Fly tying, my other passion
- Thread starter jeffnles1
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Ruger Guru
I used to tie a few flies in my youth. When our place burned down in 1978, I lost my stuff. Never got back into it,, even though I thought about it a few times. Unfortunately, in my area, the trout streams aren't easy to flyfish. And not that the fees to put a boat on Lake Lure have gotten out of hand, (even for a resident,) I don't often go out on the lake anymore.
Still, nice flies there! I'm SURE the bass & crappie will not care how pretty they are. Besides, one good hit & they get a bit messy anyway!
Still, nice flies there! I'm SURE the bass & crappie will not care how pretty they are. Besides, one good hit & they get a bit messy anyway!
Nice flies ! I live in the middle of Steelhead Alley and those look like good bets for me to stick in trees, roots, and rocks, and the ocassional fish. Friends keep trying to get me to tie, but I just don't have nimble fingers, hands impaired for work like that. I do enjoy losing nice flies though ! We are looking forward to the trout opener in Penn now too. stevemb
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
stevemb said:
Hi,
LOL!
There was a time when a fishing buddy said he was going to give up tying and just let me do the work for him. Told him I didn't really have the time, and he came back w/ "Oh, it won't cost you any more time. I'm just gonna learn to climb trees better and follow you around!"
Now for the helpful hint of the day: I haven't tied in some time--much of my hackle stock was damaged by some hungry bugs a few years back and I got scared when I went to the fly shoppe and saw the "new" prices! Lady at the fly shoppe told me to store feathers in a sealed plastic box in the freezer to prevent that in the future. It seems to work!
Rick C
Rick Courtright said:stevemb said:
Hi,
LOL!
There was a time when a fishing buddy said he was going to give up tying and just let me do the work for him. Told him I didn't really have the time, and he came back w/ "Oh, it won't cost you any more time. I'm just gonna learn to climb trees better and follow you around!"
Now for the helpful hint of the day: I haven't tied in some time--much of my hackle stock was damaged by some hungry bugs a few years back and I got scared when I went to the fly shoppe and saw the "new" prices! Lady at the fly shoppe told me to store feathers in a sealed plastic box in the freezer to prevent that in the future. It seems to work!
Rick C
If you don't mind the smell, moth balls and no-pest strips work too. I'd need a freezer as large as my gun safe to store all the feathers, bits of hair, and doo-dads that go along with fly tying.
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
jeffnles1 said:
Hi,
Jeff, w/ that good a supply stock, you must have a few things pretty enough to tie some "classic" Atlantic salmon patterns? I never learned to tie them, but the art work of so many of 'em always makes me drool!
Rick C
Rick,Rick Courtright said:
I have supplies of brightly colored feathers, wire and other shiny stuff that could be used for the salmon flies. I've never tried to tie one though. I've looked at some of those works of art and the half dozen or so different materials involved in tying one.
One of these days, I may get up the energy to make the attempt.
Jeff
jeffnles1 said:
Half a dozen different materials? Try 20-30+ different materials, 4-8 hours of time, if you know what you are doing (longer if you are learning), and often $50 in raw material cost into a true full dress Atlantic Salmon fly tied with all the original materials! Often these materials involve birds and animals that cant be harvested and/or sold in many years, so you have to find old, rare, and increadibly expensive samples to tie from such as Heron and Spey Cock.
This one is a fly I tied a couple of years back but is very simple as far as classic Atlantic Salmon flies are concerned.
I dont tie like I used to, I dont fish as much as I once did but I have a fair sized fortune tied up in materials. I have always kept my feathers in zip locks and organized those in tupperwear bins that I keep some cedar wood balls in and I havnt had a big bug issue in years. I did once a long time ago though and it sucks!
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
Fowler said:
Hi,
Very nice, Fowler! I knew a little about the "now prohibited" materials problem, but never paid attention to the actual numbers of different materials that go into one of those beauties, let alone the time!
Now you guys see why I've gotta wipe my chin now and then?
Rick C
Fowler,
Beautiful. Wish I time and talent to tie such a spectacular fly. The ones I tie are "fishing" flies. Kind of like the difference between a working gun and a BBQ gun.
But, my friend, that is truly a work of art.
I have to wonder if even the old masters actually fished with these flies or if they were showcases of their talent and they fished with less elaborate examples?
Have to say it again, but wow, that is something else. Well done!
Jeff
Beautiful. Wish I time and talent to tie such a spectacular fly. The ones I tie are "fishing" flies. Kind of like the difference between a working gun and a BBQ gun.
But, my friend, that is truly a work of art.
I have to wonder if even the old masters actually fished with these flies or if they were showcases of their talent and they fished with less elaborate examples?
Have to say it again, but wow, that is something else. Well done!
Jeff
Those are beautiful looking and seem to be pretty intricate!
doccash
Buckeye
Nice photographs of great looking flies. Dr.C
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
jeffnles1 said:
Hi,
Can't answer that w/ any authority, Jeff, but will relate a story I read years ago:
The fellow writing the story was an American who'd gone to fish for Atlantic salmon in the UK (Scotland, perhaps?) When they got on the water, his ghillie asked to see the the author's fly box. It was filled w/ beautiful salmon flies (don't know how exotic the ties were, but they were all nice, new flies) and the ghillie picked one out of the box.
But before he tied it on his client's leader, he put it up to his mouth and chewed on the feathers a little bit! Shocked, the fellow asked why he'd done that. Answer was it added a little realism to the fly that doesn't come until it's "experienced" a little...
Apparently that approach worked: there were nice fish caught that day!
(Must be a true story: fishermen would NEVER treat the truth w/ reckless abandon, now, let alone put such words to paper, would they?
)Rick C
First off I didnt mean to hijack this thread and thanks for the kind words on that fly even though to a serious Atlantic Salmon fly nut it is not very good really. Its sort of the difference between a set of grips I can make for a Blackhawk vs Persinger's grips.
Yes all of the classic Atlantic patterns were fished in old England and I know guys who fish them today. For most guys they have more time to tie than fish so if you chew up one or two flies in a days fishing (they type of fishing that is involved for Atlantic Salmon doesnt use up a lot of flies in a day) but might catch a Atlantic Salmon on one its well worth the investment in tradition.
The other thing that I think is cool is that the full dressed flies are increadibly linked to British colonialism with what materials they were tied with. Feathers from birds like Toucan, Bustard, Indian Crow,and exotic Pheasants, fur from seals, silk from Asia were all ingrained into all of these patterns. These materials from where ever in the world the British were and they loved sending stuff back home for sport.
I personnally like more modern west coast Steelhead styled flies
They are prettier, more effective, and take 30 minutes to tie instead of 8 hours. I dont live where there are Steelhead or Salmon but I like tieing these flies and dream of trips to be taken some day.
Although I do like tossing big meaty flies for trout on a regular basis
Yes all of the classic Atlantic patterns were fished in old England and I know guys who fish them today. For most guys they have more time to tie than fish so if you chew up one or two flies in a days fishing (they type of fishing that is involved for Atlantic Salmon doesnt use up a lot of flies in a day) but might catch a Atlantic Salmon on one its well worth the investment in tradition.
The other thing that I think is cool is that the full dressed flies are increadibly linked to British colonialism with what materials they were tied with. Feathers from birds like Toucan, Bustard, Indian Crow,and exotic Pheasants, fur from seals, silk from Asia were all ingrained into all of these patterns. These materials from where ever in the world the British were and they loved sending stuff back home for sport.
I personnally like more modern west coast Steelhead styled flies
They are prettier, more effective, and take 30 minutes to tie instead of 8 hours. I dont live where there are Steelhead or Salmon but I like tieing these flies and dream of trips to be taken some day.
Although I do like tossing big meaty flies for trout on a regular basis
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
Fowler said:
Hi,
No hijack at all, Fowler: that was a valuable history lesson. Thank you, Sir!
Rick C
Of course not. Fishermen would never bend the truth around a hook shank, ever!
some more of my ties. Nothing great. I'm not what one would call a talented tier. I enjoy it and catch fish on my ties though.
http://s18.photobucket.com/user/jeffnles1/library/Flies
