It is currently 29 Mar 2024, 01:33


1, 2, 3  Next New Topic Add Reply
Author Message
Post 15 Oct 2017, 09:51 • #1 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
This is something I'm always curious about......as a fly tier, do you primarily tie your own patterns? Stick to the timeless classics? Tie what ever is new and hot that year? Or a little of all 3? Add to that, where are you getting your patterns? From your own imagination? Online? Or from a book?

As for me, I develop my own patterns that work for how and where I fish. There have been a couple old patterns, like the Hares Ear nymph, and Adams dry fly that I put my own spin on. Mostly to make them faster and easier to tie, but that's about it.


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 10:04 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/19/14
Posts: 3925
Location: USA - Illinois
I do all three, plus now I'm stealing your Fury Minnow this Winter!


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 10:21 • #3 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
Inventing new s%$t is half the fun


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 10:32 • #4 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
jhuskey wrote:
I do all three, plus now I'm stealing your Fury Minnow this Winter!

Cool! and feel free to copy and experiment with different color patterns. The Fury Minnow made it into both of my fly tying books, so you probably wont be alone :)


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 11:03 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/18/09
Posts: 5561
Location: Relocated to the Drought Stricken West.
Invent is a strong word. Invent makes it sound like there is a method to my madness.

I will sit down and tye with whatever materials come to my hands. Sometimes something neat comes out.


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 14:31 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 09/03/07
Posts: 2055
Location: Marble Falls, Texas
I remarked at a tying session the other evening that it was unusual to see anything anymore that looked like a new pattern. A response was to the effect that it may be true, but new materials change it up quite a bit.

Can’t argue.


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 15:17 • #7 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
mdwwhw wrote:
I remarked at a tying session the other evening that it was unusual to see anything anymore that looked like a new pattern. A response was to the effect that it may be true, but new materials change it up quite a bit.

Can’t argue.

That's very true. I don't believe any thing I come up with hasn't been already done before, by some one in the over 2000 year known history of fly fishing. New materials come on the market all the time, and some older materials, like the polar bear and silver monkey hair that once hung over my tying bench are long gone from the market. On my end of things though, I dub around trying to come up with patterns that are faster, easier and cheaper to tie. Yet still catch just as many fish as the classic old flies of years past. That's the hard.....and fun part.


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 17:50 • #8 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/23/08
Posts: 944
Location: US-MT
http://flies.montana-riverboats.com/?pa ... =slideshow


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Oct 2017, 18:16 • #9 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
pittendrigh wrote:
http://flies.montana-riverboats.com/?page=Sandy-Pittendrigh/&layout=slideshow

cool!


Top
  
Quote
Post 17 Oct 2017, 18:14 • #10 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
no, but I hardly ever tie a fly according to the specifications..

there are some new patterns, especially for carp, where some innovative guys like Jay Zimmerman and @flycarpin have come up with stuff I at least had never seen before.
The Galloup streamers are mostly just reworkings and combinations of existing patterns, but designed for specific movement in the water, so I'd call those something new under the sun as well.


Top
  
Quote
Post 25 Oct 2017, 18:27 • #11 
Guide
Joined: 02/06/16
Posts: 328
Location: US
I modify and improve upon existing patterns for nymphs & drys and tie my own style streamers, although often in classic color schemes like the Mickey Finn, Gray Ghost, Black Ghost ect ect.


Top
  
Quote
Post 26 Oct 2017, 10:59 • #12 
Master Guide
Joined: 12/23/15
Posts: 654
Location: Texas bound
Both? But rarely stick to proscribed pattern. There is always a difference in material, color variation, hackle size etc. Sometimes its simple as a shade different of dubbing or using a dubbed body vs chenille like in a bugger. Probably the only "true to pattern" flies in my boxes are store bought ones.


Top
  
Quote
Post 29 Oct 2017, 10:39 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/21/06
Posts: 3081
Location: Orygun
I rarely tie flies according to their specific recipe. I also tie a ton of streamers and am constantly messing around with new materials and new ways (to me) of tying them in. Chances are though, even though many flies are nothing like I've seen personally, that someone, somewhere, has already tied it. The best part is testing out patterns that you've come up with on your own...even better when it's lights out good.


Top
  
Quote
Post 30 Oct 2017, 11:35 • #14 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
When I started tying flies back in 1981, I showed some of the patterns I had developed that were actually catching fish to the head instructor of the local fly tying class I was attending. He set the fly box down, looked at me very sternly and said "your place is to follow in the foot steps of the masters, not to innovate on your own". Interestingly, this same gentleman asked me to help out teaching the beginners class 3 or 4 years later.


Top
  
Quote
Post 13 Nov 2017, 12:54 • #15 
Sport
Joined: 08/01/16
Posts: 93
Location: Oslo, Norway
I tie some classics, mainly north country spiders and a few bucktail streamers. The are fun to tie and keeps me in touch with the history og the sport.

For the majority of patterns I use, I find inspiration on forums like this. But I like to make my own variations to suit the local waters I fish.

The best and most important source to inspiration is to observe the fish, the bugs and insects, both appearence and behavior, and adapt patterns to mimic this. Often I run into a situation I haven't experienced before, I watch and learn, find more information online and tie a fly I will try out the next time. This gives me å lot of satisfaction, and a few more fish...


Top
  
Quote
Post 14 Nov 2017, 08:06 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/08/05
Posts: 3570
Location: Western PA
I adapt patterns to need. I change elements and materials as needed. If I expect to see male baetis with rusty heads, I'll use an orange Sharpie to color the thread I'll use to whip finish the head. If I expect to see sulphurs on a spring creek, I'll mix in chartreuse dub at the right spots. I try to copy what I've seen in an expressive and simple way. I have never and will never spend 30 minutes on tying a stone fly. I like simple patterns.


Top
  
Quote
Post 08 Dec 2017, 15:45 • #17 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/25/16
Posts: 1069
Location: Rocky Mountains - Colorado
I am still so new to this that I follow the pattern as if my life depended on it. The only exception so far was to use Red thread on an EHC. The fish in Terriall Creek like a flash of red on the fly...or so I was told...haven't fished them yet.


Top
  
Quote
Post 08 Dec 2017, 15:51 • #18 
Guide
Joined: 09/04/13
Posts: 142
Location: US-MT
Not new patterns but, rather, variations (usually minor) on long-time accepted patterns.


Top
  
Quote
Post 09 Dec 2017, 09:34 • #19 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
seems to be the whole point of doing this

Image
Image

for me, at least, the number of patterns I tie gets smaller over time


Top
  
Quote
Post 10 Dec 2017, 11:31 • #20 
Guide
Joined: 10/01/17
Posts: 230
Location: Vermont
bulldog1935 wrote:
seems to be the whole point of doing this

Image
Image

for me, at least, the number of patterns I tie gets smaller over time


I've noticed that too. Nice flies by the way! There was a time I would carry 3 or 4 full fly boxes with me every time I hit the water. It took me a lot of years to realize I was actually only fishing 3 or 4 patterns all year. So now I usually just carry with me and tie what I know I'll use. That did come back to bite me mid October this year, when I was surprised by fish rising to tiny little black gnats (size 18?), a pattern I haven't used, tied or carried since the '80's.


Top
  
Quote
Post 15 Dec 2017, 20:35 • #21 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Yes.
All the above at some point, but lately it's all spiders, buggers & Clousers; more or less. Some times the stuff that falls off my vise works too,
Many years ago I tied a little fly with scraps left on the table and it worked fine, so I tied more on purpose and I tied these for several years til one day I saw identical flies in a store and they had a sorta famous name, that til then I had never heard of. The materials we use are limited in number and the creatures we imitate are also limited in number so that I doubt there are any completely new patterns, as mentioned by several adaptations are many. For me suggestive is all I'm after, but, I do admire those creations that look alive.


Top
  
Quote
Post 17 Dec 2017, 19:51 • #22 
Guide
Joined: 09/12/12
Posts: 254
Location: US-MS
I use the classics as guidelines but will also make up whatever my fancy dictates.


Top
  
Quote
Post 17 Dec 2017, 21:15 • #23 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
squire wrote:
I use the classics as guidelines but will also make up whatever my fancy dictates.

I completely agree.Even modern classics.


Top
  
Quote
Post 19 Dec 2017, 01:31 • #24 
Guide
Joined: 04/27/08
Posts: 331
Location: US-PA
I do make variations and also my own creations.

But I always find it to be funny when someone names their own mild variation of an existing fly .

Like ,tying a hare’s ear with a red tag and calling it “bobs bloody rabbit “ or some such


Top
  
Quote
Post 19 Dec 2017, 07:57 • #25 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I always name flies to remind me of their achievements, dues-paid days when they were employed, etc:
Bull Creek crayfish (10-lb bass I stalked for weeks), Fence Lake roach (herding redfish slashing mullet at our feet)


Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

1, 2, 3  Next New Topic Add Reply



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
Google
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group