What started out as swapping fishing flies has become a huge fly collection. I think I now have several hundred different tyer’s flies along with their signature card. This does not include the framed plates I have either won in a raffle, bought straight out or won the bid on in an auction. It gets obsessive after a while. How about you?
Like most people that participate in several swap every year, I ended up with several hundred flies tied by people from all over the world. The unique or different patterns I keep as samples to tie my own with. The more common such as Clousers or wooley buggers I often use but the flies that are tied especially beautifully and are either unique (Jim Hatch’s) or classics I have on display. I display them on a beautiful piece of drift wood that I found while out fishing. It had been the root system of an Alder bush and it is a tangle of well worn roots and stems that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. It nows holds about 75 flies tied by many of the talented folks that frequent this board and daily reminds of the friend I’ve made on FAOL.
Jim Smith
I have 3 flies w/ cards so far:
Chris Helm- Deer Hair Popper
Kim Boal- Magic Tool CDC Emerger (I do believe she has one of my flies too 
)
Bill Skilton- Foam Ant
“GET THE DRIFT?”
Hi Mantis,
For quite a while I saved every fly I
got in the swaps until the numbers started
to get crazy. Then I started to fish some
of them and occasionally I’d share some
with friends. Some I would not part with
for love nor money. I started getting so
many really special flies that I picked up
a small treasure chest style jewelry box
and placeing them in it. Among my treasures
is a Ladybug of your tying, a collection of
Scott Sanchez’s double bunnies, Tony Spezios
froggies, A couple of Al’s too simple series, a beautiful damsel by Dennis Conrad,
A boxed set of Allans catskills,
a realistic stone fly from Ronn Lucas, a
muddler mayfly from Al and Gretchen, a
couple of original foamies from Jim Smith,
some of Ron Eagle Elks scuds and EHC’s, the
flies that Harolds grandson tied me at age
4, RW’s infamous bluegill series as well as one of his finely tied RW’s, several adams
tied by RK as well as one of his size 32 creations and a whole host of flies that
are special to me for one reason or another. When I sit at my bench and feel
the need for inspiration, it’s at hand in
that special box of flies. One cannot sort
through them without feeling inspired. It’s a treasure beyond mere dollars. Warm
regards, Jim
I have started a collection and am nearing 30 to date. I have treasured flies from mostly realistic tyers, ( my favourite )but the jewel in the crown has to be yours Bob!
It never ceases to amaze me!
Yup, boy do I. After several years of fly swaps I’ve managed to acquire some pretty nice flies. Those that are classics salmon or steelhead flies, plus some by our own FAOLers are kept for display. When the numbers start to get out of hand I donate them to some needy fly fishers. I think Roger Stouff got a few from me a while back.
I have started to accumulate so many “keepers” that I have shadow boxes all over the place in the tying room.
REE
I only started to tie flies last fall and as a result my attempts looked pretty pityfull for a long long while . I didn’t feel they were good enough yet for me to participate in a swap . When we lost Al I tied about 50 flies and picked the 12 best that I was proud of to send for his memorial bench project . I was hoping to be able to purchase a set or two of the flies that FAOLers tied in his honor . I plan to keep these if I can ever get any . Anyone know where they are to be sold?
Mantis,
Not so much … I trade flies with a number of people, but those flies I receive always end up in the water. I’ve several display flies I’ve been given, which I wouldn’t trade for anything.
The vast majority of flies in my “collection” have been given to me by my fly-tying students … generally my youngest students.
Mike D. [url=http://battenkill.tripod.com:4d9c6]http://battenkill.tripod.com[/url:4d9c6]
I’ve been participating in swaps for many years, and have recieved flies from most countries in the world, including Korea, South Africa, Russia, Finland, etc. My flies are displayed in a large shadow box on a world map, with each flie placed at it’s point of origin, or as near as possible
Great idea RG/AR. Do you mount them on those clear plastic posts, or on cork or foam?..Bob
Hi Mantis,
The answer is yes. But my collection has come my way somewhat differently than most. As I have collected flies from my Internet friends, as well as my face-to-face buddies, to photograph and post on my Web site, I have put them in little “sliding top” jewelry boxes I bought online for cheap. I use a sharpie to label each box with fly name, tier name and address. I am glad I have saved all the received flies, because I hope to embark on a winter project of re-photographing the flies I photoed early in the process. And, as you may recall from the Marlboro show a couple of years ago, I have one of your ladybugs!
Will we see you at the Marlboro show this year?
Hope all is well with you.
Peter F.
A sort of yes…
This year my two main fishing buddies and I started a tradition where we each tie a fly of a particular type; (wet, dry, nymph, streamer, etc.), which is determined before the first group trip of the year.
This year’s type was a “classic” streamer. Each member of the group picks their own pattern and has to tie 6 of that fly. That leaves one fly for each member to keep and one fly for each member to fish with the idea of the keeper flies to be shadow boxes that will be exchanged at a later date as Christmas gifts.
We use the fishing flies in a one hour “tournament” to see if the things are capable of catching fish. The winner gets a cast iron frying pan, (former anchor), as a trophy to keep till next year’s winner is crowned.
It’s a lot of fun and will definitely help all of our tying skills.
I have quite a large collection of patterns from both swaps that I have been in as well as hosted. I also have some signed patterns by some famous tyers !!!
I’m hopeing to set up some type of file/catalogue system at this point !!!
I think I have every single fly that I have ever received in a fly swap. Most are in their original mailing packages. Perhaps one day I’ll sit down and organize them all in some way.
- Gary
“Catch 'em all ~ Put 'em back!”
Visit my [url=http://warmwaterangler.blogspot.com:e7f39]Blog[/url:e7f39].
I have a selection of card mounted flies by Allan Podell that I swapped with him for some of my own poor specimens.
I also keep any swap flies that are mounted on cards as collectable flies. Most of the others get copied and fished.
Yes Peter F. …See you there. I’ll email you…