Is there some site (or software) wherein I can put in a list of the materials I have on hand and get back a list of known patterns I can tie with those materials?
As an example, let’s say I have a clump of black marabou, some chenille, wet fly hooks and some black hackle feathers. I would put this list into some form and get an index of the various patterns I could tie using only those materials (so I wouldn’t get things that needed rubber legs if I didn’t have any).
You would need to use a database and I dont know of any such critter on the internet??
You would have to input each and every item YOU have…and then input each item needed to tie each and every fly. Then when searching…the database would spit out the matches.
Good luck on THAT…:eek:
There are several different Fly Tying programs out there, but I’m not sure you’ll find want you want.
Here are a few of them:
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Fly Tying Inventory Manager http://download.cnet.com/Fly-Tying-Inventory-Manager/3000-2094_4-19512.html
Super Fly Fishing Machine http://www.erobillard.com/Superfly/
[FONT=Verdana][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Fly Fishing Assistant http://sportsmansmanager.com/[/FONT][/LEFT]
Yeah, the programming logic for what I want isn’t all that sophisticated (I already did a quick mock up), but I really don’t want to tackle that kind of data entry project. The whole point of it for me would be as a source of inspiration. “Gee, I don’t know what to tie tonight. Let me see what I can make with this stuff.”
I’ve happened upon some of these, and others, and no they’re not quite what I’m looking for. I think they’re interesting in and of themselves, though.
There’s also the unfortunate (for me) fact that pretty much all of these sorts of things both require Windows (I’m running Linux, at least for now) and don’t give you the source code so you can modify things.
I run a lot of this kind of thing on my Mac using Darwine which is a port of the Linux Wine Project. You should be able to run these programs on Linux by using Wine.
Not near what you are looking for but here is a database that you can search patterns one material at a time:
http://www.flytyingforum.com/materials
Roy
so you would input “grizzly hackle” and then every pattern that uses it?? with just that 1 material, the list would be huge
there must be some kind of software/database out there that will do that kind of sorting.
the website that roy mentions is similar to what you want, but where does that one come from
you might want to look at microsoft access or open office database and see if that would work for you.
a huge project, nonetheless!
Wine has just never been worth it for me. Mostly because their definition of the word “run” doesn’t nearly match my own.
That’s the basic idea, although instead of putting in one material, I could put in a list and the software/site would return a set of patterns that could be tied using only those materials.
As for writing the software, I created a quick and dirty mock up using Common Lisp that would work well enough for my purposes given a few more hours of polish, but I would still need to do insane amount of data entry. I figure in the books I have on my shelf alone there’s a 1,000 fly patterns different enough that I’d want them in there. That’s a lot of typing.
My question back would be “how would you ever handle the differences in materials used in the same pattern?”
Take dubbing as an example - Some people use natural furs, others synthetic i.e. superfine. Tails - do you use natural tailing hackle, microfibbets, fur, no tail at all? Different body materials, winging materials, synthetic vs. natural, the list goes on forever. Geez, even color - what color is dun anyways? Might be totally different to you and to me.
Yeah, there’s some “standard” patterns out there but then there’s the thousands (millions) of patterns that are slight offshoots. I just don’t see how you’d ever handle all the variables.
I program databases for a living - I sure wouldn’t want the project (unless my client had VERY DEEP POCKETS)
They have a small setup like that at http://www.flytyingforum.com there’s a green header bar and Search Patterns by materials is there, it’s a help but not a cure all.
Fatman
This isn’t actually that difficult because there’s enough structure in the average fly pattern recipe to give more than enough context for the code to do the right thing. Even a quick and dirty hack, like telling the system which materials are typically used in tails, would go miles.
Honestly, though, you don’t even need to go this far or complicated. A basic fuzzy search through the patterns that doesn’t return any pattern with something you clearly don’t have (rubber legs, for example) would be fine for my purposes and better than what I’ve seen so far. That I might not get all of the patterns I could tie, or that I might get a handful that I can’t, should be paid off by the useful results I’d get.
I don’t think you need to handle all of the variables to get a useful solution.
My condolences. 
I did that in a former life and the best thing I ever did was walk away and make that kind of thing a hobby again. 
Here’s another that searches materials, one at a time. Use the search function.
http://www.danica.com/flytier/
REE
Hey, that actually looks like it might work well enough for my purposes. It’s not exactly what I want, but a guy named Mick once told me you can’t always get that.
Thanks!
Jeff,
I will sometimes just for the hell of it go to my materials and pull three items from the drawers and then just sit down and tie. Whatever combination pops into my head goes on the hook that way.
I have come up with some very interesting looking flies doing this, though they lack the name which most previously tied patterns would have.
Actually I once wound up with a Lead Wing Coachman, which I knew already existed and did not try to rename.
I wonder how many flies we could tie using my random approach, and name, only to discover latter that the pattern already existed.
Gee, I wonder is this another of many reasons why we see identical flies with the same name?
From your post it seems yoou have the makings of a nice Soft Hackle Pattern!
Good luck, and have fun with tying!!!
George
If there was already an existing and readily available fly database I don’t think this would be too hard. But as Jeff says, the biggest part is entering all the fly patterns and materials list for each one. I do kind of miss the point of tying based on the materials I have at hand though… I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and said what can I tie with this stuff, its usually more of how can I tie this fly with this stuff…
Also, I would say to be completely useful this type of DB would have to have pictures and maybe even step by steps unless it’s just being used for ideas and any other references needed would be found elsewhere.
If not the answer wanted, has to be darn close: http://www.diptera.co.uk/database/search.html