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Like LovBass117, I started fly tying a few weeks ago (only wet flies at the moment). I spend a lot of time on each fly trying to get it just right yet a little different than the shop flies I'm trying to imitate. I also spend a lot of time picking the best feathers, etc., in hopes of getting the best movement out of the fly.
While far from perfect or artistic, my flies do appear to be more enticing and visually interesting than shop flies. With so many expert tiers on this forum, does your experience suggest that you catch more fish on flies of your making?
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I'd say "yes" but it's not necessarily a quality thing, IMO. I think the biggest thing is that you gain a lot of flexibility in designing flies that fit a given situation. Plus, I think there's something to be said about throwing different patterns at fish that see a lot of patterns over time (Provo, Green, Weber etc). I've remember discovering a sow-bug and creating a pattern for it long before they showed up in fly shops around the valley. I'm sure I wasn't the first, but that's what you get when you can roll your own...
But beyond that, I sometimes don't care if they catch "more". I like to tie and catch fish on my patterns and get a great deal of enjoyment out of that aspect of it. I'm sure the shop flies might look better because the person tying them has tied literally thousands of a given pattern.
Anyway, just my 2 cents...
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I say Absolutely. Because you can tweek a fly for different waters. I will use this example again, but in the Uinta's, Orange was a key color. So I tied a Griffith Gnat using Orange Grizzle instead of regular. It was on fire!
I tweek a lot of flies, some more than others. But after awhile you figure out how to combine certain features to come up with an Ultimate fly (for the body of water)
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I'd say its about 50/50... I have figured out a rainbow sow bug that I can always count on catching fish over the store bought with on the Provo. But I do find myself second guessing my flies and using store bought. Definatly need to just go for it more often!
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Thanks for the comments. When we were fishing the Green this summer, we purchased some of the "hot" flies but the guide then told us how to modify them so they didn't look like every other hot fly. If I had known how to tie, I could have done some fun things with them.
Right now I'm having a good time just tying them. If they catch fish, that would be awesome.
My next project will be to tie up some orange Griffith Gnats as I love fishing the Uintas (have a week-long backpacking trip planned for July).
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yes and no. Most of the flys I fish you cannot buy, but some of my favorites are common in fly shops. Funny,some of the patterns I developed,Pacific Fly Group tiers tie them better than I did,cleaner,sturdier and better symmetry. The question is not weather your flys or store flys catch more fish,you get more diversity in your fly box by tying.
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HFT is right on! Sometimes your cruising the internet (as flyfishermen do to often) and you see an interesting pattern.. well 9 times out of 10 you can't find them at a local fly shop. But if you got the right materials you can always go to the vice!! Everybody else's advice was spot on as well. Each stream that you fish has a different food base. Tying allows you the versatility to match each streams food supply.
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Of course I catch more my flies are amazing!
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I definitely prefer my own flies. I hardly fish any established patterns anymore, and that's the way I prefer it. There is just a much greater sense of satisfaction catching fish on your own creations. One thing that I've noticed makes a huge difference for me, is that most of the bead heads I see at the shops are made with brass beads. When I started tying my own and using tungsten, I started catching way more fish. I fish a lot of pocket water and tungsten gets down much more quickly. It changed things dramatically.
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You can buy Tungsten pre mades. Just not in the same area and about twice the price.
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Thanks for the great comments. I'm finding fly tying to be a relaxing creative outlet and have started trying variations on standard patterns to mix things up. I also determined at the start to go with tungsten beads, and I like the ones from Allen's. If I'm going to spend 20 min. tying 1 fly (which is the present average), it doesn't make sense to go cheap on the materials.
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Oh I know they can be found, they just don't seem as prevalent and like you said, they're pricey.
Kanderson, I'm glad to hear you got tungsten beads. You won't regret it.
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On the other side of this coin. I use to use Tungsten. Due to the price and availability (mostly the price) I quit.
I use metal beads. I use a sinking line. I prefer not having the fly sink like a brick, but move more freely, but just my opinion as you two know how to catch fish.
I just feel you can do just fine without tungsten and actually have more control over your fly. On rivers, split shot as in the article I posted awhile back. Tungsten can't do it by itself in most cases.
"lighter flies can never be too heavy, giving the angler more flexibility to adjust the weight with various sizes of shot. If you mainly rely on commercially tied flies that aren't tied with tungsten beads, add split shot to the tippet when needed to match conditions. "
But nothing wrong with using them, as I said, just another way to look at it. Besides, I catch a lot on a glow bug LOL
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Yeah I think I may start experimenting with that on the larger streams I fish. I mostly fish small, swift flowing streams where I do a ton of high sticking, so a dry dropper with a tungsten dropper works really well for me. Maybe I'll give split shot a try on The Bear though.
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I absolutely catch more fish with my own flies for completely different reasons than everyone else has said.
When I snag my fly in the middle of the hot hole I'm fishing, I am much more likely to wade out there and get my $2 fly back. When I tie them myself and I have another half dozen in my box just like it I tied, I am not about to spook the fish and I will just break it off.
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Good point. For me I say I catch more on home made, because I rarely buy, so yes[  ]
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I bought tungsten 7/64 from Rip Lips for around $12.00 per hundred.Not bad compared to other fly shops.(on internet).
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[quote flygoddess]You can buy Tungsten pre mades. Just not in the same area and about twice the price.[/quote]
Twice the price isn't bad as on those small fast moving streams you'll catch way more the twice the fish. I'm pretty sure I frequent all gstott's old favorite rivers before he moved north. Tungsted is still deadly on all of them except the Price River hasn't been worth fishing for quite a while.
If you don't tie or want to try some out before tying theflystop has tungsted flies for about a dollar each.
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Yeah I'm pretty sure you fish the same places too. The Logan and Blacksmith up here have a lot of really swift pocket water, probably even more than the central Utah streams, so it's beadheads all the way. I have been fishing sections of The Bear in Idaho, and it is much larger with big, slower runs, so I will have to try unweighted and split shot there.
That still kind of breaks my heart about The Price. I used to go down there with a big attractor and a tungsten head sow bug under it and just catch fat midteen fish all day with some nicer ones into the 20s. The summer evening caddis hatches were unreal, I've never experienced any as thick anywhere else. As nice as the summers were, autumn with the aspen glowing, elk bugling, and big browns coloring up was hard to beat. The only thing I don't miss is the treacherous drive home in the dark with the hordes of deer, elk and crazy drivers on route 6. Oh well, I have found a river that is very similar in Idaho, except it is mostly rainbows, but the river has some similarities, and the fish are roughly the same size.
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I tie when I have the time and buy when I don't. There are some flies that I just don't have the time to tie though. For instance, the extended body green and brown drakes, I will usually buy instead of tie since I can only tie about one every 20 minutes. But on the other hand, I can tie a dozen prince nymphs, scuds, or adams per hour. I pick and choose my battles. I like tying the harder flies, but if I'm trying to fill my box, I usually tie the ones that I can do quickly and purchase those that I can't. I do agree that the quality of most of the flies I tie myself are better than what I buy and I like the opportunity to adjust patterns to match the water I'm fishing. All this talk about tying makes me want to get out my stuff.
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