Recently my brother, who, like me, is an avid fly fisherman, joined the Army. While in the Army, he put the majority of his possessions in storage. Not wanting to expose his fly tying materials to bugs and the like while in storage, he gave all of his fly tying stuff to me - not to store it for him, but to make my own. (I’ll give what I don’t use back to him when he gets out, but for now I’m using what he gave me). Anyway… I finally got around to combining our materials and organizing everything. What struck me was how few things we had in common. I set aside a special box to store duplicates in (no sense in having two of everything). We had almost nothing in common! We each had about 10 bunches of marabou. The only colors we shared were black and white! We each had about 6 or 7 spools of floss. We only had two colors in common. Same for bucktail, deer hair, thread, you name it. Even among the less common materials, we still had very little in common. It surprised me how different our tying styles were. We were both basically self-taught, but I didn’t expect us to have so little in common. How have you noticed that your tying style differs from that of your friends?
I have noticed the difference. I tie mostly with natural materials and they tie with mostly synthetic. I buy necks they but 100 packs or saddles which I use very little of.
I’ve noticed I tie EXACTLY like Normand, KGlissmeyer, Cold, and Bass Bug.
…ssshhhhhhh, this is a good dream…don’t wake me up just yet! he he he 
yeah, i am the only one who ties and fishes soft hackles , all the rest of my friends are into standard hackle, but come to me after the standard hackled flies no longer work /when the fish get tired of seeing them
I agree with you, narcodog. If I’m buying feathers and its at all possible, I’m buying on the skin.
I have very few friends (outside of people I met specifically through fishing) that know much about tying, but even among tyers I’ve become good friends with and fish with, styles are very different. I’ve found that I have a strong tendency toward classic patterns, and, by extension, natural materials. I have a rough time incorporating synthetics (beyond, say, rayon floss), unless I’m tying warmwater or salt. Once I do set out to tie something with synthetics, it usually ends up 100% synthetic.
A few buddies work wonders with foam and spun hair, which I can’t for the life of me figure out. Conversely, I have no issues with floss, slip wings, or full feather wings.
Very interesting observation and something worth checking into. I feel it is good that you have noticed the differences you both share in tying material colors because that tells me that you will probably become very good at tying flies because you are observant. One of the reasons for the differences may be the fishing styles you each have. For instance, one may fish subsurface mostly and the other may fish dry flies or midges mostly. If that is the case, your tying material will be different.
I really do find this thread interesting and will look forward to viewing the responses.
I have to know one thing though. When the two of you do go fishing together, who has the best “catch” ratio? If it is your brother, you may want to switch to the colors he uses! LOL
I honestly feel if you viewed 2 different fly tying benchs, you would probably see that each fly tyer has different tastes, but, that does not mean one is right and the other is wrong. Different strokes for different folks. I find fly tying to be a lot of fun and even more fun when teaching it to others.
Great thread and very good observation which I am sure will be a learning experience for you as you continue to research the differences. I would enjoy being in the same room or on the same river as you and your brother discuss this difference with each other.
That’s a good question about who catches more… Usually, what happens is that I catch more fish, but he always seems to catch the big one (or three). Which I’m okay with. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty small sample size as we haven’t had many opportunities to fish together the last few years (since I became a serious tyer).
I tie mostly soft hackles and streamers and most for bluegill/crappie/bass/panfish and fish mostly stillwater. I’m sure my box is MUCH different than an avid trout or (especially) a salmon fisherman.
OH WOW What a thread !!
I’m gonna tell yah a story LOL LOL.
I was invited to a “tie and lie” (BYOB) with people I had never met in person (only on net). When time came close, I discovered that everyone other than me, were tying their “down home” patterns, Duh what’s that, 'cause I had been gone for so long. Long story short, I had a lot of stuff that they didn’t have, and naturally they also had stuff I didn’t have. We had a BALL !!! I learned a lot from all of them. Not sure if they got any info from me, but they were courteous lol lol
For comparing catch ratios, it has to be apples to apples. Two, or more, different tying styles, material, etc. fishing the same waters for the same species.
I agree, this is an excellent thread!
I spent 16+ years as a trout fanatic wading south eastern streams. I now do warmwater in a solo canoe or yak. I do fly only and so does my pal mentioned later. We are both about 99.999% C&R but not Nazis about it.
It still amazes me to this day how people who fish the same water the same day have totally different taste in flies, rods, boats, etc.
I got this one pal I’ve fished with for over 12 years and on a given day we almost always fish different areas of the river/pond, fish with different weight rods, cover water at a vastly different speed (almost leads to arguments at times), and our flies are totally different in size, color, bulk…well nothing jibes at all. I fish more bushy (one pal calls my Decievers a Half Chicken), bright, natural materials, and more topwater. He fishes darker, synthetic, sparse, and usually wet. When we both are fishing topwater, he has the storebought Sneaky Pete and I do not fish a fly that I didn’t tie and 99.999% of the time it is spun deer hair. No foam but I do see the practicality of it and in the next decade may start using it.
In that past 12 years I have bought maybe 3 fly rods and my main bass rod is 17 years old. I only own one 4 pc rod and it is the cheapest Cabela’s and it stays tied under the gunnel of my canoe and it is a backup I pray I never have to cast. That rod totally sucks. Anyway, my pal has bought well over a dozen 4 pc latest and greatest rods in that same time period.
Fishing platform preference? I float in a solo boat, in rivers (some small ponds), and almost never wade. I get out to take care of bodily functions. My buddy? He loves wading and really wants a flats boat and hit the big lakes for stripers and salt for reds.
Number of flies on a given trip? I carry 3 boxes and maybe 5 dozen flies. My pal has at least 300 and fly boxes all over the place.
So, who catches more fish? Good question. With trout, I usually win but every now and then he will kick my rear into next week. When it comes to bass, he usually has the numbers and manytimes the size too. Dang it, he is a better bass guy than I am. However, I many times pull the biggest bass of the day out but I wouldn’t bet money on it. Pound and satisfaction wise, we are about even. We can fish all day on a favorite smallie river and he will double my numbers but I usually average bigger fish…usually. And those days when one of us gets skunked and the otherslays’em, we are always happy for the other with no hard feelings.
Sorry for the long post but this just made me realize how diverse the FF crowd is. It also reminds me that even people with different views and techniques can have a lot of fun.
Boyscout
I have a fishing partner that ties and fishes mainly nymphs. I tie mainly dries and emergers. We both fish the same waters together…and both catch comparable. Our tying benches likewise are completely different obviously.
What I find really interesting is the different ‘tying styles’ found from person to person.
Not ‘what’ they tie, that’s based mostly on how/where/what they fish for, but how they tie it and how it looks different from same/similar flies tied by others.
I’ve seen ‘Adams’ tied by a bunch of different tyers, and none of them look the same.
Even the venerable Wooly Bugger can have significant differences from tyer to tyer.
But it’s in the nymph family where you really can see amazing differences in ‘style’. Thicker, thinner, shorter abdomens, longer, wider to narrower wing cases, longer or shorter legs, leaving things off (no legs, wing cases, etc.).
Funny thing, though. ALL these flies seem to catch fish?
What’s up with that?
Buddy
Buddy, I suspect that question was rhetorical in nature. My friend in Phx who grew up fishing for western trout has told me for years that the fish are not as fussy about the fly as the tyer. I think he is probably right.
I remember back when I was chunking baits for bass, I caught fish on what I had confidence in. I mostly float tube for trout and catch more fish on nymphs and soft hackles using a 5 wt., most days. Like many others, I enjoy catching fish on my 3 wt. with dries more, so I still fish it when I see an opportunity. Fishing for survival is would take a soft hackle over other flies with the possible exception of a wooly bugger, but I would take a plastic grub on a spinning outfit over all others.
Originally Posted by Buddy Sanders 
Funny thing, though. ALL these flies seem to catch fish? What’s up with that? Buddy
Except for some catfish, most fish will strike something that looks alive over something that looks dead, so, if you will tie your flies so that they have a lot of movement in the water on their own and not movement provided by the fly fisherman, I think they will be more productive. By movement on their own, I mean the material on the fly has movement caused by the water current, etc. I strive to tie all my flies with this thought in mind. In a moving river situation, I do not feel the flies need to look exactly like the “bug/fish” they were patterned after because they will be moving along and will not provide the fish much chance to look them over. Most strikes will be reaction bites. Now in a lake or pond, I feel the fish have more opportunity to look your fly over more before commiting to striking it.
Just thoughts and nothing more…
Bugman and his wife are my fishing buddies, and tying friends. They tie a wide variety of flies, and so do I. On the whole Bugman ties much smaller flies than I do. He ties a lot of dries though, very small ones. I usually tie much larger flies. For one thing I can see them better, as my eyesight just goes from bad to worse. I love their flies, but you can tell a difference usually in who tied what. I think I tend to tye more streamer like flies than they do. Bugman can tie some great flies, and he is very talented. He has been at it a lot longer than I. I just made the 3 year mark. Yes, it is funny we tye differently. We also fish the same waters, but you wouldn’t really know that from some of our pattern differences. He ties his own local versions more than I do. I wanted to learn the basics a bit more, before working on local patterns.
Hi All,
My friend and fellow tier and I fish together when we can, although that is seldom. When trout fishing, we both like to fish the same type of water, but our flies tend to be fairly different. If nymph fishing, I will usually first go for a #8 to #12 golden stone nymph, almost always tied with Ronn Lucas Irriscent Dubbing. He will go with a posse bugger, or some other big nymph.
When we go to dries, both of us will usually start with and elk hair caddis, a Wulff, or something similar. He doesn’t tie a lot of dries, but when he does they will be similar to mine. When nymph tying, again we tie similar flies and styles. He is more likely to use more modern patterns with more synthetics (with the exception of my Irridescent Golden Stone nymphs), whereas I tend to go with more traditional patterns and natural materials.
I tend to catch a few more trout than he does, but he tends to catch the largest fish of the day, but primarily we have similar success rates.
However, both of us primarily warm water fish, because both of us live quite a way from trout. For warm water, he tends to tie and fish larger flies than I do. He is very prone to use a lot of the most modern synthetics, and I will use quite a few, but am prone to use more natural materials than he does. For warm water I use far more synthetics than I do for trout.
When fishing warm water he is far more likely to be drawn to the “Dark Side” and to fish for bass. However, he has to practically brow beat me to get me away from the pure and unadulterated high road of bluegill and crappie fishing, if he is going to get me to bass fish. It is a toss up as to which one of us does better in warm water, but he normally catches the bigger fish…normally a bass.
As mentioned, he has a bad tendancy to lean toward tying bass flies when he should wisely forsake such and tie bluegill flies. I am not usually tempted to tie bass flies, and again have to be brow beaten, normally by him, to leave the joy and beauty of tying bluegill flies, to tie bass flies.
Regards,
Gandolf
Having the material needed to tie “the down Home patterns” is a great explanation as to why some tyers only have specific colors and specific materials. Usually when a new tyer starts up, they collect everything. The “old timers” ( sorry ) have learned from years of tying and have long since given their unused materials to the Youth Groups.
There is another tyer…the one that travels. He must have a little bit of everything, just in case. The Atlantic Salmon Tyer…must really have a little bit of everything and a lot of stuff that the average tyer could only dream about. Where does he get that stuff!!!
Then there is the tyer like myself. If there is a natural material out there, I want 2 of everything. I am not too stubborn to close my eyes to man-made materials, I will certainly try everything once. I enjoy incorporating crystal flash into my hairwing streamers.
Material collecting is a matter of preference, need and cost. If the end result is a great day of fishing…they don’t change a thing.
The GREAT thing about this entire discussion is that everyone is Right! We all like to tie, and we all have our preferences, and we all catch fish with what we tie!!! This is one of the miracles of Fly Fishing. Ain’t it SUPER!!
It reminds me of an old quiz I once took - “You drop some sparkly material in some water. What will you catch FIRST?” A: a trout B: a bluegill or C: a flytyer!