buying stuff I need for flies I use. I bet I tie less then 10 different flies so I mostly have stuff to tie those flies with. If you can also limit your self to only the material you need then you can make it worth it to tie flies. That doesn't mean you can't experiment with new flies though, when I experiment with new flies I try and use stuff that I already have an buy only what I must have to tie the fly. Sometimes you never know, maybe the fly you tie with what you have is the one the fish want to take.
It was mentioned in an eariler post but I'm going to say it again. You don't have to buy the most expensive hackle on the market. If I can't find full  dle for 20 bucks I won't buy any. They tie just as good looking flies (in my opinion anyway) as the other stuff but you get the same amount for a lot less money!
Hopefully my late night rambling makes sense. PM me for any clarification.
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you made perfect sense to me.. thank you..
MacFly [cool]
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Sil, I've been wondering the same thing. I too have been interesting in getting started fly tying but as others said it's a hard addiction the break(from what i hear). I'm sure it will feel 100x better catching a fish on something you tied. But is it worth it? For someone that doesn't get out on the water much I would just buy but if your out on the water as much as you can for as long as you can I probably would consider starting because your more prone to lose flies and spend just as much on materials then on flies. I hope this makes sense but that's just how I see it
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Got to agree 100% with that.
I have been guiding for several years and then family and Husband all fly fish. That and the fact I love to experiment with new flies.
It is cost effective for me and I am sure I have saved over the years.
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I would buy if I were you, at least now. Once you start tying, it is an addiction. I love the fact you can tie what you want, in the colors you want, and all that. But had I known how addictive it was, and how expensive it would be for me...I would of been better off buying my flies. However it has turned into my favorite hobby, as well as taking up most of my money. So think about that long and hard. If you are out of work, you have time on your hands, use the kit you got, and see what you think. Don't say you weren't warned though. Tying is fun, but you always want to tie different patterns, and in different colors, and get a better vise, and all that stuff adds up. Then you have clutter to attend to. I put my stuff in boxes. I have a box of feathers, a box of fur, a box of synthetics...blah blah blah. If you like to be creative, and you don't have an addictive personality, you might be alright. If you just want to tie a few patterns, you will be alright and not spend much. But as for me...I started out making a few patterns, then went on to more, then now I want to try almost every type of fly known to mankind.
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