The hairy question...

[Waders]

I have tied a good amount of flies over the years for friends, family and of course myself, but one things always gets me is the number of flies I see that get put under a glass, in a shadow box or on a shelf. There is a since of pride to see some of your flies sitting in a prominent spot on an executives desk, coffee table or wall but there is also that gut wrenching feeling of... "man you should be fishing those flies!".

If it was intended to be under glass I will put them in a nice shadow box and seal them in with a piece of artwork or a pin from a FFF show or something. But if they are in a plastic box, by all means fish with them! All that being said, what are the opinions of other tyers?

I recently tied the flies below up for a friend and his first response was those are too pretty to fish with...to which I started to say... fine give them back and you can have the ugly ones!

So I am wondering if they will ever see the end of a fly line or even have the opportunity to entice a beautiful bronze back. Only time will tell unless they rot first.

[lastchance]

They are very nice, but if you send them to me, they'll certainly catch some bass with them.

[Eric-WD]

I have some steelhead flies I will never fish with, when I look at them It is a great reminder of a friend who gave them to me.
Perhaps you can tie one for him and put it in a shadow box then he can fish the others.

Eric

[FishnDave]

Yep...sorry, those really ARE too pretty to fish with!! Very nice!

[EdD]

Waders, let's try a different test. If you were to sell them, what would you charge for them. Would it be "art prices" or "get 'em out and use 'em" prices? I'm not saying that you ever have, or ever will sell your work. It's just an idea of seeing how they're valued.

I can't tell you how tempted to add, "If you do sell them at "get 'em out and use 'em" prices, feel free to PM me your price list. But that would be wrong...

Those flies ARE truly beautiful. Thanks for sharing the picture.


Ed

[branhap]

Waders,

I'd be happy to take a gift of those flies... for fishing or hanging on the wall.

P.S. if you ever want to make some money, I could use some bass flies... just PM LOL

Paul

[James Smith]

First off, very nice looking flies, well done! As far as people wanting to display your flies, the way I look at it is once I give something away, it belongs to the person to do with it as they please. I would be honored to have a display made of the flies I tie or to have someone fish them and catcha fish of a lifetime. About the only two things that would upset me is if they threw them away or sold them for profit. I say; go forth and keep tying beautiful flies for people to enjoy however they like. You get the enjoyment of tying the flies and of gifting them to someone to enjoy.

Jim Smith

[Ray Kunz]

Waders just touches on the disease. His infection seems to be limited to finished flies.
There are a lot us that have the more serious version of the disease. We apply the concept of "Too nice to fish with" to new materials also. We gather an inventory of material that we consider too nice to ever use. We relegate these materials to a category we proudly call "Petting Stuff".

[Waders]

Waders just touches on the disease. His infection seems to be limited to finished flies.
There are a lot us that have the more serious version of the disease. We apply the concept of "Too nice to fish with" to new materials also. We gather an inventory of material that we consider too nice to ever use. We relegate these materials to a category we proudly call "Petting Stuff".

NICE! I have some mule deer skins that I don't let scissors near! LOL The hair is about 4 inches long and has very little underbody and is some of the best tanned/ dyed skins I have ever come across. I paid way too much for 3 foot by 2 foot swatch.