To me, fly tying is a much an element of fly fishing, as the fishing itself. As a passionate fly fisher, there is much thet interests me from an "off the water" perspective. Tying flies stimulates the interest in entomology, and the behavior of the target species of fish. I never felt complete as a fly fisherman in my earlier fly fishing career, until I started to tie my own. All of sudden, I developed a passion for understanding the complete aquatic food chain, and the denizens that inhabit it. It became clear to me, that without the insects and amphibians that the fish feed on, in our rivers, there would be no fishing, so I began to pay attention to the preservation of the entire chain. Fly tying will intriduce you to the various stages in the life cycle of the insects that provide the food, and the differences in the behavior of the fish, when these changes in the insects life cyle occurs. For instance, when you see a fitrout rise in a certain way, you will be able to work out what it might be feeding on, without actually seeing the insect in some cases. When seeing a trout rise very slowly and almost roll onto the surface of the water, it could be the emergence of mayfly dunns which emerge slowly, and sit on the surface for a while. If the trout rise very quickly, with agressive splashing takes, it could be caddis that are hatching, usually much quicker than the mays. These indicators in fish behavior provide key indicators as to which fly to use in matching the hatch.
Sure, generic flies will work most of the time, but if the fish are feeding very specifically, as trout often do, you might not have the full life cycle of imitations in your box. I suppose it all boils down to how far you want to persue the passion, but person who ties his own, is always going to be more, well rpounded in his approach to how a particular fly should be fished, due to his understanding of the particular food source he is immitating.
Another example, for stillwaters, is the damsel fly. people who tie effective damsels, will have seen the natural one, swimming in the water, or will have researched the behavior of the damsel fly nymph, and will attempt to build the correct movement into the fly, and when fished, will retrieve it, to create the desired imitation of it's natural movement. Many anglers, don't really have a lot of insight into the reasons why they fish certain flies, and rely largely on luck to get a fish, but once the dynamics of the aquatic environment are understood, the luck element begins to make way for advancements in skill. Fly tying and the thought processes behind it, can claim credit for the vast improvements in technical skill of millions of anglers the world over.
I cannot imagine fly fishing, without fly tying. Regardles of the cost, there is a certain special element to consistently catching fish on one of your own flies.
Last edited by andreb; 22-05-2010 at 12:07 PM.
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but it really isn't, even after 30 years of doing it. I have around £7,000 worth of materials and god knows how much tied up in hooks, even though I never seem to have the pattern my client wants. I also loose a bedroom for staorage and tying which meant we had to buy a bigger house than we really needed.....it goes on and on. 
Its Worth it
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