When I got interested in flyfishing as a boy. Fly tying was a natural progression because my family did not buy many store bought things. My dad built our house, my mom was and excellant seamstress and made our clothes etc. I primarily tied a sparse squirrel tail streamer for brook trout.later I tried a few dry flies from one of my gramma roosters. the the hackle wound terrible and flies looked so bad I did not fish them. So as a result i ended up being primarily a streamer and nymph fisherman.

Now i typically request at least some fly tying materials for Christmas so the cost of tying doesn't spoil my hobby. I give away 300 flies or more a year and it is great for building anticipation for when i can get on the water