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Boring fly tyer
Post 26 Oct 2020, 14:43 • #1 
Guide
Joined: 07/19/19
Posts: 176
I cleaned up and organized my fly tying area the last couple days and realized I only tie a few different flies. I suppose you could even call that boring. Warmwater fishing for smallmouth and wipers is what I normally do; rivers and streams.
Looking back over the last couple years or so I really just tie simple poppers, clouser minnows, and wolly buggers; different colors and sizes of course.
It's just amusing looking at all these fly tying materials I've gathered and most of it doesn't get used. Had a good intent but just didn't happen. I can't say I'm an excellent fisherman; but I catch fish and enjoy the outdoors.
I guess I should let the data speak and just put poppers, minnows, and buggers in the fly boxes and call it a day.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 26 Oct 2020, 16:21 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
If you only tie to fish, a few patterns in several sizes is all you will tie; because all the others are just unnecessary. I have a bushel of "stuff" that seemed like it was necessary at the time and after a dozen or so of the new and improved flies was abandoned. If I knew a new tier nearby I'd be tempted to give lots away, but I can't quite bring myself to toss it out.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 26 Oct 2020, 17:52 • #3 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
As soon as you donate, trade, sell, or discard an unwanted material - you will need it. If you keep it, you will likely never need it again. Deep storage with moth balls counts as 'keeping' the material - even if it will never leave the attic again.

It is worth adding one or two new patterns to your repertoire each year. Most won't catch fish any better than your current favorites. But every now and then you will stumble across a winner. For me the Gurgle Pop and Hotspot Pheasant Tail are now must carry patterns.


Tom


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 27 Oct 2020, 15:05 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/23/05
Posts: 4966
Location: US-MT
I fish a few different varieties of fish.......but really only tie and use a few flies for each, a lot of the same flies I used in the 70's.. Not boring at all though, just efficient.

And I did donate a bunch of stuff last year to the High School, which had a tying group.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 27 Oct 2020, 15:43 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Quote:
As soon as you donate, trade, sell, or discard an unwanted material - you will need it.

twice in the distant past I sorted out stuff that had been unused for years and both times ... yeah I keep a lot of unused stuff now


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 09:02 • #6 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
It's never the fly, it's always the fishing that takes the fish. Even in the situation of matching hatches, being in the right ballpark is all that matters.
Different flies may have different qualities that affect your ability to present them properly, though more often, adjusting line and leader addresses those differences.

In the case of wildest genetic rainbows - Alaska - put my buddy on the Russian River Ferry sockeye run to get it out of his system, and I was fishing beadhead nymphs for the native rainbows. Decided after awhile to switch to a sockeye-snagging rig with bare red Gamakatsu hook, and was catching more Kenai rainbows on the bare red hook than on the beadhead nymphs - even on the swing. It can be explained that even early July, they were already queuing on bits of salmon flesh (and we were down from the cleaning stand). But not a complicated pattern...a bare red hook.



We figure summer on the Guadalupe, someone needs to try a cheetos fly


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 16:38 • #7 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2327
Location: US-IL
Bread flies are a thing where park ponds have carp and families feeding ducks and geese.Getting anything that resembles what they are eating WHEN they are eating is key.I have friends who only fish "runs".Got invited to fish a fall white bass run this weekend on the Illinois river.Can't make and i never there was a fall run.Boring simple flies seem to work best for me too but color preferences of the fish seem to vary season to season.But i still like to have some new patterns mixed in just cause i love to tie.Had very few good days this crazy year ,too many people fishing the local little ponds and lakes i usually have to myself.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 16:44 • #8 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
there's a "false run" of mostly male white bass when the water temperature is first swinging down.
Had a day-after-Thanksgiving on the N. San Gabriel with ice on the edge of the river, and caught 100 small white bass in no time.
We also get false runs during drought with random summer thunderstorms that temporarily raise the river flow.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 17:47 • #9 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4094
Location: USA-CO
Cheeto attractor with a jalapeño popper dropper.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 18:45 • #10 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I'd end up with a hook in my lip.



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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 18:57 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
The bare fly, don't think I have any in my boxes presently but as a kid in an Idaho wilderness area we caught rainbow on bare gold hooks #16 fished Tenkara-Nymph fashion- a willow rod and a red/white strike indicator, they'd take them gold hooks when they wouldn't take a night-crawler.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 28 Oct 2020, 20:37 • #12 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4094
Location: USA-CO
Not much difference between a bare hook and a lot of the little thread-and-tinsel things we fish. Not surprised you had success.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 29 Oct 2020, 12:29 • #13 
Guide
Joined: 07/19/19
Posts: 176
How you fish the fly is key, as some of you have said. That's kind of what I've learned over the last few years.

Next step is to put away most of thread colors I have; way too many; looks neat displayed though.
I could probably get away with just using white Flymaster 140 for everything, but I use some bright colors still, along with black.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 29 Oct 2020, 16:15 • #14 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
It's a great topic - the more we fish, the more we pare our number of effective patterns.

No BBQ pun intended, I'm a hand-to-mouth fly-tier. I don't tie flies for entertainment, just check my fly box when I'm planning a trip and address it then.
(or pack up and tie flies in the evenings when I get there)


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 05 Nov 2020, 13:29 • #15 
Sport
Joined: 12/01/18
Posts: 40
Location: US- Great Smoky Mts of east Tn
Yikes! That looks as bad as the tube hatch in Townsend TN or the Current in Missouri.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 05 Nov 2020, 15:05 • #16 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/03/15
Posts: 424
Location: Weatherford TX.
Think out of the box
Tie stuff you’ve always wanted a tie but have no use for..then Donate them to the Wounded Warrior Project..or some other charity of your choice.


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Re: Boring fly tyer
Post 30 Nov 2020, 19:05 • #17 
Sport
Joined: 06/27/14
Posts: 73
Location: US-NY
Im boring, I fish the same dry fly, or the same nymph in either size 14 or 16 as my default 80% of the time. I tie a lot of those flies over the winter. 2 sizes 14 and 16.

I almost never fish another pattern unless I am trying to solve a very specific problem.

I do tie a ton of flies, and other patterns, I keep my nephew's fly boxes well stocked, and I do carry an assortment with me to match current hatches, but will not use them under normal circumstances. I also re-tie my boxes over the winter as my recently tied flies are invariably better than the ones I tied last year, even though I still have the flies from two years ago.


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