What do you really do with all of the flies you tie?

[Clay]

So you tie on a regular basis, you fish too but upon looking at things more closely you can't fish everything you tie. You have boxes and boxes of extra flies. Sometimes, you tie just to tie. So for all of you higher volume tiers, what do you do with all of those flies. Yes, you gift some but what are we thinking when we continue to tie and not fish them all?

Now having said that, in my journal for the last 4 seasons I've averaged over 60 days on the water each year. That's not a high volume guy but more than a weekend warrior so I really do fish once in a while.

[scubatim]

When I sit down at the bench to tie I am usually tying for an upcoming fishing adventure. That being said I have more flies than I really need so I usually pass them out to other fisherman on the river, or people that start asking me about fly fishing as they are thinking about learning. I guess that comes down to paying forwaed.

Yup I still have more flies than I need and the sad thing is I am board today and will most likely sit down and tie up a bunch. I am happy to say that I actually need an assortment of wolly buggers as I lost a bunch fishing the river the other day.

[pittendrigh]

I give away lots of flies.

That way I still have an excuse to keep tying.
Builds up favor accounts too. In other words, it's never a bad thing when fishermen you
know feel they owe you something.

[kglissmeyer]

I give them away, sell a few and mostly I fish them. Most of my tying is for upcoming outings and I usually tie up the regular producers on that piece of water, but then I'll tie up a couple of new ones, just to try them out.
When I tie at shows and such I always give my flies to those who have patiently sat and watched and listened to my ramblings. I'm surprised at how many tiers at shows don't give out the flies they've tied. Some sell them, and some just don't share. To each their own I guess.

Kelly.

[NJTroutbum]

I mainly tie for a particular outing planned or just to replenish a box getting low. I give a bunch away every year also. I do go through alot of flies on the water though.

[Uncle Jesse]

Goodwill won't take them because of their high standards so I give a few bream flies to a couple of friends who don't tie. Most of the trout flies I leave on logs, stumps and tree limbs. Occasionally, I run up on an uninformed rookie who moved to the area from Mississippi, Alabama or Florida where there are little to no trout and give them a few.

[EdD]

I like to give back to the environment. I give back to trees, shrubs, tufts of grass... I've decorated more trees than Santa.


Ed

[kelkay]

I agree, it is nice when they give you the fly they were working on. But if it is a fly with expensive material like Real Eyes Plus, and expensive feathers, plus hooks...maybe that is why they don't give it away. I have just started going to tie ins, and I usually give away flies like you said, if they watched the whole thing, and seemed interested I do.
Oh, I usually give my son quite a few of the flies I tie. I lose quite a few.

I give them away, sell a few and mostly I fish them. Most of my tying is for upcoming outings and I usually tie up the regular producers on that piece of water, but then I'll tie up a couple of new ones, just to try them out.
When I tie at shows and such I always give my flies to those who have patiently sat and watched and listened to my ramblings. I'm surprised at how many tiers at shows don't give out the flies they've tied. Some sell them, and some just don't share. To each their own I guess.

Kelly.

[Lew]

I tie up a batch of what I think I'll need. Then after they didn't work on the outing, I'll take a hard look at them and they don't look so good, so they go in the recycle bin. I've got more flies in the recycle bin than I do in my boxes. Heeeeeeelp!!

[luckie88]

My girlfriend usually steals alot of my flies when she comes to town. But if a pattern is working well for me I'll pass them off to friends or someone struggling on the river. One day I was catching alot of fish and this one guy hadn't had anything. It was kinda a remote stretch and we were the only ones in the canyon but he sat and watched me catch four nice browns in a row. He then asked me what I was using because he was getting skunked. The night before I had tied about a dozen of this pattern for the day, so I gave him two of them. I ran into him later in the day and he couldn't thank me enough, he said on his second cast BAM it was game on! So I don't mind handing them out on the river if you're nice enough.