What would be cool would be to have a fly recipe generator that when you load in all of the materials you have - it spits out all the possible flies you can make.
They have these generators for alcoholic beverages, but as a beginning tyer this would be perfect.
Regards,
paff
When you come up with such a generator, let me know. I have some odds and ends that I picked up at some swaps, and I’m trying to figure out what I can do with them.
CJ
The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves.
If you go to Hans’ site <danica.com> and enter your material, the flies which use that material will be listed. Also, please remember what Al Campbell said about using what you have to substitute for what you don’t have. Let the fish decide if it’s OK!
Cordially,
mcsteff
mcsteff,
thanks for the tip - It seemed to punch out a few 376 hits when I typed in pheasant tail. I get the idea.
Thanks,
paff
Also, I subscribe wholeheartedly to AC’s recommendation.
pa,
Not to burst any bubble or squelch any enthusiasm, but how can you set limitations on an activity that has no boundries or for which there are no rules? If such a generator existed and I only had ‘male pheasant’, the patterns identified would be only a small list compared to what I, or anyone, could actually tie using that birds’ feathers. Even then we wouldn’t touch the surface of what’s possible. Same would be true of many other materials. Then if you were to have more than 1 it would be just crazy. I cannot fathom the number of possibilities with some materials. Isn’t what you’re asking the same as, ‘what can you paint with 1 or a certain number of colors?’
Now, if someone were to gather a list of known patterns and materials needed for each pattern and then generate which of those patterns are possibnle based on a list of materials, that might be possible.
Allan
Hi paff,
You could also go in the opposite direction. Pick any fly then apply your materials to it. EX: a parachute Adams. What if you used hare’s ear dubbing instead of gray. It wouldn’t be a parachute Adams any more but I guarantee it would catch a bunch of fish. A hare’s ear parachute is one of my favorite searching patterns.
How about changing styles. Take the materials for a PT Nymph and use them to make a dry fly. I use PT fibers to tie my Mahogany Duns and they work great! Take care & …
Tight Lines - Al Beatty [url=http://www.btsflyfishing.com:4e72d]www.btsflyfishing.com[/url:4e72d]
Hmmm… Nifty idea…
What I’d like to see is something like this:
A device that you can download web pages into. Fly Tyer’s I-Pod ???..If it can be done with music why not web pages???
Maybe a 6in.x 6in. Display runs on say 4 aa batteries needs no internet connection once all, Say 1000 Pattern Sheets/web pages are loaded…
Setup so you could scroll through a page the same as you do here on FAOL…This would be a product that would sell in every Fly Shop for sure…They’d not be able to keep them in stock…Now if I were only Bill Gates!..lol
OK…I’ll Keep dream’in!.
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
Everyone wants to excel in this sport but at the same time we let traditionalists place restrictions on our tactics, methods, and ideas. I always assumed that fly fishing was a sport that allowed imagination, creation, adaptation, investigation, dedication, education, revelation? : Fox Statler, On Spinners (Not the dainty Dry Fly kind) “Spinner’d Minner Fly”
“Wish ya great fishing”
Bill
tyeflies,
I get the point. Since I am new at this - 3 weeks into it - I wanted to do things right. Or at least how the recipes are called for. That being said, I read Al Campbell’s article on the SHWAPF and tied about 9 tonight with pheasant tail and all colors of dubbing and used some peacock mylar. I thought that they looked great and no rules so to speak.
So - just tonight I had this revelation that the trout are the ultimate judges - not the fly tiers or their recipes.
Thanks for helping me look beyond the small world of the right way to tie a pattern.
My best,
paff
paff,
Welcome to the WW of FT. I can appreciate your enthusiasm and your desire. You cannot imagine how fortunate you are to have so much information at your disposal. What todays beginners can learn in a month of reading, viewing, hearing and tying probably took me, and those with whom I share an era, a dozen years or so.
Fly fishing and especially fly tying is an art within a sport. Yes, there are some ‘general’ guidelines (notice I did not say rules). There are old patterns that will be just as effective today as they were 100+ years ago. There are older historical techniques that continue and new ones evolving as materials become available. There are more scientific theories about trout(and other fish) behavior to test along with our own personal observations. There are books, old and new, that we can contemplate, learn from, enjoy, and laugh about. We can sit on the bank and watch with awe and appreciation as some fly fisher makes an unimaginable cast. We can appreciate a river that’s been brought back from the depths toxicity to a quality trout fishery. And somewhere along the line, we fly tiers begin to explore the possibilities of what can be done with certain hooks,threads and materials to put them in a semblance of a pattern that,when correctly presented to the trout, is taken.
You wrote, “So - just tonight I had this revelation that the trout are the ultimate judges - not the fly tiers or their recipes.”
Indeed they are. Paraphrasing, ‘Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to determine and submit something to those judges that will be acceptable.’ Over the course of a lifetime you will learn that in each of the individual judges chambers, you will find different rulings. Do not let one dissuade you. And, while what you say is entirely true, let us not forget that fly tiers more often than not tie for themselves as much as or more than the fish we seek. I venture that most of our pleasures are not even tied to the catching.
So learn the materials and how they may be used. Learn the techniques. Learn the patterns. Put those together. Learn the intricacies of placing a fly where it is presented to the trout in the best light. Above all, consider and evaluate situations and what you learn but do not be afraid to step out on your own and express your own creativity.
Sorry for the long winded rant.
Regards.
Allan
Good luck to you.
Bill said:
“…A device that you can download web pages into. Fly Tyer’s I-Pod ???..If it can be done with music why not web pages???”
I use my IPaq for this. An Ipaq is a personal digital assistant (PDA) made by Compaq (now Hewlett Packard). I set up a portable favorite in Internet Explorer that synch’s whenever I tell it to, provided my PDA is on its cradle. Have to be careful with how many links deep I tell it to synch though, or I could end up trying to download a good portion of the internet - yikes!
Mike
Cadillac, MI
Not sure where I saw it, but somewhere on the net. There was a free program, that allowed the user to inventory his supplies, then link then to patterns. maybe it’s still out there. dan
dgflyguy
That woud be the Super Fly Fishing Machine
If I am allowed to post the link here it is if not please let me know and I will remove it. I am in no way affiliated with this.