Another thread had me thinking about gathering some more of my fly tying materials for myself this season instead of buying them. It sure is nice to buy material since things are already dyed the proper color and there is less worry about bugs etc. I’m just getting frugal in my old age, some would say damn cheap.
I have a friend who raises domestic turkeys, chickens and ducks. I also hunt for pheasant, grouse, wild turkey, deer and could take squirrels and rabbits even though I don’t these days.
So the question is, do you think that it is worth it prepping your own materials? I don’t really think that I would be into road kill stuff, but harvesting my own materials would give you a sense of creating the fly from beginning to end a little more. Maybe the effort isn’t worth it and wanted to see what the rest of you thought. Thanks for the comments.
definitely go for it. it is a whole lot cheaper and much more satisfying. not to mention you can basically get a whole deer hide for the price of a bullet or two. and with creating the fly from beginning to end a bit more, it definitely feels that was. my neighbor can make the bow, make the arrows, shoot the deer, make the hook, make the fly and then catch the fish. it does give you a huge feeling of accomplishment.
go for it
I guess that is part of the allure for me. I reload metallic cartridges, shotgun cartridges, assemble my own arrows and even crest them. There is something cool about putting it all together yourself. I can see how it would be neat to catch a nice trout on a fly using turkey feathers from a bird that you took on a nice hunt with friends.
I like using some of the new fangled synthetics and don’t want to go crazy with this stuff, but if you are going to take the animals anyhow, why not be able to use more of the resources that are available to you instead of throwing them out?
You raise a very good question and you are actually the only one who can decide on the answer. How valuable is your time and how fugal are you? If you’ve become hopeless frugal, you won’t mind going through hours of work preparing, curing and dyeing that deer hide. If you would rather be tying flies, fishing, spending time with your kids or just goofing off, the deer hide isn’t worth it. Also, do you really need a whole deer skin? A couple of bucktails and a couple of patches deer hair hold me pretty well for any given season. I prefer a nice, clean, odor-free package of material at what I consider to be a very reasonable cost.
The bug problem is very real. Even with care, free materials can be a ticking time bomb. I’ve had three or four bug problems since I started tying and all of them could be traced to hunter’s gifts and road kill. I’m not implying that you can’t make these material safe, I’m just saying there is a risk.
And don’t forget the problems of disease and game laws.
I would rather buy what I need in nice clean packages at a reasonable price. I’ve done both and I definitely prefer the prepared materials. Now if I ran over a Whiting silver cape or a complete silver pheasant skin, I would stop and pick it up. Just my 2% of a dollar; I’m sure other will disagree. 8T
BTW, loose feather and quills are a different story. I will definitely take those when available. Turkey quills, duck breast feathers, etc----definitely yes. Skins, masks, etc----definitely no!
Clay: One of the pluses of gathering your own material is that you can find items that are not readily available through normal retail channels. I am thinking mainly of the myriad of feathers that are found on waterfowl and upland game.
It strikes me that maybe you are being more of a romantic about it than just frugal ??!!
That’s a good thing. It wouldn’t be a bad road to start down, and you can always make a hasty U-Turn if you don’t like the direction it is taking you.
Can’t imagine going out specifically to get some materials being cost effective. The price of gas to get to and from the point of acquisition would probably buy all the materials the average guy would really need in a year. But if you are going to go after the critters anyway, there would likely be some savings ( not including “labor” in the mix ).
I find it is worth it. I can get a lot of wood duck out here, and then trade it to those who can’t get it as easily (irony alert: Catskill dries call for it a lot, yet they are hard to get on the east coast anymore).
We have tremendous quantities of stuff we have shot and saved… Try to visualize an entire moose mane turned into flies! We have turkeys, duck skins, grouse, partridge, quails, pheasants, cranes, deer, bear and all sorts of other stuff.
I even flew to AZ (from AK) in Feb just to hunt mearn’s quail for fly tying materials and the experience. It was a great trip!
Huge zip-lock bags with good mothballs do a great job of controlling bugs. I also wash hides and bird skins in a warm soapy bath with a shot of clorox. Nothing survives clorox… Smells and bugs are easy to control that way. I NEVER put ANY new organic material in with my stuff until after it gets the same warm clorox bath or a bit of time in a zip-lock with moth balls.
As to spending time with your kids that is exactly what my 14-year-old and I were doing night before last, skinning snowshoe hares for feet, masks and skins… I thought we were having a good time doing it, too. He was happy because he shot all three of them that day. Then yesterday I let him shoot at all of the ducks and he shot 3 mallards and a goldeneye. We skinned three of them for fly tying. The skins are extremely useful for tying and the filing system created by the skin itself is a huge help. Of course the fact I could not find a duck stamp at three post offices and several sporting goods stores may have contributed to my generosity in letting him shoot all the ducks … He killed two mallards on a rise with the last two shots of the day and he was proud of that. Again, I thought we were having a great time. I know I was.
The day before that we paddled our pontoons around a little and fly fished for grayling. Catching was poor and the fish were small… But I think we had a very good time.
This past spring someone gave the AK Fly Fishers a huge wad of frozen turkey skins. They were a mangled mess! I washed, dried, fluffed, preserved, stretched and dried the whole batch for sale at our annual auction… Too many feathers overwhelmed the tiers and my time was not repaid with much to the club coffers… But I cannot say it was a waste…
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… He killed two mallards on a rise with the last two shots of the day and he was proud of that. Again, I thought we were having a great time. I know I was.