I've not 'bought' a fly for many, many years. I made a commitment to myself long ago that I would only fish with flies that I tied. I'm not too anal about it, I have used flies tied by friends occasionally, but I've managed to stay away from 'purchasing flies' at fly shops or from catalogs for decades...

Nothing wrong with buying flies, mind you, and I know I'm not really 'saving money'..With all I've spent on materials and tools, I could have easily bought thousands of flies...

I just like to use my own flies.

I do get a lot of the catalogs that sell flies, though. I'm always browsing, looking for things to duplicate or modify to suit a need or just because I want to play with a new style or technique. Just hadn't really paid attention to the PRICES listed...didn't care, didn't look.

Somehow I guess I missed the explosion in fly prices....what I consider 'simple standard pattern trout flies' seem to have gone up into the over a dollar range...and bass flies? Some of the topwaters I've seen are selling for $4 to $6 EACH! Yikes!!

I know I'm getting old..but if I had to 'buy' the flies that I'd want for an afternoon on the lake it would cost me a couple of hundred bucks at retail...and I'd be tossing them to stumps, logs, flooded trees, grass, angry bass, and rocks..places you don't always get them back from..

I'm not so sure that a fledgeling fly fisherman, especially one who's targeting bass or panfish, couldn't actually 'save money' now by tying their own...even starting out with nothing....

Well, maybe not really, but WOW, flies have gotten expensive.

Buddy