wrote


Time is money. The more time it takes the more valuable it is. And my
fly boxes are filled with powerful, valuable, good-looking flies nobody
else has.


That comes pretty close to my feelings, too. I've never tied to save
money ( I've probably been tying 20 years, fly fishing 35++ ) but unlike
Sandy I almost never buy a fly ... even standards I hate to tie ( Royal
Wulff ) .... I either tie my own, or fish a different pattern ... it's more
stubbornness than economy with me G

I don't have a very creative nature, but the few patterns that I have
developed give me great pleasure to fish ... and I must say, catch fish
pretty damn well in the problem situations they were designed to solve.
Often something as simple as "sparser" than what's in the bin at the fly
shop can make a big difference. With most things in life it's not the big
differences that set quality aside from the common, rather it is a
combination of little, subtle ones. Often 'my version' of a pattern would
be hard for others to pick out of a bin full, but I could easily, and I
could explain the 'why' of the suble differences from the rest of the fake
bugs in the bin.

I don't honestly remember why I started to tie ( this thread's header ) but
many years later I can say that THE single thing that has most improved my
fly fishing is fly tying. But not so much the flies I tie, themselves.
Rather, its the study and observation that has led me to "my version" of a
pattern that has improved my appreciation of the sport. I'd never tie if I
didn't fish, and at this point I doubt that I'd enjoy fishing enough to
continue, if I didn't tie.


P.S. I'm a crappy tier :-( I recently started taking digital macro
photos of "my versions" thinking I'd waste some time expanding my website to
include a 'my flybox' section. When I see them in such photos I find it
difficult to believe how sloppy some are ... such photography is proving to
be a great motivator for better effort and I recommend it as a way to see
your ties in a new light.