Wouldn’t know how to do ebay if someone did it for me. And there are much easier ways to deal with this kind of “surplus” - friends and the post office.
No, I’m not getting out of fly tying. These are some materials that I picked up to try this or that pattern when I first started tying, or ones I had to tie certain flies before I found a pattern for the same purpose that I really wanted to stick with. For example, the bucktails and polar fiber are great for streamers like thunder creek minnows / baitfish, chenile and marabou for buggers, etc - but then I discovered pine squirrel and that is just about all I use now for streamers, except some rabbit for double bunnies.
I guess I’ve fished enough that I just have certain preferences based on what has worked for me over a wide range of trout streams and rivers here in the Intermountain Region. A while back, I started a thread called “Which Twelve?” The practical matter is, that I probably only fish about twelve patterns over the course of the year. Not being a fly tier so much as a fly fisherman, no point in keeping this surplus just laying around when someone else can use it. When I do feel like tinkering at the fly tying desk, there will still be plenty of materials available to come up with something to try out.
I love to fish buggers or bead chain eye types of flies. Chenille, dubbing and boo are it man. Just like they often say, "one man’s garbage is another’s treasure.
Hmm, thinking about what’s in my tool box of fly tying material, there are only a few things that I have not used in a long time.
I haven’t tied anything with cheneil for a long time. In general I’ve been using dubbed wool or seal’s fur in place of cheneil for most patterns that call for cheneil.
I won something with a name like “magic shrimp skin” (or something like that), which I’ve not opened or tried. I think it’s used for the shell back on nymphs.
I think I have some rubber thread like material, that is clear, and can be used to make small midge nymphs.
Other than those 3 things, everything I have is used at times. I tend to prefer to tie with natural materials over synthetics (plus wire and tinsels, but tinsel grows on fur and pine trees in the winter doesn’t it ;)), and I use all the various patches of fur and feathers at times - honest, I do!
Jeff
P.S. For those stiffer stemed hackles on the Chinese and Indian necks, they are great feathers for tying up matuka style streamers like this “yellow orbit”:
I’d joke about the deprivation of only having four and a half tons of material but I’m afraid that I’d start getting “care packages” from some of the big-hearted FAOL members. I can think of three or four right off the bat who would probably have materials in the mail tomorrow morning. 8T
Okay, I buy some of the arguments. Now PLEASE define the amount of time of non-use it takes to make materials appear on the sh!t list. For me, it would be at least 22 months. This would give you enough time to fish a season and time to restock before you had to dispose of your extra materials. What does everyone think of this time frame before thinning? I still don’t think I could go through with it, but without goals…
You raise an important point. Many professional home organizers use one year as their limit for having clients get rid of stuff. This seems a little on the short side to me. As you point out, fishing for a year and restocking your flies could easily eat up that amount of time easily. Two years seems reasonable to me but in actual practice I would say that something that hasn’t been touched in five years probably isn’t going to be used heavily in the future. Even here, I have no desire to get rid of any of my four and a half tons of material. I have a strong sentimental attachment to all of it, even the stuff that I don’t use very much. I really enjoy knowing the material is there and that I can tie just about any fly, for any species, for any fishing situation. I’m just asking what FAOL members haven’t used in a long time, not asking for or requiring removal. I have no intention of getting rid of my stuff and certainly wouldn’t ask others to do so. 8T
My criteria wasn’t how much time had passed since I used a particular material, but what I had been doing over the past year and what I expected to be doing in the coming year. The forecast was much more significant than the look back.
Any number of the materials that I will ship off tomorrow morning are less than a year old. Some represent a surplus of materials that I do use, at least occasionally. If I had much more of a given material than I needed to get through the coming year, it was added to the “surplus” inventory.
It was clear to me that there was no real prospect that I would use these materials in the foreseeable future, if ever, and that there would be SOMEONE out there who could and would use them on the short term, given the opportunity.
To be USEFUL, something has to be USED. What I am sending off will prove to be some of the most useful stuff I’ve had.
Whomever finds themselves the recipient of your “surplus” materials, will be overjoyed at having wonderful materials that will comprise their “best of the best” materials, and used with great thanks and happiness. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
I am racking my brain trying to figure out what I haven’t used in a year. After taking a quick look at what I have I think duck wings would be on the top of my list. I hate using them for wings, so I don’t. I have a few pairs just incase. Some of my old furs have not been used in a while, but most of these are small patches given to me when I first started. Often they odd colors and scraps people didn’t want. I don’t even know what some of them are. But I have them incase I need to use them for a special dubbing blend. I actually did use one patch the other night to lighten up my black stonefly mix. I also have a small 3/4" x 3/4" patch of polar bear fur, just so I know what it really looks like that will probably never get used. The rest of my stuff sees use at different times of the year. Now I am using a lot of flash and bright colors for my salmon flies.
I’ve been tying flies since 1957 when I was a couple of years younger than you are now. Don’t worry, if you stick with the hobby, you’ll have four and a half tons of stuff in no time at all. BTW, I don’t really feel deprived, that feeling started to disappear rapidly when I hit my first ton of fly tying material. 8T
…that an otherwise seemingly normal and decent American (You are American arent you?) would even consider getting rid of the hard won “things” and “stuffs” to catch , entice, lure and other wise harrass a member of the piscatorial family.
Please, oh please, stop the insanity .
We are not communists here .
This is the good ole U.S of A .
Get rid of nothing that you have earned in a capitalist fashion.
You have trajically been bittin by the “less is more” philosophy.
Stop the disease before it spreads.
Quick now , before its too late.
Go get another cape , any kind will do or even just a bobbin ,anything really, you’ll feel better soon.
Have a great day.
Perch
I only have about a bushel of expendables so far , but Im just an advanced beginner!
I’ve got tons of material as well. I can’t really say where I could pare down. I actually use everything I’ve got. The only thing I could think of would be instead of keeping both bucktails and kiptails for tying Wulfs, I’d just go with bucktails, because they make just as good a set of wings on the Wulfs as the kiptails.
Another advantage to tying your own flies is that otherwise, you’d just be limited to what the local fly shop carries. Around here, that would be mostly Adams, Mosquitoes, and if you’re lucky, maybe a wooley-bugger. The best dry flies on the Ocoee and Hiawassee rivers are the Royal Wulf, and Grey Wulf. And no one around here carries nympths of any kind, nor midges. The shop owners do not know anything about fly fishing, and carry very little fly gear. Most people fish for trout around here with corn, salmon eggs, and the ever-popular Berkley Power-Bait, and spinning tackle(AAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!).
