Considering Fly Tying

[bradya97]

Hello everyone, I am somewhat new to fly fishing and I was just wondering what flies you consider are easy to make for beginners, and work very well. I don't know about everyone else's opinion, but I believe purchasing flies are relatively expensive, and I believe fly tying could save a few bucks. Thanks everyone


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[mcnerney]

Brady: Fly tying is a very enjoyable way to stay connected to fly fishing in the winter months, but you will find it doesn't really save money. On the other hand, as you get better with fly fishing you will find patterns that are extremely effective that aren't sold commercially, so tying gives you the capability to have specialty flies in your fly box. The main reason I say fly tying doesn't save money is that we all like to tie all the new patterns that we see on the internet and in the fly fishing magazines, and guess what, you won't have the right materials on hand so you have to purchase an ever increasing supply of materials. It just one of those things that can get out of control very quickly. If you do decide to get into fly fishing, I would highly recommend getting Charlie Craven's book "Basic Fly Tying", it is an incredible book that walks you through all the materials and their uses, the tools needed and then starts out with really simple patterns with the recipes and a material list and slowly each pattern gets a little more difficult. Best of luck!

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Cravens-Basic-Fly-Tying-ebook/dp/B004GGTAV4/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453919128&sr=1-3&keywords=charlie+craven"]Amazon.com: Charlie Craven's Basic Fly Tying: Modern Techniques for Flies That Catch Fish eBook: Charlie Craven: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lkrbuKDkL.@@AMEPARAM@@51lkrbuKDkL[/ame]

 

[fishmandoug]

I agree.

If your goal is to save money, then you will be better served searching around and finding some discounted flies or suppliers.

The only real way to save money by tying flies is to stick to a few basic patterns and only buy these materials. Even then, I doubt it will be a savings.

I do think that most will agree that tying flies is almost as enjoyable as fishing them. There is also something special about catching fish on your own creations. I would find a local shop and see if they have any intro tying events. I know Orvis, LLbean and most shops have something like this and many are completely free (like when the drug dealer gives out the sample before you get hooked).

 

[mridenour]

Do you have a lot of equity in your home? You can take out a second mortgage if you do. That will get you set up with about half the materials you will think you need. Plus, you'll need some cash to design and renovate a room suitable for your new hobby. Once you get started filling all those fly boxes, you are going to have to go on LOTS more fishing trips and purchase dozens more rods and reels.

It isn't too late to run from this hobby now. However, if you must go ahead and partake in a new addiction, you will enjoy it immensely. I love catching fish on flies my clumsy hands tied. Gotta go...just thought of a bunch of tying materials I need to order!

 

[itchmesir]

Oh yeah. Tying has saved me so much money. Just ask the roll top desk, storage bins, tackle boxes, and multiple small parts storage boxes of tying materials I have.

 

[Rip Tide]

As far as I'm concerned, if you're not tying your own flies, then you're not doing it right.
I don't spend a lot and I never did and I've tied all my own flies for better than 40 years.
A little self control goes a long way.

 

[mridenour]

As far as I'm concerned, if you're not tying your own flies, then you're not doing it right.
I don't spend a lot and I never did and I've tied all my own flies for better than 40 years.
A little self control goes a long way.

Self-control, eh? I'll have to try that.

 

[hokiehunter07]

As others have said tying doesn't really save money.

Lets say you want to buy a decent vise. Nothing fancy but a nice solid rotary vise. $150.

Lets say $40 for tools

Lets say all you want to tie for starters is a parachute adams. It works. You're familiar with it.

You want sizes 12, 14, and 16. $21 for a 25 pack hooks for each size.

You need grizzly and brown hackle to tie the adams. A bronze cape from whiting is $70 per so $140 for 2 capes. If you buy 100 packs in each size that's $120 and you're limited in sizes and quantity.

Dubbing and poly yarn is cheap, we'll say $5 combined.

$150 + $40 + $21 + $140 + $5 = $356

You could buy 237 $1.50 flies for that same amount.

Now can you put a value on catching fish on flies you tied? Not really. You can also tie cheaper flies.

If you tie an X-caddis, which I highly recommend for beginners, all you need is a $5 patch of elk hair, some sparkle fibers, and a $3 pack of dubbing. Now for an Additional $35-40 you can tie 75 more flies. Add some of the brown hackle and x-small wire to the caddis and take off the sparkle fiber and you have a traditional EHC.

With that same material you can tie a comparadun. Add peacock and silk thread and you can tie royal wullfs, humpies, etc.

The problem is you walk into the shop and you say to yourself, "I came here to buy elk hair, thread, a pack of hooks, and some peacock." You end up walking out with a partridge skin, 3 or 4 sets of flash material, lead wrap, 8 spools of thread, beads, streamer hooks, chenille, strung hackle, etc. Before you know it you've spent $150+ $3 at a time.

 

[nevadanstig]

I'd have to disagree with everyone saying you won't save money. You sure can, if you can have good self control. A cheap beginners kit for $25, and another $25 for the materials you know you need, and that $50 can turn in to hundreds of flies depending on what patterns you are tying. I started to save money, and definitely did so initially.
But good luck with that self control.
As for easy to tie effective patterns, we'd need more info to really recommend anything. What area are you fishing in? What bodies of water and for what species?

 

[dean_mt]

As others have joked, the money saving aspect becomes a moot point eventually. There is outlay for a vise and materials but it doesn't have to break you as Hokie lays out or be nearly free as Riptide makes it by using tools fashioned from paper clips and a vise from the 50's (kidding! sort of ). The $350 thing is very misleading, Hokie. To get started you don't need a $150 vise, a full assortment of Renzetti tools, or full expensive capes. Will you eventually want that? Maybe and that's when it can get spendy. But I consider it a major hobby, and those things cost some money.

It will improve you fishing, no doubt. It forces you to learn about insects, lifecycles, seasons. It will make you want to look closer at all the bugs in your river. And it just makes you think about fishing in a different way.

 

[hokiehunter07]

You're right it doesn't have to be that expensive and that's where I was going with the non-hackled flies.

That said I'm not a fan of starter vise sets. About the cheapest I'd recommend is a danvise which is a heck of a vise that can be found for $70 if you look hard. I have a starter vise I keep in my desk at work and it sucks to tie on compared to my traveler. $40 for tools isn't anywhere near ridiculous. Scissors are about $10 for an average set. 2 bobbins on the cheap end would be about $10. A bodkin and threader another $5 or so. Hackle pliers could be another $10ish.

If you want hackle the whiting starter pack is 70 and I don't care for mine. If you get one size of 100 pack in 2 colors you can get away with a size bigger and smaller.

Regardless if you want to tie hackled flies it's very expensive. If you want to tie good looking buggers it's mildly to moderately expensive. If you want to tie streamers, dries, and nymphs it's very expensive.

 

[rangerrich99]

I have to ask, what is this 'self-control' thing people keep talking about?

I mean, has anyone met a fly-fisherman that had any? Has anyone met a fly tier that had any? At all?

[Here's where I'd insert a sound clip of crickets chirping]

Now I haven't met every fly-fisherman in the world, or even half of those here on this forum. And as for tiers I have met about two dozen and know maybe another three dozen between this forum and a couple local ones; and I'd hazard to say that none of us use much if any self-control when it comes to how much we spend on materials and tools. I'm not sure, but I don't think self-control is part of the fly-fishing thing.

Just my two cents . . . tying is a great hobby though, and there's nothing quite like catching fish on your own ties.

 

[dakotakid]

I'm in the camp that predicts fly tying won't save you money. As a beginner fly fisherman, I lost a lot of flies. But that wasn't the reason I started tying flies. I was intrigued by the challenge, the perceived art and satisfaction of catching fish with flies I tied. I've fly fished for less than five years and tied lots of different types of flies, but probably caught fish with only a fraction of them. But that's okay because I find fly tying to be very therapeutic.

I initially bought a fly tying starter set, but returned it because of the poor quality. Yes I could have tied flies with it. However, it was quickly obvious there are better vise options. After a little Internet research, I ran across the Fly Fish Ohio vise review.
Fly Tying Vises In-Depth Review by Fly Fish Ohio!

That review helped me realize what options are available at different price ranges. As a result, I bought a Danvise. It's not top of the line, but it's far better than a starter vise. Getting it on sale was an added plus, but I wouldn't have known what to buy without some guidance.

Before I get to long-winded, I encourage you to give fly tying a try. Start slow by buying material for only a few flies that you are pretty sure you will use. If you like it, think of it as a long-term hobby and grow with it as you see fit. If you don't like it, you can always sell everything and recover some of your investment.

Good luck.

 

[Ard]

Hi Brady,

Welcome to the forum, I'll agree with everyone when it comes to fly tying. I have a different take on it myself. I think that for a casual fisherman buying flies is the way to go in most cases. Fly tying for me was the place for the person who wanted custom flies bordering on perfection and to obtain patterns which are not available on the common market. As far as being economical I believe buying a dozen when you need them answers the need.

 

[len s]

Money saved $0.00
Frustration immeasurable at time
Satisfaction of catching a fish on a fly I tied from a feather off of a pheasant I shot? Immeasurable. Watching son do the same? Off the scale.

 

[flytire]

 

[mridenour]

My reply was obviously tongue in cheek. I started tying when I was about 10 years old. I got a cheap kit from Netcraft for Christmas. It came with the worst vise imaginable. I used to tape thin cardboard on the jaws to get it to hold a hook. It didn't take long until I had medicine bottles full of hooks in tackle boxes all over the kitchen table and hundreds of flies tied on my Universal Rotary vise. I still have an old Aluminum Perrine fly box filled to the gills with streamers I tied using lots of peacock herl and fake jungle cock eyes.

I quit tying for a while but have since returned to the old hobby (habit) of sitting at the table tying and dreaming of the fish that I will one day catch with that fly or maybe who I will give that fly to. Perhaps I should be dreaming of what tree that fly will get hung up in or what rock will break it from my tippet. That's how most of them flee my possession.

Fly tying is a wonderful and fun endeavor and I always point out the money I save to my wife but it is the furthest thing from my mind while I am doing it.

 

[Rip Tide]

nearly free as Riptide makes it by using tools fashioned from paper clips and a vise from the 50's (kidding! sort of ).

Actually that's almost true
When I was a kid, I used one of these. Still have it.
The vise that I use now is a Thompson that I bought for $28 in 1985

 

[citationsquirrel]

Hi Brady,

Welcome to the wonderful world of fly tying! For full disclosure, I just started fly fishing a year ago and started tying my own flies this past Fall. So, I thought I'd tell you what I did to get started.

For my birthday last Fall, I bought myself a present (the best present is the one you buy for yourself). I purchased a vise, a set of tools, and some basic supplies (head cement, thread, hooks, etc.) from Hook and Hackle. I found their prices to be very reasonable and they also offer a 10% discount for your first purchase of the year. The for Christmas, my family (at my request) got me a gift certificate to my local fly shop. I need to stop back in and pick up one or two items that I'm going to need soon. So, if you do a little planning and have a little "self-control" (o.k., I did purchase twice the amount of my gift certificate - but that just means that everything I bought was 50% off ... right?!?!?) you can enjoy fly tying without breaking the bank.

As for what I'm tying, so far I've done woolley worms and woolley buggers (I've been taking it slow). I found a good series of Youtube videos that cover some basic skills and then show you about 12 to 15 fly patters. The patterns tend to build on each other too, which is nice. So you learn a skill and then on the next pattern you use the skill again and then add another. I'm going to work my way through this series first.

I hope this helps. And, enjoy!

 

[sdtrout]

I absolutely LOVE these "can I save money tying flies" discussions.

In my opinion (which is worth EXACTLY what you are all paying for it), can you save money tying flies? Yes. Do MOST people save any money in the long run? Probably not. Just for fun, I did a little calculation. I imagined I was going to start tying flies and did not own a single tool or piece of material. I went to Cabela's web site and found everything I needed to tie 100 Adams Dry Flies. I found the least expensive of each item I could find and "bought" Cabela's brand when possible since those items were cheaper. Here's what I found...

Cabelas Fly Tying Tool Kit: $25.00
Thread: $3.50
Dubbing: $2.00
Hackle: $40.00
Hooks: $17.00
Sales Tax/Shipping: $7 (usually a similar amount)
Total: $94.50

Cost per Adams: $0.945 each

Definitely cheaper than buying them at a fly shop (or Cabela's for that matter). The good news is that the next 100 flies will be even cheaper because you only need to buy more material. You already own the tools. So those flies are only about $0.65 each. Want to tie some San Juan Worms. Even cheaper. Only thread, chenille and hooks. Copper Johns, more materials, more expense. Etc., etc., etc.

My point is, YES one can tie flies cheaper than buying them. Self-control IS the key! I have NONE!!!! Where MOST of us don't end up saving any money is when we buy materials to tie flies for a specific fishing trip, stream, species, etc. I have left over materials that I may NEVER use again. I have to factor the cost of those materials into every fly I tie. I would have been WAY ahead (cost wise) buying a fistful of flies for that Steelhead trip instead of tying my own but I wanted to fish my own flies.

My advice, don't get into tying flies to save money. Tie flies for the enjoyment and satisfaction. If you end up saving money in the end, that's a BONUS!

I've gotta work on the SELF-CONTROL thing!