How Long Have You Been Tying?

[HFT 0]

In a way this one kind of tells us if fly tying is growing or declining.

[JasonN 0]

1 year... pretty intensely tying, though.

[jmmccutc 0]

i started tying in 8th grade (should have seen some of those things ) i'm now a Sr. in college so i've been tying for 7-8 years, mostly trout flies, started getting into Bass fishing a few years ago and this summer was my first attempt at tying those, and some steelhead bugs too...

[Jim Cramer 0]

Just curious, who is the other tier with over 56 years of tying?

 

Regards,

Jim Cramer

[Guest]

That HAS to be TroutBum!

[Steeldrifter 0]

Na TB was instructed by Issak Walton so that cant be him

[Alex C. 0]

2 hours

[McFly1951 0]

First fly when I was only about 4. (My dad was a fly fisherman, as was his dad, and his dad. Great Grampa moved out here from Oklahoma to fish the McKenzie.) So that means I've been tying for 49 years.

In '55, my mom bought me an Indian hat, and I took a chunk out of a red feather and a chunk out of a brown feather. The red went out the front of the "fly" and the brown out the back. I caught a ton of searun cutthroat with it out of the creek in back of our cabin at Florence, OR.

I have been a bug nut ever since. Really. When I was 12 I used to take the screen off of my window to sift through the stream beds to see what bugs were there feeding the fish. I also checked the contents of the trouts stomach to see what they had been eating. All of this research got me alot of fish. I learned amazing stuff about caddis flies. It was 10 years later before I tied a decent looking fly.

I still collect bugs to this day, mostly butterflies now.

 

McNeese

[conehead 0]

Some of you guys have a rich fly tying heritage.

 

No one in my family went fishing.

 

37 years ago (1968) while in 7th grade I learned about flytying from a fishing book in the local library. My first fly was a treble hook (size 6 I think) with multi colored rubber bands tied on with sewing thread. Funny, I never caught a thing with that fly.

 

I was obsessed and my parents bought me a kit. Within a month I was selling flies to my classmates and earned enough money for a Thompson ultra vise,(sweet) and my first fly rod which I ordered from Cabelas (a True Temper fiberglass 8 1/2 ft, 7 wt). It cost me $27 and came with reel, line and leader.

 

I think True Temper now manufactures lawn and garden tools. That rod always did cas like a shovel.

 

Tied off and on, and have been intense with it the last 10 years. now that my kids have left he nest, I have my own room and can tie every day.

 

Life is good, this site is great.

 

Conehead,

 

Nothing gets them down like coneheads

 

 

[Guest]

I started in '53 or '54, not sure. I had a cheap fly rod and reel and few places to buy flys. My Scout troop took a trip to a state Trout park, which was my first experience with Trout. While we caught some fish, a friend who was just starting to tie and myself, thought that with a better variety and a few Royal Coachmen we would have done better.

I tied a lot of McGintys, Woolys and a few ragged Coachmen and Adams with my first kit.

Back then , where I lived, you didn't get much choice, you bought what was available which was Thompson.

Over the years I've gained a lot of equiptment, material knowledge and pattern recognition. I'm now ready see if I can improve my tying skills.

[mrjim 0]

I started tying tube flies for coho in lake Michigan in the early 90's -- just held the tube on a toothpick and used hot glue and tinsel...

http://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/galle...e1934e7c854.jpg

 

In the late 90's my wife's parents liked to go to Branson where I fished for trout with spinning gear....then I discovered the trophy area. Next year on the way down, I stopped at Bass pro and got a fly outfit. Caught some fish including a 20" brown. Stopped at Bass pro on the way back and got a Umqual tying kit..... that was 1999.

 

I've probably tied over 5000 flies since then (enough to last the next 30 years even though I give them away and lose them like crazy) and taught classes too. I have over 30 100-pack boxes plus a bunch of miscellaneous hook packs in my drawer right now (that's over a thousand dollars worth of hooks I've bought and I don't want to start counting the dozens of spools of thread...) so I guess you can say I'm a full fledged addict to fly tying and fly fishing. (Trout, bluegills, smallmouths, pike, perch, channel cats, carp, stripers, largemouth) It's so bad I've even tied flies for fish that I haven't fished for - gotchas and crazy charlies for a Florida Keys guide - but I'm gonna fish for them some day.

 

By the way...nobody needs to mention all these details to my wife....so far she's on my side - thinks some of those poppers are too pretty to use on fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hunthicks 0]

I've been tying since my 14th birthday, almost 9 years ago. Now I'm a full time tyer and tie anywhere's from 3 - 6 dozen a day. I rarely even have the time for tying for myself! My father still has alot of the flies I've tied for him over the years, it's neat to look back and see my progression from novice through intermediate up to the point where I'm into doing spey's and classics now. Still not 100 % on the classics but I'm getting there.

 

[flyfishtn 0]

About 3-4 years now. This is my first REAL serious tying Winter. Life has been in the way before but this year I committed to me that I would tie more and I am.

 

[Betonporsas 0]

Started when I was 8 so makes close to 15 years (and muchos muchos €€...)

[Guest]

The 46-55 counter indexed upward by one last month, even though it only says four - this is my 47th year.