More Shocking Proof of Drug Abuse by Fly Fishing Writers
By Tom Chandler on Dec 27, 2006 in Flies, Underground's Best
Save money tying your own flies?
That’s the hilarious contention of John McCoy (staff writer for the Charleston Gazette), and I wonder if his employer shouldn’t immediately administer a drug test - lest John suffer another drug-induced flashback.
I gaze at the piles of expensive fly tying materials, expensive hackles, machined HMH vise, chemically sharpened hooks and several-lifetimes-supply of hen necks cluttering my office and wonder what our friend John has been smoking.
My HMH vise. Ticket to savings, or expensive tool of obsession?
He recounts the high price of flies - and his amusing solution:
A relatively inexpensive answer to this problem is to learn to tie flies. Thirty years ago, when I started fly fishing, I couldn’t afford to buy rods and reels and flies too, so I learned to tie. I’ve done it ever since.
It’s difficult to estimate how much money I’ve saved, but I’ll try.
Let me try for you. I’d have to tie flies from now until people started making dinner reservations for their 2999 New Year’s Eve celebration to recoup the investment I’ve made in tools and materials.
And frankly, I’m an underachiever compared to the likes of Noted Pack Rat Dave Roberts, who recently built a whole new extension onto his house so he could warehouse his er…. “extensive” collection of materials.
(When the apocalypse comes and fly tying materials disappear from our nuclear-ravaged landscape, I’m heading right for Dave’s house.)
And there are plenty of people who consider him an underachiever.
So how about it? Is anyone saving money tying their own flies. Or are we spending scads of money for the privilege of getting them exactly the way we want ‘em…?
Technorati Tags: fly tying, hmh, flies, fly fishing
kbarton10 | Dec 27, 2006 | Reply
I began my odyssey after discovering a Herter’s catalog and a small crate of goods sandwiched in a closet.
Instead of spending my hard earned childhood coin on comic books and Pixie Stix, I would buy another swatch of deer hair.
It was OK, because I was still able to maintain the appearance of sobriety, still was able to mow lawns for two bits, and showed none of the needle tracks and sunken eyesockets of a flytyer “too far gone..”
My folks warned me, but I started skin popping Metz necks and went commercial. Paid my college tuition by hawking tiny dry flies to elementary school children.
Prior to my incarceration, I was selling Florican Bustard in darkened alleyways, or hawking Golden Bird Of Paradise, like some cheap degenerate.
…despite my profits, I was still using more than I was making. Soon the house was repossessed, the supermodel girlfriend was history, and I was reduced to selling BWO paraduns to shops in Northern California.
Then I got sober.
Now I can blissfully drive right by the FLy Shop, confident in the knowledge that I own more Hoffman Saddles than they have on display.
You want me to tie flies with these beauties? Never! Any Old Salt knows that a tyer’s skill is measured by the size of his collection of furry exotica.
There are three phases that comprise the downward spiral:
Lippy - you have no skill or knowledge but talk well enough to hide those facts.
Guide - you have many skills and much knowledge, unfortunately you have an opinion on absolutely everything.
Creature - You are a flytying Jedi Master. You no longer tie flies, because that would interfere with collecting more road kill.
In short, if you get to the tertiary phase, there is no hope for you, also no savings.
Will | Dec 27, 2006 | Reply
I’d say I WAS close to even, given the number of flies I’ve lost in the trees and the fact that my only vise for several years was a broken AA with a homemade concrete base. However, the need to always have a good stock on hand has finally superceded my stinginess.
And this is no easy stinginess to overcome - I’ve been wet-wading in the Upper Sac on Halloween to save money on waders that I still haven’t bought. According to the lower half of my body (notwithstanding my tightass), I will be getting some soon.
And - nice one, kbarton! I feel like the keyboardist in Spinal Tap, lucky enough to have TWO visionaries in the band.
pseudososa | Dec 27, 2006 | Reply
Anyone that would feel the need to justify tying one’s own flies…would probably scurry about justifying his penchant for nymph fishing….damn!! So it is wrong to tie your own flies…
Herters? Hell, I bought from his GRANDFATHER! Before he knew what a fly was!! I snookered him. He thought I was filling a feather bed.
C
flytimes | Dec 27, 2006 | Reply
Tom,
You might be right. But I think that the whole tying endeavor comes closer to paying for itself than any other “hobby.” This is especially true when one considers that WT originals are, in some circles, considered priceless.
That’s what I hear anyways.
WT
Bamboo Addict | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
I am not an addict to tying materials, I save thousands tying my own fly’s and make money tying, mostly when my fellow fishers run out of the fly’s they need and I have a full box and they start out a 5 bucks a piece on the water in the middle of a good hatch. I don’t hord materials. All those 200+ box’s are just to fill the wall up. But if Kbarton10 has any Bustard left please give me a call. Got to get back it the room and save more money at the vise its 3:30 AM and I need to tye.
David
Murodck | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Tom,
I would love to have the money back that I have spent on materials I have never used over the years.
I did once have the good fortune to meet a fly shop owner who needed some advertising materials, for which he paid me in items from his inventory.
As for the present day I tie only a few flies that can’t be bought and purchase the rest online for around $7.35 a dozen. It’s hard to take the time and materials to tie a dry fly for .61 each. I do enjoy tying but it is hard to find the time and I’m not really that good at it.
I also buy some $2.50 flies each year from the local shops just be a good consumer.
Murdock | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Oh yes and I must not be able to spell my own name. That’s what I get for trying to multi-task.
Fishing Jones | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
It saves me money in that, on the rare occassions I do tie, I am at home drinking beer from a six pack that costs five dollars total, rather than drinking a five-dollar beer at the local bar.
hawgdaddy | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
I’ve spent a much greater amount of money on fly tying than I would ever have spent by buying flies. If I see a fly that looks good to me, I have to immediately buy the materials to tie it, whether or not I will ever need it, practically speaking. The fly tying is totally out of hand. I’m not even very good at it, barely capable of crafting a useful parachute adams, most of which seem to land upside down no matter what adjustments I make, and yet I refuse to purchase a better made one. I’m pathetic. I’ve got more materials that I would ever be able to use given my very limited tying time. I don’t even save money on beer because I drink a lot of it when tying flies, and I rarely visit bars. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why my flies aren’t so great :) If my wife ever leaves me, it will no doubt be because of fly tying or fly fishing in general.
hawgdaddy
Will | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Hawgdaddy - do the upside-down Adams Parachutes work?
Tom Chandler | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
There’s just too much here to easily respond to.
As usual, KBarton wins the “hot tea out my nose” award, and just in case he’s not kidding, we forwarded his name to the local anti-drug authorities.
I’m sure he won’t mind.
It’s interesting that I have to immediately purchase materials for every exotic pattern I see - despite the fact that I’ve pretty much settled on a small handful of patterns for 90% of my fishing.
Cognitive dissonance rears its ugly head once again…
hawgdaddy | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Will,
Yes, the upside down flies do work…and I can’t express how much that fact aggravates me! I refuse to fish with a fly that lands upside down, even when it’s working.
Here’s an interesting thought though. I wonder if that upside down parachute mimics some aquatic life form? If so, I could purposefully tie some up for landing upside down. Then I’d feel ok catching fish on them. But then they’d probably land right side up (which would then be the wrong side up I guess), they’d still catch fish, and I still couldn’t feel happy about it! Such is my life…I’m the Charlie Browniest fly fisherman. But hey, at least I’ll be catching fish either way and that’s worth something I guess. Take care,
hawgdaddy
Tom Chandler | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
An upside down parachute? White wing post? You just tied a lactating emerger…
hawgdaddy | Dec 28, 2006 | Reply
Genius!
KW Morrow | Jul 21, 2007 | Reply
Honestly, tying does save me money vs. filling my fly boxes with roughly the same store-bought flies. I’ve probably spent about $300 on fly tying stuff including my tools and my Orvis tying reference. And that’s only about 200 flies at retail. I’ve got about that many between the wife’s and my fly boxes right now. And I’ve cycled through quite a few along the way. But I tie to fish. And I am a tying minimalist.