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Just wondering how many others may do this.
I'll make an online search for a pattern and end up taking/using methods/material from several patterns and incorporate them into a pattern to make my fly.
Sometimes it's a question of what materials I have on hand. Often it's related to my skill level and I take the easiest way out. Some times it's what I think looks best!
Sort of a "Frankenstein Fly" but hopefully not as ugly!!c:D
When I first started tying, I thought if a pattern was published, you had to go by it exactly, or the fish wouldn't bite. Silly me, now I know better. The fish won't bite even if it's tied exactly.
Sometimes I'm not in the mood to tie a pattern as listed. For those times I like mixing up with other materials to see what I come up with. If I'm lucky they'll catch fish. at the least I had fun doing it.
one of the reasons I have to buy several thousand hooks a year.
If I'm tying to a pattern I'll try to match the recipe as closely as possible. If I'm tying to fish the variations can be endless. These are not new patterns but, merely variations on styles. Sometimes I want a pattern to be consistent. Other times I tie with what I have on hand. All of them could catch a fish.
Yes, all the time. If I'm trying to imitate a certain nymph, I might use an abdomen like one fly, a wing-case like another and legs like a third. I'll use whatever I think will work best. Truth be told, most of the patterns I would call my own are "Frankenflies" to some degree.
Me too. At times it seems my material list is endless, except when I'm trying to match somebody else's pattern exactly. Then I never have what THEY used. :)
So, material substitutions are normal, for me, and borrowing parts of different patterns to cobble together something I think the fish will try to eat. And then there's the color variations...
Other times, it seems like I must have the mentality of "somebody else has already tied that fly and caught fish on it....let's see if THIS other way will also work." Its interesting how we each try to catch fish our own way. Sometimes it works. Are small acts of defiance built into our DNA? ;o)
Absolutely. Many times I cannot find a pattern that is what I feel will work on a particular hatch. But I find a technique....or a technique that gives me an idea on how to go about what I want to do.
A pattern is like a recipe...just a suggestion. It's called 'Innovation'.
I and I feel others when first starting out we all tried to match what a pattern called for. It was years later and becoming a better tyer that I learned that flies should be modified to match the insects you see on the streams by you. It was at this awakening that I never followed a recipe 100% unless I felt the pattern would work on the streams I fish. Lastly, ever been on stream and see what the fly the fish were taking. I have on numerous occasions and went home that evening and just looked for materials that I thought would work and just created my own imitation of the insect out of my head. Now my imitation would probably be some pattern that is out their, but what was fun about it is that is came out of my head and from the materials I chose to tye the fly. Like I said, I didn't invent anything and I bet that someone already tyed the fly that I created.