People tie flies for one reason or another, most of us begin by telling ourselves that tying our own is a way to save money …good luck with that. Most of us tie our own flies because we like it; we like the satisfaction we get when we catch a fish with something we created and we like the bragging rights when someone admires one of our ties.
Everyone who ties has bookshelves full of books on patterns for every part of the country. We buy them because we’ve read that these patterns are the secret to that 20 inch brook trout or lunker brown or rainbow and they’re just as good now as they were 100 years ago when they were first tied.
The imitations I tie won’t win a prize. I try to put something together that looks as ugly as the bug I’m trying to create and I do it with materials I’ve accumulated. I stopped adding up my savings when I got the credit card bill for the new double barrel I needed to save on buying feathers.
TD
Great site