An Important Reason to Tie - Peter Scorzetti

We get many questions at Blue Ribbon Flies, one of them being "Do you really save money by tying flies rather than buying them?" It's a loaded question that I don't plan on attempting to answer, but it reveals the common misconception that we only tie flies to save money. One of the important reasons that we tie is to tweak existing flies or create new flies to solve fishing problems. In the case of the Sparkle Dun, Craig, John, and Fred Harrison were looking for a dun pattern that was buoyant, durable and readily taken by the wily rainbows on the Railroad Ranch. They tested out the Comparadun and found that fish willingly ate it and it didn't spin in the wind like some of the hackled dries often do. But they didn't feel that the Comparadun was everything that it could be, so they added a zelon shuck to imitate the many crippled and deformed mayflies of a hatch. Thirty years later, Craig, John, and much of the Yellowstone fishing community trust the Sparkle Dun for all their mayfly fishing. 

In 2016, I think the majority of fly design problems for the common angler have been solved (at least around Yellowstone country), so I would argue that there is a more important reason to tie. That reason being to become well acquainted with the insects we imitate and to understand their habits. It's true that an angler can thoroughly understand the behavior of insects without tying, but tying makes the learning process much easier. It's a crash course to learning why you fish a fly when you fish it. Let's say you decide to pick up fly fishing in the early spring. If you call up a fly shop and ask where to start in regards to tying, they'll probably have you begin by tying various Baetis patterns. You'll have to get the materials to tie Baetis nymphs, emergers, and dries. Rather than buying a cup full of foreign looking flies, you'll be tying them yourself, understanding why you tie a wing on one fly, but not another. You'll be learning why one fly has a shuck, and one has tails. When you see a Baetis spinner on the water you'll know it's a spinner because you've tied wings on countless spinners to imitate the translucent, fragile wings of the natural. 

Once you have your Baetis patterns tied, your buddies at the fly shop might have you start tying PMDs or caddis. In no time you'll understand the order in which the insects hatch, and instead of looking at a bunch of unfamiliar hooks covered in rabbit hair and chicken feathers in your fly box, you'll see familiar flies, and you'll know well the insects they imitate. I don't mean that everyone should tie flies, but anyone that is lucky enough to have the time to do so will always greatly benefit from the knowledge they acquire in the process, not just from the finished product they create.