So you tie on a regular basis, you fish too but upon looking at things more closely you can’t fish everything you tie. You have boxes and boxes of extra flies. Sometimes, you tie just to tie. So for all of you higher volume tiers, what do you do with all of those flies. Yes, you gift some but what are we thinking when we continue to tie and not fish them all?
Now having said that, in my journal for the last 4 seasons I’ve averaged over 60 days on the water each year. That’s not a high volume guy but more than a weekend warrior so I really do fish once in a while.
When I sit down at the bench to tie I am usually tying for an upcoming fishing adventure. That being said I have more flies than I really need so I usually pass them out to other fisherman on the river, or people that start asking me about fly fishing as they are thinking about learning. I guess that comes down to paying forwaed.
Yup I still have more flies than I need and the sad thing is I am board today and will most likely sit down and tie up a bunch. I am happy to say that I actually need an assortment of wolly buggers as I lost a bunch fishing the river the other day.
That way I still have an excuse to keep tying.
Builds up favor accounts too. In other words, it’s never a bad thing when fishermen you
know feel they owe you something.
I give them away, sell a few and mostly I fish them. Most of my tying is for upcoming outings and I usually tie up the regular producers on that piece of water, but then I’ll tie up a couple of new ones, just to try them out.
When I tie at shows and such I always give my flies to those who have patiently sat and watched and listened to my ramblings. I’m surprised at how many tiers at shows don’t give out the flies they’ve tied. Some sell them, and some just don’t share. To each their own I guess.
I mainly tie for a particular outing planned or just to replenish a box getting low. I give a bunch away every year also. I do go through alot of flies on the water though.
Goodwill won’t take them because of their high standards so I give a few bream flies to a couple of friends who don’t tie. Most of the trout flies I leave on logs, stumps and tree limbs. Occasionally, I run up on an uninformed rookie who moved to the area from Mississippi, Alabama or Florida where there are little to no trout and give them a few.
Like everyone else I donate to the fishing gods and give a lot away. Where I fish there are not a lot of fly guys so when I meet some we usually have a flyswap or just give them away. I think it’s worth it to build good karma at little cost.
I agree, it is nice when they give you the fly they were working on. But if it is a fly with expensive material like Real Eyes Plus, and expensive feathers, plus hooks…maybe that is why they don’t give it away. I have just started going to tie ins, and I usually give away flies like you said, if they watched the whole thing, and seemed interested I do.
Oh, I usually give my son quite a few of the flies I tie. I lose quite a few.
I tie up a batch of what I think I’ll need. Then after they didn’t work on the outing, I’ll take a hard look at them and they don’t look so good, so they go in the recycle bin. I’ve got more flies in the recycle bin than I do in my boxes. Heeeeeeelp!!
My girlfriend usually steals alot of my flies when she comes to town. But if a pattern is working well for me I’ll pass them off to friends or someone struggling on the river. One day I was catching alot of fish and this one guy hadn’t had anything. It was kinda a remote stretch and we were the only ones in the canyon but he sat and watched me catch four nice browns in a row. He then asked me what I was using because he was getting skunked. The night before I had tied about a dozen of this pattern for the day, so I gave him two of them. I ran into him later in the day and he couldn’t thank me enough, he said on his second cast BAM it was game on! So I don’t mind handing them out on the river if you’re nice enough.
I still have a place for some of those ‘extra’ flies. The Fly Fishing Merit Badge programs at your local Boy Scout Council would be thrilled to get them. I will be going up to Lake Tumblesom at the end of the month and help kick off 4 weekends of sessions, teaching 11-18 yr old boys to tie, entomology, casting (flogging?) and such. We always need flies. Even though the boys tie a couple of flies, they lose a lot to poor knots, fly eating bushes and rocks, and fly eating pine trees. The idea is to keep them fishing and hopefully catching.
Send what you can spare. I promise the boys will put them to good use.
If you send some, PM me with your address. The Denver Area Council gave me some of the program patches to give out.
when i tie at shows i give them away to help raise money for PHW, their is a donation jar, i don’t look to see if the people donate or not ,its not my job, i am a tyer and will always be one, not a bean counter, i let the other guys do the talking and raise the cash
Without a doubt, I give away more flies than I loose in a season. That coupled with the ones my youngest son seems to loose seems to keep me busy at the bench. I tie flies to fish with and equally important, because I enjoy it. Sharing is part of the enjoyment for me.
I just work really hard at fishing often enough to lose the surplus. My wife: “When are you going to do something with all these flies lying around the house?” Me: (grabbing rod and flies) “I was going to mow the lawn, but I’ll take care of the excess flies first!”
I give alot of flies away every year. also I send a good number to “Casting for Recovery” and “Reel Recovery”.
Those programs always need flies.
Also, if I donb’tloose a couple of lfies every time I am out I am not fishing close enopugh to the structure.
