Probably 100% when it is trout fishing, maybe 20% or less when fishing for sunfish or bass.
I love tying, but draw the line at flies that take more than 10 minutes or so. When the day comes that I start molding my own plastic worms or carving my own plugs to save $5, I may consider spending hours making poppers and the like.
Well, here I am, I must suck! I am 98% Store Bought guy. Funny, I do not feel ashamed. I do admire y'all 90+ guys, just do not wanna take the time or purchase the required materials. Any who, I am a no tie much.
Originally Posted by MarkF
Hi There MarkF
I am happy there are folks like you to buy flies! If it wern't for you folks buying your flies, folks like me would be out of business. Thank you.
fishbum
I have a funny feeling you spend a whole lot less money on flies than the rest of us do.
I'd guess I tie about 95%, especially since I got over deerhair fear and started tying my own poppers. When I buy a fly now, it's usually something I haven't seen before that I can use as a model.
Coughlin
Calling flyfishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.
Paul Schullery
I love to tie and fish my own flies and tie a pretty hefty percentage of the ones I fish, but if I can find a good deal, or a sale of some kind, I will stock up on a few patterns. If it means less time at the vise, it probably also means more time on the water. Having said that, I'd say I tie 85%, get given 5% and buy the other 10%.
If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.
About 15 or so years ago, I met a gentlemen in WV who had coke bottle glasses (remember those? for those of you of the younger crowd, they are eye glasses so thick they look like the bottom of glass coke bottles), and, I found out he was a very good tyer. It got the best of me to find out how this guy could tye so well. I had to ask, his reply was, do you really want to learn how to tye? I of course said yes, he then said never fish a fly you didn't tye. I hung on to that thought, living by that rule helped me learn alot about fly tying, stuff like don't throw a flie away it might catch a fish when you think it won't. I went alot of times without catching fish, but my flies got better , cause I wanted to catch fish. I now will fish a fly if a friend just wants me to try it, if it works, and I like it, I will tye my own. Other than that, if I get into a fly swap or have flies that come as a gift or with some gear, I then have flies all the time to hand out to folks fishing with me for them to try or just to have...
"Because by the Grace of God I can, be on a beautiful mountain stream with a friend , have the water boil from a 12" Native Brookie taking a self tyed dry,and feel it on the end of my cane... It don't get no better than that..."
I don't think I bought a single fly this season
Remember we all live down stream
100% Always struck me as ironic that salt water flies are the easiest to tie but are the most expensive. $5 is a lot to pay for a fly only to have blue fish chomp them off...
50/50
I'd guess 50% on mine. I tie all of the go to flies that I use here in GA all the time and experiment with some variations, especially with streamers and I usually tie too many and supply some friends and relatives. Anything I don't tie is something that isn't a staple fly unless it's just an experiment. I have a UGA corkboard in my home office that holds all of my "experiments", most of which are horrendous. It's funny though, I bet you'd never pick out which of those is the one that caught my first fish on a self-tied fly because it's so darn ugly compared to some of the better ones. I would tie much more if I had the time to learn and be more efficient in my tying and buying of materials. Though, I do pick up quite a few materials in odd places. (I recently caught a 3 lb spot on a streamer that I tied with 80% Hobby Lobby materials..very cool)
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