On Oct 11, 10:17 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:
"mdk77" wrote in message

ups.com...



As some of you already know, this is my first season of fly fishing.
I tie my own flies so I'm beginning to put together a list of flies to
tie over the winter, for next season. So far I have a list of 25
patterns that I'd like to fish next year. This is a lot compared with
what I tied for my first season this year (I had about 10 patterns
that a local fisherman recommended for my area, and they were very
effective for me). For this past season, I tied roughly two sizes and
two colors of most of these patterns, and tried to tie 6-12 of each
variation.

I realize this is a general question and that patterns may vary the
answer - but - in general, how many sizes of a given pattern should I
tie? An example would be an adult midge pattern in sizes 20-28 or a
given nymph in sizes 16 to 28 -- how many sizes would be adequate to
populate my boxes for the season? I did the math and about stroked
out at the number of flies I would have to tie to do ALL of the sizes
for ALL of the 25 flies. Especially since I am a slow tier at this
point in my experience .... I think I'd die of old age before I got em
all tied :-)

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me on this.

The bad news:

There is no good answer to your question without knowing where, when, and
for what you intend to fish. Even with that information there are so many
variables that necessary qualifications would make an answer horrendously
complex and of little worth. For example, your selection would depend in
part on whether you intend to fish dry flies and/or wets, nymphs, streamers,
terrestrials, etc. Are you interested in matching hatches more or less
precisely? Are widely popular favorites suitably effective in your area?
Or are there local patterns that the fish tend to favor? How important is
catching versus fishing? What size fish will you be pursuing? The list of
considerations goes on literally forever.

The good news:

It doesn't really matter all that much. A season of two of practice and
advice from those who fish frequently where you do will provide you with all
the information you'll need.

Meanwhile, any information you get here will probably be worth taking
seriously, but if ROFF responds true to form, you'll get so much varied and
contradictory advice that sorting it all out will be a lot more trouble and
work than figuring it out for yourself. Either way, good luck.

Wolfgang

Thanks for the advice. I am definitely going to take your advice from
"The good news" section of your post. I think a season or two more of
practice will be a huge help. I'll simply tie a wider variety than I
did for this season and go from there. I do notice though that the
flies that "worked" for me didn't make it through the season and I
tied more. The flies that didn't work are still in my boxes and will
probably last me decades........I lost faith in those and simply
couldn't bring myself to fish them after a while.

I did have a HORRIBLE experience on vacation. I was fishing on Prince
Edward Island in Canada (in the middle of nowhere) and I had a crazy
hunch that one particular fly would work that day. I hooked a rainbow
that was huge (my heart just about stopped when I saw him). I had him
close enough that I could almost touch him, and he broke my tippet. I
had brought every fly I owned to Canada -- except for THAT pattern. I
really felt sick when other flies simply didn't work that day. I
learned my lesson. I will NEVER again let myself get down to the last
fly of a given pattern and size. Never.