I am a fly tyer, my name is Andy Brasko. My question to this board comes after this short intro story the leads into my question:
A fly fisherman will go out and look at all the rods that are available to him. Based on budget and feel this purchas could be between $200 - $775 now adays. Then of Course the fly fisherman wants to balance out the rod with a nice new looking reel which could go again based on ones budget from $50 - $500 easy. Now the fly fisherman decides that he needs a really good fly line to complimnet his rod and reel selection, so he spends anywhere from $29.99 - $99.99. Okay we have the rod, reel, line and just one more thing to get some leaders and tippet. So about $2.59 - $5.99 is spent on the leader and again on a spool of tippet. Now in this process the fly fisherman has taken his time selecting and seeing what feels right and looks appeasing to his eye. So now it comes down to the flies. Some people look at the sign in the shop to see what might be just working and go and buy a handfull of flies. Others look for their favorites that they know will work. Others do not know what is good and will work or take the time to read and buy what they think looks buggy/fish catchers. Next, there are others that decide to go the route of the internet to get flies cheap and in bulk. Lastly there are the fly tyers. Some who want quick and easy fast tyes, Others that want well constructed flies and looks that match a species in ones local stream then there are nuts like me that wants quality, looks well built and of course a piece of art work. Okay enough. let's get to the question:
Why is it that a person will buy an expensive rod, reel, fly line and leaders and tippet material and scrimp or do not care on the part of the whole outfit the catches the fish (The FLY)?
I cannot answer this question becasue my philosophy is that a well constructed fly that looks like a work of art should be fished on your outfit. Not some $0.99 fly that was found by uncle cheach at the blueberry fly website… So back to my question, what is your take on this when you see my write up and question. I thought this would be a very interesting topic that would generate a really good thread.
Sincerely
Andy Brasko
Genuine Wet Fly Tyer & Fisherman
Since I tie all my flies, for the most part I like quick, easy patterns that are, hopefully, well-constructed (if they’re not I have no one to blame but myself). I’ll never have any of mine considered works of art; as long as the fish think it looks like something to eat, I’ll be happy. I appreciate the effort and skill it takes to tie some of the masterpieces I’ve seen, but give me something like a CDC & Elk, easy to tie, buggy as he.l, and I’ll go with that fly every time. Even after it’s been chewed to something that looks like it just came out of my drier’s lint trap, it still catches fish. Some of the nymphs I see, with every leg, antenna, gill represented are awesome, but there’s no way I’d fish them down in the rocks where they need to be fished when something like a Rubber Legs, a born Kamikaze fly that I can tie in under 5 minutes, works just as well. Lose one of them and I just reach for another; lose an anatomically correct work of art and I’ll sit on the bank and cry, or even worse, not fish the hole properly.
I have plenty of “pretty” flies bought from top tyers at the shows. I fish expensive bamboo rods, with a Bogdan reel and a Phoenix silk line. However it seems I really start catching more fish after my fly gets a little beat up, even after a fish or two chomp on it. Pretty flies catch fly fisherman(great for sales), ugly flies catch fish!
I tie my own flies also. After spending those (to me) ridiculous prices for hardware (rods, reels & lines) I don’t have any money left for quality tied flies. Shoot, I don’t even have enough for those ridiculously priced pieces of hardware. I think that like many other industries, fly fishing in general has priced a great deal of the middle class out of the market. When I was working, or when I had a financial windfall, I’d splurge and get a nice rod or reel. I even spent $60 one time for a fly line. WHEW! Now that I’ve been forced into retirement, like a lot of other people, the only equipment I use is either cheap or given to me. It’s sad too, because I believe the current market trend has lent itself to the notion of fly fishing being an elitists sport, when it should be for the common man.
Wow! Looks like a can of worms (or flies as it were) was opened here. Sorry for the rant, but I feel better now.
I think it’s been that way for a while. Several years ago it hit home to me when I read an article in Fly Rod and Reel magazine, interviewing some chef from New York City who took up fly fishing a couple years prior, as a way to “unwind”… he instantly loved it so much that he simply HAD to rush out and buy a home on streamside property on one of the famous Catskill streams… I remember the quote that he “Just considered it part of the initial equipment investment” !!!
How in the hell are 99.9999% of other fishermen supposed to identify with that? It was the last FR&R rag I picked up, but I did see that my letter to them was published online, and they maintained there was no “snobbery” in their portrayal. BTW the chef went on to say how trout were too valuable and precious to EVER take one from the stream, but a quick look online at the menu of his high-falootin’ slophouse in NYC showed several fish dishes available.
now THAT’S funny, and so true!! It’s not part of my world, but it’s funny and true!
For me, I enjoy the thrill of using a fly that I tied myself. I can count on one hand the number of flies I’ve bought, because I was tying before I was fly fishing. That said, my flys generally look like crappy .99 flys, though they are getting better and some are downright worth being proud of. A fish caught with my worst looking fly is more satisfying than a fish caught with a $5 work of someone else’s art, because it is my fly.
But if I ‘bought’ flies, I’d buy the cheapest ones I could find.
I disagree that the ‘quality’ tied flies are any ‘better’ for the purpose intended, the catching of the fish, than the ‘cheap’ ones. In fact,
I’ve seen lots of ‘custom’ or ‘locally tied’ flies that are no better, often obviously worse, in their construction than flies tied in mass from overseas. I firmly beleive that the best spinner of deer hair bugs in the world is probably a lady in Asia someplace, and so are the top one hundred behind her. Same with all the ‘standard’ patterns. Cheaper doesn’t always mean ‘inferior’.
Flies should be readily expendable. Like bait. Throw them where the fish are. Get them stuck. Break them off, tie on a new one. I’d not want to disturb a fishing area to ‘get back’ a snagged fly. It’s much easier to have that attitude about a $.99 fly than a $3 fly, at least for me.
All a fly has to do is be struck by the fish. Getting the fish to do that is less about the fly itself and more about the skill of the person presenting it.
I may be missing Andy’s point though. If this is about dealing with overseas/cheaper competition in the fly production business, that’s an easy fix. Too long to explain here though, but many of us have to deal with such things in our business, and there is way to deal with it.
Ugly self tied fly that caught three rainbows ( stockers) half a dozen blue gills and one 10 inch large mouth bass. The bass tore it up bad. If you think that spending piles of money on gear and flies that are peices of art then hey go ahead. It’s your money. P.T. Barnum would have liked us both.
As many of our fellow fishermen have pointed out we fish flies we have tyed ourselves. Few of us are confident enough in our abilities to consider our work as true art, but we will let the fish judge them as the fish see fit. While we may spent more money than a non-fisherman thinks makes sense on tackle, that tackle is something we intend to use many times in the future. Flies we hope to use several times but know all are potentially disposable and almost all are eventually disposable. Dry flies are the only patterns I do not expect to eventually end up on a log in the bottom of the river, and there are always tree limbs reaching for them.
For fishing flies I like to think that mine show a reasonable level of craftsmanship but art is too strong a word for something cranked out by the dozen in a matter of a few minutes each. If I tie one that I don’t like it may very well stay in the fly box a long time even though I’ll happily fish one just like it that was torn up by a fish. When doing gift flies or swap flies I’m a bit pickier and I know that what I have learned from tying those flies has carried over to my regular tying.
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We have a winner!
I’ve never left a rod, reel, or line (other than leader) in a tree. I can’t tell you how many flies I’ve left. Why “Charlie” on the Duck River alone held so many of my flies that it ended up falling into the river in the next, big rain. Just ask Jack Hise.
We’re not ‘cheap’. We’re ‘frugal’!
Part of the game, for me, is to find serviceable equipment at a reasonable price. Being on a so called fixed income The option of being extravagent is not there any more.
I think that this is something that is easily overlooked in the glare of all the high-end equipment that is available…you don’t need it to enjoy fly fishing. Certainly, it adds something very real to the sport for many, and more power to them, but the secret is that you can fly fish on a budget quite nicely.
I’ve said on more than one occasion…“if I tie a (dry) fly for you, it will have wings…if I tie a fly for myself, it won’t”. The top view of the fly catches the fisherman the bottom view catches the fish.
IMHO, it’s good practice to hold a potential purchase (or fresh tie) up to the light and see how the profile compares to what you think the fish sees.
I think it’s been that way for a while. Several years ago it hit home to me when I read an article in Fly Rod and Reel magazine, interviewing some chef from New York City who took up fly fishing a couple years prior, as a way to “unwind”… he instantly loved it so much that he simply HAD to rush out and buy a home on streamside property on one of the famous Catskill streams… I remember the quote that he “Just considered it part of the initial equipment investment” !!!
