The price of flies

jifigz said:
I don't understand how you can be a fly fisher and not a fly-tyer. You're missing out on a huge and creative part of the game.
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wbranch said:
100% agree! Guys who don't tie aren't fully invested.
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Man you guys are crushing me in here, lol. I have been fly fishing since the early 2000s and i have never tied a fly. I would say my biggest obstacle is time. I'm more invested in fly fishing than ever in terms of interest at this point and i have started to have some thoughts of learning to tie for various reasons. I have big hands and get frustrated trying to do little things also. It always seemed a bit intimidating to me. I'm a hands on learner so i would have to take a class to start out and be successful i think
 
bringthepain said:
Man you guys are crushing me in here, lol. I have been fly fishing since the early 2000s and i have never tied a fly. I would say my biggest obstacle is time. I'm more invested in fly fishing than ever in terms of interest at this point and i have started to have some thoughts of learning to tie for various reasons. I have big hands and get frustrated trying to do little things also. It always seemed a bit intimidating to me. I'm a hands on learner so i would have to take a class to start out and be successful i think
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Lots of local tu chapters have fly tying classes. Some better than others id assume. There may be folks on here willing to show you the ropes.
 
bringthepain said:
Man you guys are crushing me in here, lol. I have been fly fishing since the early 2000s and i have never tied a fly. I would say my biggest obstacle is time. I'm more invested in fly fishing than ever in terms of interest at this point and i have started to have some thoughts of learning to tie for various reasons. I have big hands and get frustrated trying to do little things also. It always seemed a bit intimidating to me. I'm a hands on learner so i would have to take a class to start out and be successful i think
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When it comes to crafty stuff, I often talk about "the touch." I used to cook for a cafe owner who has the touch. If we needed a new display case for pastries or whatever, he'd simply go down to the basement, grab some scrap wood, and throw together something that looked like it cost a grand.

I don't have the touch. I'm giant and clumsy and don't have much finesse. My DIY projects look like something out of a refugee camp in an undeveloped nation. If anything, my experience with tying is you can do most things wrong at the bench and still catch fish.

I think I've said this on here before, but paying attention to the detail of flies through tying infinitely accelerated my understanding of entomology, why we throw what we throw, and how to feed fish. Everyone has a different path, of course, but personally I really don't believe I would have learned half what I've learned as a retail shopper staring at endless fly bins.

My pity purchases these days are leaders. I don't want to fish someone else's flies at all.
 
I didn't read all the posts. Its not surprising. FFs on the whole have higher income. TCO, astutely (not criticizing), cater to the casual FF with incomes in high cost regions. People who book guided trips and pick up some flies on the way out. There is also a convenience charge built in and if you (think) you need it and you had the $, you'll pull the trigger. I always swallow hard when I visit a fly shop during my trips out west for intel and pick up some flies and a few spools of tippet. As Omar said "it's all in the game yo' "
 
jifigz said:
I don't understand how you can be a fly fisher and not a fly-tyer. You're missing out on a huge and creative part of the game.
Click to expand...
A testament to my oddity is I was born into FF breech (a** backwards). I spin fished and about at 12 yo I got real interested in the flies and tying. I tied few flies before I ever fished with a fly rod. Tying brought me into the sport. I now enjoy (most of the time!) all aspects
 
nymphingmaniac said:
I didn't read all the posts. Its not surprising. FFs on the whole have higher income. TCO, astutely (not criticizing), cater to the casual FF with incomes in high cost regions. People who book guided trips and pick up some flies on the way out. There is also a convenience charge built in and if you (think) you need it and you had the $, you'll pull the trigger. I always swallow hard when I visit a fly shop during my trips out west for intel and pick up some flies and a few spools of tippet. As Omar said "it's all in the game yo' "
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Respect The Wire reference, Joe 👍
 
lycoflyfisher said:
Lots of local tu chapters have fly tying classes. Some better than others id assume. There may be folks on here willing to show you the ropes.
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If you live within 20 minutes of York I will tutor you. I have been tying for 60 years.
 
Great thread to read, Circling back to the original post, I would like to tip my cap to you Wbranch and hope I am making plans in 91 degree sunshine and enjoying the drive !!
 
Paying retail for nymphs at TCO Boiling Springs because you didn't bring the right ones with you to the creek is akin to going to Cancun and realizing you left your bathing suit or sunglasses at home - you're just gonna have to suck it up and go to the hotel store and pay top dollar. You have no one to blame but yourself. Sometimes you just have to pay up.

FWIW I love TCO. I don't buy my flies there (I use livelegz.com for that) but I do shop at their Bryn Mawr store for gear and tackle and I've bought stuff from them online as well. Given what a niche fly fishing is, I feel pretty fortunate to have both TCO and Orvis 10 minutes from my house and I try to support them both when I can.
 
jifigz said:
I don't understand how you can be a fly fisher and not a fly-tyer. You're missing out on a huge and creative part of the game.
Click to expand...
I do tie all of my own flies and enjoy it, but I also see a clear distinction between fishing and tying and totally understand why some people aren't interested in it.

I love fishing bass plugs and poppers but have zero interest in making those.
 
Clams said:
Paying retail for nymphs at TCO Boiling Springs because you didn't bring the right ones with you to the creek is akin to going to Cancun and realizing you left your bathing suit or sunglasses at home - you're just gonna have to suck it up and go to the hotel store and pay top dollar. You have no one to blame but yourself. Sometimes you just have to pay up.

FWIW I love TCO. I don't buy my flies there (I use livelegz.com for that) but I do shop at their Bryn Mawr store for gear and tackle and I've bought stuff from them online as well. Given what a niche fly fishing is, I feel pretty fortunate to have both TCO and Orvis 10 minutes from my house and I try to support them both when I can.
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Correct. I was just very surprised at the price of two nymphs. One of them a child could learn to tie in 5 minutes. I'm going to frame them as a reminder to never go anywhere again without at least one nymph box.
 
The scenario described in this thread is in part why I’ve chosen to organize my fly boxes by the type of stream I’m fishing, as opposed to the type of flies in them. And that I only want to carry one fly box with me per day.

For Trout fishing I currently run a 3 box set up, though I only ever carry one at a time as mentioned.

1. Generic Trout - Has a little bit of everything, including dries for the most common PA hatches…Quills/MB’s/Sulphurs/SD’s/GD’s/various Caddis. Has a healthy number of nymphs, and a few streamers and terrestrials. Even has a few Brookie attractor dries. I take this one any time I’m on a larger Trout stream, or if I think I may be doing different things throughout the day and won’t be back to my vehicle.

2. Small Stream - Mostly attractor dries and smaller BH nymphs to drop off them. A few terrestrials, and a few small streamers.

3. Dead of Winter - Lots of eggs and heavy nymphs. A few big streamers. There are no dries in this box.

(I also have a 4th box for Warmwater.)

I just found this worked better for me. Grab one box for the type of fishing I’m doing that day, and it has everything I’d need in it.
 
bringthepain said:
Man you guys are crushing me in here, lol. I have been fly fishing since the early 2000s and i have never tied a fly. I would say my biggest obstacle is time. I'm more invested in fly fishing than ever in terms of interest at this point and i have started to have some thoughts of learning to tie for various reasons. I have big hands and get frustrated trying to do little things also. It always seemed a bit intimidating to me. I'm a hands on learner so i would have to take a class to start out and be successful i think
Click to expand...
Dude, I have HUGE hands and I tie. I bought my vise right when I began fly fishing. I got a cheap Cabela's tying kit. Hell, at the time I didn't even know what the hair stacker was. I think I threw that away.

Point is this: my first flies were bucktail lashed to a hook with a bead for weight. I tied em pretty big, say, a size 4 or 6. I used to focus on SMB a lot more, but I'm becoming more of a trout bum. Anyways, those flies caught me bass. They actually worked really well.

There are two lessons in this: 1) simple flies work. When we progress, we tend to tie more complicated, but we don't have to. 2) starting at the very bottom and gaining skills as you go is part of the fun. What used to seem hard is now easy. Ya know what I mean?
 
I don't agree with the fully invested comment, but I tie my own flies. There are times I buy some cheap flies online and they work just as well for me, although longevity can be a problem. You don't have to tie flies to consider yourself a fly fisherman.
 
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