Beautiful flies vs. Not So Beautiful

Tom Nakashima wrote:
I just received my order of flies for the McCloud River that are well tied,
but not the greatest in aesthetics. I've paid 55 cents per fly, which I
thought was a pretty good price, and they do match the patterns I wanted. I
recently saw some very nice tied patterns at $2.80 per fly, but they were
near perfect and very aesthetically pleasing. I've never fished with
beautiful flies before, but was wondering if they do make a difference in
appearance to trout?

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.
A lot depends on how picky the fish are at the time you're
fishing for them. Sometimes they'll take just about anything,
other times they want exactly the right size and color.

In a commercial tie one way to judge quality is by how long
the fly lasts. If one fish trashes it so bad it becomes unusable
it doesn't take long for the 55 cent flies to become more
expensive than the buck/buck fifty flies I usually buy. If I
spend $2.80 for a fly I'll put it under glass and frame it. ;-)

--
Ken Fortenberry

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
. net...
Tom Nakashima wrote:
I just received my order of flies for the McCloud River that are well
tied, but not the greatest in aesthetics. I've paid 55 cents per fly,
which I thought was a pretty good price, and they do match the patterns I
wanted. I recently saw some very nice tied patterns at $2.80 per fly,
but they were near perfect and very aesthetically pleasing. I've never
fished with beautiful flies before, but was wondering if they do make a
difference in appearance to trout?

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.
A lot depends on how picky the fish are at the time you're
fishing for them. Sometimes they'll take just about anything,
other times they want exactly the right size and color.

In a commercial tie one way to judge quality is by how long
the fly lasts. If one fish trashes it so bad it becomes unusable
it doesn't take long for the 55 cent flies to become more
expensive than the buck/buck fifty flies I usually buy. If I
spend $2.80 for a fly I'll put it under glass and frame it. ;-)

--
Ken Fortenberry

Ken, I think Peter gave me a lot to think about when he wrote:

Less important than its looks are how it performs in the water. What I
mean is, do the dry flies float? Are their wings upright in the correct
position? Do the streamers sink properly, right side up, and retain
that attitude when stripped in, rather than spinning? Do the nymphs
sink right side up? Do they sink at the proper rate? Are the hooks
strong and sharp? Can the fly take many strikes before falling apart?
You can have a ratty looking fly that catches them fine.
Peter Collin

Ken to answer your question about how your quite not sure how a fly could be
aesthetically lacking and well tied at the same time. The flies I purchased
are well tied in that they won't come apart when I cast, but as I said they
look good enough to match the pattern, but they're not aesthetically
pleasing as in the $2.80 flies that I've seen. Peter brought up a good
point when he mentioned, can the fly take many strikes before falling apart?
I am looking forward to finding out.
-tom

On Tue, 02 May 2006 20:43:35 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:



I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.

I admit to tying a couple of really crappy files that took many fish.
They were wooly-buggers on a size 12, and I guess, in my
late-Saturday-drunken-stupor I didn't get everything quite right, and
after the first fish the hackle, then the chenille, then damn near
everything else started unravelling. But I caught about a half-dozen
nice fish.

Then tied on a beautifully tied wooly, same color, same everything,
and nada. Go figger.

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
. net...

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.....

Leading one to wonder how it is that some folks expect others to understand
what they say when they are themselves absolutely clueless.

Wolfgang

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
. net...

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.....

Leading one to wonder how it is that some folks expect others to
understand what they say when they are themselves absolutely clueless.


It's funny to think back that you two were once lovers.

On Wed, 03 May 2006 03:16:25 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:


"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
. net...

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.....

Leading one to wonder how it is that some folks expect others to
understand what they say when they are themselves absolutely clueless.


It's funny to think back that you two were once lovers.

Funny? Mindbogglingly, scare-little-kids, make-Hugh-Hefner-celibate,
blind-weaker-souls, and I-just-had-some-pizza-with-anchovies-you
-sick-twisted-mother****er nauseating, yes...funny, no...jeezus
motherofmercy God in heaven lord all mighty, I'd rather have wayno
describe how hot he got watching Louie doing the lambada to "YMCA"...
while I was watching a video of Scott getting dressed for, um,
fishing...

"jeffc" wrote in message
...

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote in message
. net...

I'm not quite sure how a fly could be both aesthetically
lacking and well tied at the same time. But having said
that I've tied some awful looking things that caught fish.....

Leading one to wonder how it is that some folks expect others to
understand what they say when they are themselves absolutely clueless.

It's funny to think back that you two were once lovers.

Even funnier to reflect that you were once a witless frat boy with a grossly
inflated sense of his own humanity......and nothing has changed.

Wolfgang