I just ran across a bunch of flies I threw in a box last season because they were just too ratty to fish. Most I threw away, but many of the nymphs I just added a partridge feather to, so now I have soft hackle princes, soft hackle pt’s, soft hackle hare’s ears, etc, etc. They look very cool, am hoping the fishies like them. Do you re-hab your flies?
herefishy -
I do rehab flies, but rarely. The soft hackle idea is pretty cool.
I do consistently recycle hooks and beads / cones. When a fly gets so beat up I don’t want to fish it anymore, I end up throwing it in a pile of such flies on my fly tying bench.
Sometimes, I just pick out a fly to duplicate it for a new entry to my fly box. Occasionally, I’ll get out a razor blade and reduce the whole pile to a box of clean, usable hooks. With another box for the beads and cones.
It’s a Scottish trait of disliking waste at any level.
John
yeah i tend to recycle as many materials on my flies as possible. lead eyes, beadchains, rubber legs, hooks, as much as i can. but sometimes if a fly is falling apart, ill just fix it up again and replace the stuff
If I’m feeling “scotchy” I’ll clean off the hooks and keep them, especially if there are beads on them, but this time I was feeling extravagant, so just pitched them out if they were too bad.
If they are not completely destroyed, then you could just steam them back to shape.
But if they are then I would just try to cut the materials off and if it was to much trouble then I would just throw the fly away.
I have a hard time rehabbing flies
That are 20 feet up a tree,
So, no matter hard I tries,
Your question is moot for me.
Ed
IF it is a small thing then I repair the fly. Most of the time those go in a jar on my tying table. Every once in a while I strip all the stuff off those hooks and leave them in an old hook box. Then as I am tying I take some of those hooks out an use them on the flies. Any beads or cones that are on the hook stay on it and I use them that way.
I am not very good at following hook size and brand name when tying flies.
If I want a size 10 fly I grab a size 10 hook that I have and tye it.
Rick
I make so many new flies during shack nasty months in a sort of desparate attempt to encourage an early spring that sadly old flies never stand a chance and get canned early on.
However in total a reverse of philosophy with no sense of reason or data to back up my theory. I abandon this idea in spring summer and fall. I fish the rattiest looking flies because, to put it simply, they work better than the bright shiny ones. If something is hanging off the side and the herl is much the worst for wear its because that fly is being killed time and time again so I treasure it. Then comes winter and the cycle starts again as I clear out all the old ones and make new ones.
Makes no particular sense, but then, making sense has never been my forte.
Footnote: I stillwater fish almost exclusivly and seldom use more than two or three dozen flies per season, but I tie well up into the hundreds.
Fly swaps and giveaways account for the extras.