Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who ties their own flies?

Wow!

Just dip your flies in sweet corn juice! It's like catnip for fish. Crappy and Largemouth bass love it!

Don't bother taking a fly rod offshore. It's fun for the first 300 yards.

Torqued, i like it a lot, have had it a few years now and it has work fine. I don’t think it is a true rotary vice, but for what I do it is more than adequate.

I was just thinking today gotta run down to HEGBEN. Already tied up a few dozen of gulper and callebeatis nymphs and midge patterns

I used to tie flies when I was a teen, then I put all my fly-tying supplies in storage. The mice got to it.

Maybe one day, I'll give it another shot.

Took some classes at the local orvis shop about 15yrs ago. I’d say my flies were about as good as any orvis fly....I caught pretty much nothing on either.

I used too - but I live where there are not trout…

I took a Orvis class to learn how… all good

Excellent. From what I have seen of it,it looks like it should suit my needs. Hell no better than I can see anymore I may not like tying my own flies ! So I don't need to invest in a $600 vise.

Not sure where you live in Eastern Kansas,but Roaring River State Park is 65 miles S.E. of Joplin Mo.

Tried fly tying. Found rubber spiders purchased at the store were way more gooder.

I usually just zip my fly.

Used to teach fly fishing & tied my own flies also. Specially deer hair bugs. Umpqua Feather Merchants picked up a few of my patterns: The McSnake, McFrog, & McMurderer.
Check them out.

Mostly for trout and steelhead here. Trout can be finicky. I favor the steelhead flies as one is not trying to match a hatch. Seems they rise to flies as an instinctive reaction, spirit of the chase, or perhaps anger due to invasion of space. It's just fun to sit down with materials and think "this might look nice." They all seem to work just fine, and each is retired when a fish is beached.

Steelhead boxes.




Retired flies from last trip:


Spawning Brookie will eat anything that moves.


Been using the old Thompson A's for decades. Purchased a Nor Vise a couple months back. Maybe I need more time, but to date, am not overly impressed. Seems like I need two hands to get things tightly wound down.

I've tied for years, I have hundreds of fly's. Mostly patterns for the local waters,+ many for pike. I like fishing one fly to see how many fish I can catch on it. Have a few favorites for the local waters.

I grew up before bobbins were coming into vogue and they first started making fancy vises... My father forced me to learn to tie in hand, no vise, and I really appreciate the fact he saw the advantage. Switching to the Nor-Vise was neither easy nor automatic, but I am very glad I got past the learning curve quickly and easily.

Lot of nice fly work here, mine are still a little rough but I'm catching fish with em. Very satisfying building your own rods and flies.

1minute, those flies are a work of art.
Mine are not that polished to say the least. Tie for trout and panfish. It is gratifying, to say the least, catching fish on your own flies. Very much like killing deer with your own handloads.

Wow. 1 minute the flies you tie are absolutely amazing. Like ss336.said, they are a work of art.

Thanks for the comments, but my efforts are solely functional at best. The true artists are those capable of the classic Atlantic Salmon patterns. A major issue with those, however, is securing materials, as it's damned near impossible to import the exotics from mostly India and Africa. One needs to luck into a well heeled estate that dates back to the 1930's or 40's and hope the moths haven't gained entry.

There's something like 24 or 5 different materials comprising a Jock Scott. Those capable of generating such might get 2 or $300+ each, it would arrive in a shadow box, and I sure as Hell would not toss one in the water.


Sitka: Your comments remind me of an aged gentleman I encountered a few times on Oregon's Metolius. Probably 90+ yrs. Seems he made a 3-hour run from Portland and arrived minus his fly boxes. He wandered up and down the banks for a couple hours finding some decaying flies and hooks in bank side branches, took some thread from his tattered clothing, and raided a few abandoned bird nests for bits of fur and feathers. Said he spent half his weekend fabricating three or four no name flies cementing them with melted pine pitch, and though he only caught a few fish, it was his most enjoyable trip ever.

Necessity can be a mother.

Have a good one,